Labor national conference backs use of telehealth in voluntary assisted dying care
- Written by: Weekend Times
Labor’s national conference has written into the party platform support for telehealth as part of voluntary assisted dying care.
The amendment, passed on a voice vote, was the first of
the conference that has been contested. It said:
Labor will remove barriers that exist in federal law to the provision of end-of-life care (including via telehealth) as part of lawful access to voluntary assisted dying in the states and territories, while maintaining appropriate clinical safeguards.
Moving the amendment, Ryan Batchelor, a member of the Victorian Legislative Council, said voluntary assisted dying care was not easy to access for many of those living in regional and remote Australia.
The amendment would commit federal Labor to remove the barriers to allow state law to work unfettered, he said.
Caitlin Tough, a member of the ACT Legislative Assembly, told the conference:
A doctor may lawfully have a conversation across a desk, but they face criminal risk for the same communication by telephone or video.
She said Commonwealth criminal code provisions were written well before telehealth became routine, and before there were voluntary assistant dying provisions.
As things stood, “the burden is falling heavily on people who are extremely ill, who cannot readily leave their home or live a long distance from an authorised practitioner”.
Opposing the amendment, Sally Quinnell, a New South Wales MP, said: “Our end of life care needs to be done with compassion and careful listening. Telehealth is not the way for that to happen. Telehealth has its place, but it cannot be the answer to all of our health needs.”
After the amendment was passed, federal Attorney-General Michelle Rowland moved a motion, seconded by Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, that voluntary assisted dying “can be freely debated at any state or federal forum” of the party, “but any decision reached is not binding on any member of the party”.
Rowland said:
I am personally not convinced that a person confronting an end-of-life decision shouldn’t be afforded the dignity of a personal face-to-face consultation with a medical practitioner.
I acknowledge the well-intentioned advocacy in this area, particularly with respect to the needs of remote and regional patients. I expect that any further work on this will be accompanied by rigorous evidence and safeguards.
Later, cabinet minister Don Farrell, a right-wing factional chief, said he did not support the use of telehealth in these circumstances because he did not support voluntary euthanasia. Farrell stressed if the matter came to parliament, Labor members would have a conscience vote.
On gambling, the conference marginally strengthened the draft platform.
It endorsed an amendment urging stronger powers for regulators, “who will report to parliament annually on their actions”. The amendment read:
Labor will explore how to better prevent online gambling and social media platforms from offering children and young people embedded inducements within games and social media that incentivise and normalise gambling.
The unions’ dominance of the conference has been very obvious. On Friday, the conference was addressed by ACTU Secretary Sally Mcmanus, who praised what the government had done for workers – and urged it to keep going.
She lauded “the five bills and the 47 improvements to workplace rights that the Albanese government has brought into law”.
They have shifted bargaining power back to workers. They’ve helped deliver the first real wage growth in fifteen years, and they’ve helped working people start regaining their share of our nation’s wealth.
But that progress, as we all know, has stalled, and when wages stall, when rents rise, when mortgages rise, when groceries and power bills keep pressure on families, working people, we can’t be told to wait, and that is why Labor must keep moving.
She also welcomed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s announcement of a fair work court. “This is about giving people who have been ripped off by their boss fair access to justice,” she said.
Behind the scenes, there was wrangling to try to defuse the argument around the draft platform on Israel’s policies on Gaza, to be debated on Saturday. Former Minister Ed Husic and others want changes to make the draft platform more critical of Israel. Government sources were hopeful of getting the draft platform through without change.
Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
