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NT expert panel recommends VAD laws

The Northern Territory has moved a step closer to having end-of-life choice with an independent advisory panel recommending it join the rest of the country and introduce voluntary assisted dying laws.

The Northern Territory is currently the only jurisdiction in Australia without VAD laws. 

The expert panel report recommended the NT introduce legislation  "broadly consistent" with those in other states and the ACT. 

A person would need to have “a serious and incurable condition causing intolerable and enduring suffering”, with a 12-month timeframe to death. 

As in all other jurisdictions, a person would have to have decision-making capacity at all stages, ruling out the possibility of VAD for dementia. 

This is despite a community survey of 1396 people undertaken as part of the report finding 71 per cent were in favour of advance care directives requesting VAD once capacity was lost, in the case of dementia.

The report acknowledged the “significant interest” in availability of VAD for dementia but said any widening of eligibility to include dementia needed to be part of a national dialogue, dashing hopes of many who had hoped the NT would pave the way in this area. 

In a point of difference from other jurisdictions, the report did not recommend proof of citizenship or permanent residency for eligibility, a requirement often criticised for creating onerous red tape for applicants. However patients would need to have lived in Australia for two years and in the Territory for 12 months, with exemptions for cross-border communities and those with personal connections in the Territory.

Another key feature of the report was a recommendation that VAD services be separate from NT Health to ensure cultural safety for Indigenous residents, who make up 31 per cent of the Territory’s population, and that their needs be addressed as a core part of VAD provision. 

Telehealth should be permitted 

The report recommended telehealth be permitted provided there was at least one one face-to-face assessment. This would be subject to amendment of the Commonwealth Criminal Code which currently prohibits the use of all electronic communications in VAD care.

This is a significant inclusion, considering half the population of the NT lives in rural and remote areas. The continuation of the telehealth ban would force many terminally ill Territorians to travel great distances to see doctors in person at every stage of the VAD application process. 

The report, released 31 July, follows 14 months of consultation and has been eagerly awaited by supporters of end-of-life choice. The community survey found 73 per cent of respondents agreed a person should be able to choose when they die. 

Although the NT was the first jurisdiction in the world to legalise VAD in 1995, this was overridden two years later by Commonwealth legislation preventing territories from making laws about assisted dying. The Restoring Territory Rights Act 2022 paved the way for the territories to pass VAD laws. 

In June, the ACT passed a VAD law, with Canberrans able to access VAD from November 2025.

The panel’s report will now undergo consideration by the NT government, and if supported, the recommendations could be used to draft legislation for VAD. However, neither of the major parties has pledged to introduce a VAD Bill after the NT election on 24 August. 

Read the full expert panel report 

Read more in the NT News and ABC News

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