Bill
Criminal Code Amendment (Equal Access to Voluntary Assisted Dying) Bill 2026
before parliament, as at 2026-08-13.
- Sponsor
- Hanson-Young
- Portfolio
- Not recorded
Recorded stages
- introduced — 2026-08-13
- second reading — 2026-08-13
Divisions
No divisions recorded. Most questions are decided on the voices; this does not establish that a bill was unopposed.
Plain-language summary
Written by a model from the explanatory memorandum; not the record, as at 2026-08-13.
The bill would let doctors use phone or video calls for voluntary assisted dying without committing a federal crime.
It changes the Criminal Code so that telehealth consultations that follow state or territory VAD laws are not treated as the offence of counselling suicide.
The change would apply from before the law starts, protecting medical professionals who already used telehealth for VAD.
- Clarifies that using a carriage service for VAD is not an offence when done under state or territory VAD laws.
- Allows trained clinicians to decide whether to use telehealth for VAD consultations.
- Applies retrospectively to cover past telehealth use for VAD.
Medical professionals and people in rural, regional and remote areas who need to access voluntary assisted dying via telehealth.
Sources
em
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