MARCHANT Bellarine (16:59): I rise to speak on the Voluntary Assisted Dying Amendment Bill 2025. In 2017 Victoria became the first jurisdiction in Australia to pass voluntary assisted dying legislation – a historic, courageous step that placed compassion, dignity and choice at the heart of end-of-life care. It was the result of many years of consultation, evidence and deep personal stories – stories of pain, courage and love. Members of this house debated with sincerity and conviction and, in doing so, set a standard of what it meant to legislate with humanity. That legislation has given Victorians with a terminal illness the ability to make an informed, voluntary and compassionate choice about the end of their own lives. It was built upon the principle that, while death is fated, suffering should never be.

Speaking and voting today, though, is slightly different to other legislation that I have dealt with in here in that we have a conscience vote. I come to this place every time always representing the best interests of the Bellarine community, and today I do the same. These are moments that not only test our judgement but also our compassion. Conscience votes are rare and difficult and can be deeply personal, but I believe the Bellarine community would expect me to approach this with humility, care and courage.
The question before us, the accessibility for terminally ill Victorians to have a choice about how they face death, represents one of those moments, and it is not an abstract issue. It has been lived and felt in homes and hospitals across Victoria. Over the recent months I have spoken to constituents who have shared their personal stories of illness, care and loss. I have listened to doctors and palliative care experts who bring professionalism and compassion to some of life’s hardest moments, and I have corresponded with advocates and families and people who hold deep values and heartfelt convictions, often coming from very different perspectives. And like many members in this place, I have deliberated carefully on this bill.

Five years on, we have now reviewed how this law is working in Victoria. The findings are clear and reassuring: that Victoria’s voluntary assisted dying scheme is operating safely, ethically and as intended. The independent five-year review found no evidence of misuse or coercion. It found that safeguards are robust and that the scheme provides comfort and autonomy to those facing the most difficult circumstances. Since 2019 that scheme has provided hundreds of Victorians and their families with peace of mind, knowing that they have choice. Even for those who do not ultimately access voluntary assisted dying, the knowledge that it exists does bring profound comfort. But the review also identified areas for improvement, areas where the law can better reflect the realities of a terminal illness and the experience of those navigating the process. We have listened to patients, families and practitioners, and we have heard that while the law is strong, the process can be complex, the timelines can feel unforgiving and access, particularly in regional Victoria, can be difficult.

I would like to take a moment to thank the constituents that I have met regarding VAD for opening their hearts and sharing their deeply personal experiences with me. I would just like to share a couple of those examples. Despite living and working in Australia for over 55 years, voting in our elections, paying taxes and participating fully in our community, a Bellarine family has been grappling not only with a terminal diagnosis but with the realisation that they were not eligible for VAD because they were not deemed Australian citizens. Currently, limiting access to only citizens and permanent residents has unintended consequences and has excluded a significant amount of long-term residents who have lived in Australia for decades and who consider Australia home. This group includes people who are not required to hold permanent residency, a visa or citizenship to remain in the country – for example, people who came from New Zealand or British citizens who made Australia their home before current visa requirements. For this Bellarine family, our current laws denied a choice that they had earned after a lifetime of contribution. Their son also shared recently with me and begged for Parliament to urgently simplify VAD laws, to help other families with this common sense and humane legislative change.

I also spoke with a Bellarine gentleman whose wife passed away suddenly after an unexpected cancer diagnosis. He told me that they had so little time and no real opportunity to consider voluntary assisted dying. Under the current laws, the timeframes and application process meant that by the time they understood what was happening, the chance for that conversation had already passed. He carries with him a profound grief, not only for the loss of his wife but for the way she died. It was a distressing death and one that left him wishing she had more control, more peace and more dignity in her final days. Today he speaks out around courage and for change. He believes that voluntary assisted dying should give those with only a short amount of time left – and their families – the right to make a choice, to receive comfort, control and compassion when suffering cannot otherwise be eased. I will never forget those conversations, and I will always be grateful for the trust that he placed in me in sharing his deeply personal story. I trust that after today’s debate – and I am sure he is listening – hopefully these reforms if passed will give him some peace.

We have a few amendments to the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017. This is not about reopening the old fears or revisiting the debate from six years ago, where we had careful evidence which was already settled, but rather it is about drawing on the review’s evidence to make thoughtful, modest reforms, practical improvements that are already working well in other states, without altering the core principles or social contract that underpins Victoria’s original and world-leading legislation. I will not go into all the amendments. I have them listed here, but I will not go into all the amendments today because of time. I support the amendments that have been put in this bill. Those amendments will honour the original intent of the law: giving Victorians the right to choose the manner and timing of their death within a framework of compassion, integrity and care.

Before I conclude, I would also like to acknowledge the member for Pakenham. Thank you for sharing your voice in this debate. You share your lived experience with grace, with courage, and you give so much of yourself at what must be a very difficult time to bring awareness to MND and to VAD. Thank you for your courage.

This debate is not theoretical, it is personal. Each of us have known or will know someone who has faced the end of life with pain that medicine cannot relieve, someone who has faced the question of choice, control and dignity. This bill is for them – for the families who have sat beside loved ones through suffering that no-one should endure, for the clinicians that have walked beside them with care and compassion and for the individuals who, faced with the end, have asked for the simple right to choose peace. Victoria was the first state in Australia to legislate VAD, and today we take another careful, considered and compassionate step forward, ensuring that we respect the choice, that compassion remains central and that a person who is terminally ill can choose dignity at the end of their life.

I commend the bill to the house.