The Canberra Liberals say they would not make any changes to the forthcoming voluntary assisted dying scheme, despite having pushed unsuccessfully for amendments before the laws passed and the majority of its members voting against it.
Labor on Thursday promised to provide extra funding for palliative care services and would commit to expanding a respite home program for people with life-limiting illnesses.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr said he believed Labor was the only major party in a position to deliver on a commitment to implement "Australia's best voluntary assisted dying laws".
Asked if a Canberra Liberals government would make any change to the forthcoming assisted dying scheme, Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee said: "No."
Liberal members, including Ms Lee, had sought to move a series of technical amendments to the voluntary assisted dying laws before they passed in the Legislative Assembly, 20 votes to five, in June.
Liberals Ed Cocks, Jeremy Hanson, Elizabeth Kikkert, James Milligan and Peter Cain voted against the legislation. Mrs Kikkert was disendorsed by the Canberra Liberals and is recontesting her seat for Family First.
Eligible people will be able to access voluntary assisted dying in the ACT from November 3, 2025.
Labor's campaign has, in part, focused on the risks to the voluntary assisted dying scheme if the Liberals were to win government after October 19.
Human Rights Minister Tara Cheyne on Thursday said: "I think one of the most disturbing things of this campaign, for many of us, is Canberra Liberals presenting themselves as one thing and then it being revealed that perhaps their values might lie elsewhere."
Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said a re-elected Labor government would support the expansion of Leo's Place, which she said was a nation-leading respite service run in the community by Palliative Care ACT.
The service would have an extra two beds from 2026 and an extra four beds from 2027-28, when it opened in a new, purpose-built facility in Garran.
"We're also continuing to expand our own services as well. More home-based palliative care and an additional three beds at Clare Holland House to open through the next term of government if Labor is re-elected," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
"We know that people want choice about how they reach the end of life and that they need support for themselves and for their families."
The Health Minister said Labor was also committed to expanding the territory's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander liaison service and establishing a First Nations end-of-life care service.
"This is really important to ensure that everybody in our community has access to culturally safe services at the end of life," she said.
Ms Cheyne, who led the development of the voluntary assisted dying legislation, said the scheme would be the best in the country when it comes into effect.
"Voluntary assisted dying and palliative care is not an either-or proposition. For the vast majority of people, palliative care is enough and is absolutely appropriate and delivers all the care that a person needs at the end of their life," Ms Cheyne said.
"But for some people, voluntary assisted dying is a continuum of palliative care, or for some people, voluntary assisted dying is what they access due to that being their choice."
The ACT was unable to introduce a voluntary assisted dying scheme until the federal Labor government repealed a 1997 law that banned the territories from introducing such schemes.
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