Ms O’CONNOR (Hobart) – Mr President, I will make a brief contribution on this. First, I thank the honourable member for Mersey for his tireless advocacy for this compassionate, safe, legal framework for dying with dignity. We saw it again today, where numerous members of the medical community, but also the wider community, feel very comfortable talking to Mr Gaffney about the problems that they have with the way this extraordinary reform has been rolled out and implemented.
Tasmanians are being made to put up with worse than second best, relative to other jurisdictions that have voluntary assisted dying frameworks in place. It would be extremely helpful if the minister or the department who say that it is not viable to have an online portal could explain why they think it is not viable. To say that there’s no evidence that an online portal would make the system work any better is to play deaf to every single participating medical professional.
The Tasmanian Planning Commission last week said the stadium is not viable, yet the government’s prepared to spend something close to $2 billion on it. Three weeks ago, the racing minister announced that there would be $1 million given to horse breeders to encourage the breeding of racehorses. Here we are talking about the expenditure of around $1.5 million. I don’t know if that’s a recurrent expenditure or if it’s one-off. Either way, it’s a good investment if it makes sure that the scheme works for people who are working within that scheme.
We know how reviews work, and it was well laid out by the member for Mersey. Governments often use reviews as a means of delaying action. It’s not like we have to remake or reinvent an online portal here to provide for functionality, but also to make sure that those empathetic and hard-working medical professionals – who are primary medical practitioners, CHPs, CMPs or AHPs – are not walking away from this framework, which Parliament overwhelmingly got behind.
Ultimately, the people who will pay the highest price if government doesn’t accept the need and the reality, is people who are suffering, and who want the peace of mind of knowing that they can access Voluntary Assisted Dying under the care of experienced medical professionals.
I certainly hope the minister for Health was listening to the member for Mersey’s contribution because there is no excuse at all for not making sure that this system is highly functional and responsive to the people who are seeking to make it work, and the people who want it to work.
The $1.5 million is a drop in the ocean. We subsidise the racing industries here to the tune of $37 million every year. This government needs to have a good think about what’s important. When we sign up to that code of ethical conduct and we promise to act in the public interest, this is an example of where we need to apply that ethical lens and understand we have to prioritise the health and wellbeing and the peace of mind of the people of Tasmania over, for example, encouraging horse trainers and breeders through financial incentives to breed more animals.
There’s a terrible split lens here on the part of government that throws money at colosseum-like projects like the stadium and horse racing and won’t stump for something which is so obvious and needed.
It sounds like it’s ideological and it’s within the health department. Let’s hope that the new Minister for Health will see clearly. I hope that the participating medical practitioners who are part of this scheme now perhaps go and seek an appointment with the Minister for Health and provide that evidence that the health department appears to be telling her doesn’t exist about the need for an online portal.
