UK actress, comedian and disability advocate, Liz Carr was in Victoria, Australia, recently with her musical comedy: Assisted Suicide: The Musical. Liz took time out to send a very clear message to the people of Tasmania about euthanasia and assisted suicide.The Tasmanian Parliament will debate the latest bill, the euphemistically titled: Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2016, on the 24th of May. Continue reading

The on-again-off-again attempts by Tasmanian MP, Lara Giddings MP to introduce a new euthanasia bill jointly with an MP from the Liberal Party has clearly failed. The failure is evident in the news yesterday that Ms Giddings will now introduce a bill in 2017 jointly with the Greens Party leader, Cassy O'Connor.Ms Giddings introduced a failed euthanasia bill in 2012 when she was Tasmanan Premier. Now in opposition, Ms Giddings had been seeking formal support from one of the new Liberal MPs elected at the2014 election. The fact that this has not eventuated means that either the new Liberal MPs are reluctant to hitch their wagons to Giddings agenda or they, like their colleagues, oppose euthanasia. Either way, it leaves the possibility of a majority support for any euthanasia bill in the Tasmanian lower house extremely doubtful. Continue reading

News today that the Tasmanian State Conference of the Australian Labor Party endorsed a motion in support of a push for euthanasia has reignited the issue in the island state. Euthanasia was last debated in Tasmania on the 17th of October 2013 when the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill was defeated 13 votes to 11 in the State's Lower House. Since that time, the State Election has changed the make up of the chamber offering, perhaps, the mover of the last bill, Lara Giddings MP, some hope that this time the outcome might be different.The ALP motion - now part of the party's Tasmanian platform - is subject to the normal provision of a conscience vote and is, we understand, not binding upon State ALP Members of Parliament. Continue reading

The Tasmanian MPs who tabled and pushed the last Euthanasia bill defeated in 2013, have said that they will try again later this year. The then Premier, Lara Giddings MP and her then deputy, Nick McKim MP, now on the opposition benches made the announcement in The Examiner Newspaper on the 14th of March.But bringing the issue to a vote in this new bill will not be as easy as it was when the then Premier and her Deputy were in control of the parliamentary debate from the treasury benches. Continue reading

(see voter guides at bottom of this page) Tasmanian voters will go to the polls on March 15th to elect a government for the next four years.  Continue reading

The day after the Tasmanian Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide was defeated, Disability activist, author and editor of the  ABC's Ramp Up website on disability,  Continue reading

  This op-ed appeared in the main newspaper in Hobart, Tasmania, when members of Parliament were gearing up for a debate on euthanasia. It was a companion piece to an article in favour of legalisation by Emeritus Professor Colin Wendell-Smith, convenor of Doctors for Dying with Dignity and co-convenor of Doctors for Voluntary Euthanasia. This article was taken from the Continue reading

As reported earlier, following 10 hours of grueling and emotionally-charged debate, the latest euthanasia & assisted suicide bill in Tasmania was defeated 13 votes to 11 in the State's Lower House on the evening of Thursday the 17th of October.  This bill had been foreshadowed for sometime, (going back more than two years) had been the subject of a consultation (of sorts) in March this year and then suddenly introduced on the last day of the winter sitting, providing only two weeks effective notice of the debate. Continue reading