Mandatory Review of Western Australia’s Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2019 – Stage 1
Section 164(1) of the Act requires the Health Minister “to review the operation and effectiveness of the Act, and prepare a report based on the review”. Under s. 164(2) “the Minister must cause the report to be laid before each House of Parliament as soon as practicable after it is prepared, but not later than 12 months after its 2nd anniversary”, namely 1st July 2024. The Health Minister, Amber-Jade Sanderson, announced on 11th November 2023 that the review was underway. In making the announcement the Minister stated that "The purpose of the review is not to look at changing the scope of the VAD Act: the objectives of this first review are to consider whether the Act is operating as the Parliament intended”.
She said also that an independent panel had been appointed “to look at the operation and effectiveness of voluntary assisted dying to ensure it is meeting the needs of the community as an end of life choice”, and that "The VAD panel is looking forward to gaining insights from those stakeholders who have had experience of the VAD process since operation of the Act commenced." (emphasis added).
The Panel comprised:
Dr Elissa Campbell: Consultant geriatrician and palliative care specialist at the North Metropolitan Health Service;
Dr Sally Talbot MLC: Member for South West Region; and
Dr Simon Towler: Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health
The terms of reference state that “The review is not seeking feedback on whether voluntary assisted dying should be precluded or whether there should be changes to eligibility criteria for patients or practitioners involved in the voluntary assisted dying process” (emphasis added).
DWDWA had advocated strenuously for a review that would include consultation with all Western Australians and be unrestricted in terms of its scope. The arbitrary restrictions contained in the terms of reference were thus very disappointing. Further, 2 of the 3 reviewers, while having relevant experience, could not be described as “independent”.
It is DWDWA’s view that Parliament’s intention in requiring a review of both the operation and effectiveness of the Act (as opposed, for instance, to the VAD Act in Victoria that calls for the first review to be only of the operation of the Act) is clearly that the review should be comprehensive.
This unjustifiably restrictive approach by the Minister has also been applied to recommendations by the VAD Board for changes to the legislation. The Board is a statutory body one of whose specific functions is to provide the Minister and the CEO of the Department of Health, “on its own initiative or on request, advice, information and recommendations for improvements to voluntary assisted dying”.
The three annual reports published by the VAD Board for the years ended 30 June 2022, 30 June 2023 and 30 June 2024 all contain sensible recommendations requiring statutory change that would improve VAD in WA. All these recommendations have been ignored by the Minister.
After a short consultation period of three weeks late in 2023, the Panel tabled its report in Parliament on 28th November 2024, almost 6 months after the mandated date. It is a limited and self-serving document, finding that the Act is “working as intended” and “does not require legislative change”.
The report can be found here:
https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/publications/tabledpapers.nsf/displaypaper/4113439a2331593cd11da0ae48258be300355868/$file/voluntary%2bassisted%2bdying%2bact%2b2019%2bfinal%2breport.pdf
What DWDWA hoped would be an opportunity to look at the legislation in the light of improvements made in VAD laws around Australia (and the world) turned out to be a tightly controlled and largely pointless exercise.
It is extraordinary that the report altogether ignores our detailed submissions and arguments; the reader (and the Parliament) will never know that they were made. This is not just disrespectful: it is anti-democratic. A Minister owes it to the public to acknowledge and respond to submissions, especially to those which had been invited in the first place.
Pursuant to section 164 of the Act, the next review of the Legislation is “as soon as practicable” after 1st July 2028. This is a long time to wait for meaningful change, but there is much to be achieved during that time. Our first opportunity is the WA State Election in March 2025. We should all seek commitments by candidates to support an early inquiry into possible improvements to our Act.
Call to Action: Please support DWDWA’s State Election Campaign 2.0 in March ‘25
You – our members and supporters – were the heart’s blood of our campaign to get voluntary assisted dying legalised in 2019, and we need you again. Please see [links to tab on Resources/ Review Stage II by Queensland University of Technology; Resources/State Election and Resources/DWDWA proposed amendments] for ways in which you can support the DWDWA Campaign 2.0.