“The Victorian Government’s release of the first review of voluntary assisted dying (VAD) in Victoria last week provides us with considerable confidence that VAD has become a mainstream end of life choice,” commented Anne Bunning, Vice President of VADSA.
“Advocates for VAD had identified numerous anomalies with the legislation. There was an expectation that the scheduled review would provide an opportunity to address these anomalies and remove the legal impediments to accessing VAD.
“Advocates were disappointed to find the 2023 terms of reference were limited to examining the operation of the Act. There was no intention to examine any legislative change.
“However, the news last week has provided us all with hope. The independent evaluators identified that amendments to the legislation were required in order to improve the operation of the Act. In an eight page addendum to the report, six areas for legislative change are detailed.
“VADSA welcomes proposals by the Victorian Government to amend their VAD Act as outlined in the addendum in the following areas:
- Removal of the “gag clause” to allow health practitioners to initiate VAD discussions
- Amending the time period between first and final VAD requests
- Amending citizenship and residency requirements
- Simplifying the permit process
- Requiring additional reviews of the operation and scope of the Act
“The sixth amendment is to extend the prognosis to 12 months for all conditions, similar to Queensland.
“VADSA supports the removal of prognosis altogether, as contained in the ACT VAD Act.
“Our research shows that the criteria requiring a person to have two separate doctors confirm that they have less than six or 12 months to live is broadly recognised as an unreliable and ineffective safeguard; acting more as a barrier to a person’s request for VAD than a safeguard to protect vulnerable people. The evidence on prognosis is that reliability is limited to the few weeks before death or in estimating the number of years to death; a prognosis between a few weeks and less than several years is unreliable.
“The remaining criteria will continue to provide important safeguards in the legislation.”
“Given that the South Australian VAD Act is the same as Victoria’s VAD Act (except South Australia includes additional provisions making VAD more accessible for people in institutions), VADSA welcomes this analysis from fresh and independent eyes on the operation of VAD in Victoria. We anticipate a similar outcome when the scheduled 2027 review of VAD takes place in South Australia.
“By 2027 there will be two years of evidence from the operation of the ACT VAD Act. Members of Parliament with have the opportunity to examine this evidence, as well as changes in Victoria, as they consider improvements to the operation of VAD in South Australia.”
Note that
1. The evaluation report Executive Summary (p8) states
While assessing the VAD legislation itself was outside of the review’s scope, many contributors provided feedback about the legislation, including where certain provisions create barriers to access and timeliness.
2. The Victorian review was conducted by the Department of Health Centre for Evaluation and Research Evidence (CERE), an independent specialist evaluation unit within the health department. The evaluation unit adopted a professional and independent approach to their task, listening and consulting broadly.
3. The evaluation accepted submissions which were outside the scope of the review.
4. The report contains five recommendations in relation to the operation of VAD in Victoria.
5. The Victorian review was conducted over 12 months, from June 2023 to July 2024, as required under the VAD Act.
The review and response from the Victorian Government are available here.
