27 May 2021
South Australia is on the verge of passing the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill after the State’s Lower House last night voted massively in favour of it, 33-5.
Some MPs spoke in Parliament about the emotional impact of the testimonies of nurses who care for dying patients and how that had helped move them to vote yes.
MPs also acknowledged the vital importance of investment into palliative care services and ensuring that South Australians were able to access high-quality care.
Having already passed the Upper House, the Bill now moves to a committee stage and then a third and final vote next month.
Last night around 400 people held a Candles for Compassion vigil on the steps of Parliament House in support of VAD, with guest speakers including MPs Kyam Maher and Susan Close, who introduced the Bill, and media personality Andrew Denton.
Denton has vigorously campaigned for VAD after watching his father Kit die a painful death from heart failure in 1997.
The crowd, some in tears, heard harrowing and courageous testimonies from those with a terminal illness, imploring our politicians to give them the right to choose how their life should end.
Denton wore a T-shirt featuring the image of late Port Pirie resident Kylie Monaghan who passed away in October, 2016, from terminal cancer.
Ms Monaghan, 35, was the face of the ‘Be the Bill’ campaign launched in September that year, urging SA politicians to support a Bill seeking to legalise voluntary assisted dying. That Bill was defeated in November, 2016, by a single casting vote.
“Tonight, for the 17th time, South Australia’s Parliament has the opportunity to listen to the overwhelming voices of the people of South Australia,’’ Denton told the vigil crowd last night.
“Who, across every political divide, across every age group, be they Anglican or Catholic, have said for years we want more compassionate choices at the end of life than to be allowed to starve and dehydrate ourselves as we die or to be drugged into a coma as a doctor sees fit depending on their view of the universe.
“Or worse, darkest of all, to take our own lives alone and desperate. We want more compassionate choices than that.
“The people of South Australia are no longer asking their elected representatives to lead but to follow.
“To follow the evidence, to follow the need, to follow the demand and to give the people of South Australia the opportunity, should they reach that desperate point at the end of their life, to say ‘I choose not to suffer’.’’
Voluntary Assisted Dying SA spokesperson Lainie Anderson was a surprise last minute MC, telling the crowd that the original MC, radio personality and Power supporter Cosi, had to quarantine after attending last weekend’s Collingwood v Port clash at the MCG.
Tracers discovered a COVID positive person had attended the same game, resulting in thousands of fans having to get tested and quarantine.