Slippery Slope Prophecy Fulfilled: Labor Party Conference Supports Euthanasia to be Administered via Telehealth

Every Australian State, bar the NT, has introduced ‘voluntary assisted dying’ or VAD legislation. The NT is set to make it legal this August.[i] All this is occurring just as Canada is on course to reach 100,000 deaths by Medical Assistance in Dying (‘MAID’).[ii]

Just a few days ago, 24th of July, on the second day of the Australia Labor Party’s National Conference the delegates decided that the federal laws relating to voluntary assisted dying should change to allow terminally ill patients to use telehealth services. [iii]

Currently Australia bans people from using telehealth for VAD consultations, with doctors facing fines of up to $300,000.[iv] The national Labor conference resolved that this should be removed.[v]

Yet even prominent members of the Australian Labor Party don’t feel comfortable supporting this change up to and including the Prime Minister.[vi] Anthony Albanese said “I’m a supporter of voluntary euthanasia… but it’s also important that protections be placed around it.” He holds the view that voluntary assisted dying consultations “...should be face to face” otherwise voluntary assisted dying would be undermined.[vii]

The Attorney-General of Australia Michelle Rolland said “I am personally not convinced that a person confronting an end-of-life decision shouldn’t be afforded the dignity of a personal face-to-face consultation with a medical practitioner."[viii] The use of dignity is extremely ironic in these circumstances. She goes on to say “These provisions are there for a good reason: they were enacted to deter ill-intentioned individuals from encouraging vulnerable people to self-harm or commit suicide.”[ix] 

Of course it’s incoherent, there is no additional dignity in being approved to being killed by the government through a zoom call compared to being approved by the government in-person. It is all a defacement of human dignity.

However, it is nonetheless important that this not be implemented nationally because it will lead to, as Ms. Rowland alludes, people who are suicidal taking advantage of it and it will simply lead to more voluntary assisted dying because it will increase the exalted accessibility of VAD.

Australia appears well on its way down the slippery slope that was warned about just years earlier before the introduction of VAD laws in Queensland on the 1st of January 2023. Truly a tragic milestone in Australia’s history, a milestone that will result in thousands of lives taken that could be afforded better medical options such as counselling or greater palliative care.

In response, we urge all Queenslanders to take action immediately. If you live in a federal electorate represented by a Labor MP in Queensland, please contact your local member as soon as possible. Their phone number and email address are provided below. If you do not live in a Labor-held electorate, we encourage you to contact the Attorney-General, Michelle Rowland, or the Leader of the House, Tony Burke, by email and make your concerns known.

[i] Bishop, Jack. “Voluntary assisted dying to become legal in the NT, as bill secures majority support” ABC Website. Accessed 29 July 2026. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-22/nt-vad-laws-parliament-support-bill-rights-of-terminally-ill/106944246;

[ii] Furr, Amy. “Video - Canada Set to Record 100,000 Assisted Suicide Deaths: ‘Euthanasia is Literally Homicide’. Breitbart Website. Accessed 29 July 2026. https://www.breitbart.com/health/2026/03/07/video-canada-set-to-record-100000-assisted-suicide-deaths-euthanasia-is-literally-homicide/.

[iii] Boscaini, Andrew and Andrew Thorpe. “Federal politics: Labor platform commits to telehealth access to voluntary assisted dying - as it happens.” ABC News Website. Accessed 29 July 2026. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-24/federal-politics-live-blog-labor-conference-july-4/106952636. 

[iv] Armstrong, Claire. “Labor endorses voluntary assisted dying telehealth access in platform shift” ABC News Website. Accessed 29 July 2026. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-25/voluntary-assisted-dying-via-telehealth-endorsed-by-alp/106956766.

[v] Armstrong, Claire. “Labor endorses voluntary assisted dying telehealth access in platform shift” ABC News Website. Accessed 29 July 2026. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-25/voluntary-assisted-dying-via-telehealth-endorsed-by-alp/106956766.

[vi] McIlroy, Tom. “Albaese at odds with Labor policy which now says telehealth should be allowed for euthanasia consultations” The Guardian Website. Accessed 29 July 2026. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jul/26/labor-pressure-telehealth-access-euthanasia-assisted-dying-anthony-albanese. 

[vii] McIlroy, Tom. “Albaese at odds with Labor policy which now says telehealth should be allowed for euthanasia consultations” The Guardian Website. Accessed 29 July 2026. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jul/26/labor-pressure-telehealth-access-euthanasia-assisted-dying-anthony-albanese.

[viii] Armstrong, Claire. “Labor endorses voluntary assisted dying telehealth access in platform shift” ABC News Website. Accessed 29 July 2026. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-25/voluntary-assisted-dying-via-telehealth-endorsed-by-alp/106956766.

[ix] Armstrong, Claire. “Labor endorses voluntary assisted dying telehealth access in platform shift” ABC News Website. Accessed 29 July 2026. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-25/voluntary-assisted-dying-via-telehealth-endorsed-by-alp/106956766.