A broad coalition of medical, legal, and seniors’ rights organisations has condemned a proposed New South Wales law that would allow aged care providers to block residents from accessing voluntary assisted dying (VAD) in their own homes.
The Voluntary Assisted Dying Amendment (Residential Facilities) Bill 2025, introduced by Liberal MLC Susan Carter, is currently before the NSW Upper House. If passed, it would permit aged care providers to deny entry to health professionals involved in the VAD process, effectively stripping residents of their legal right to die on their own terms.
Eighteen peak bodies, including the Royal Australian College of General Practice NSW, Australian Nursing & Midwifery Federation NSW, Council on the Ageing NSW, Seniors Rights Service, Uniting NSW.ACT, and the Australian Lawyers Alliance, have signed a joint statement urging MPs to reject what they describe as a “cruel and unnecessary” bill.
“The bill would mean dying people are forced to find alternative accommodation and care when they need support the most,” the statement reads. “It’s a retrograde step for NSW and undermines rights guaranteed in Australia’s aged care framework.”
Under the NSW Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2022, aged care residents have the right to access every stage of the VAD process, from their first request to the administration of medication, within their facility. Providers are not required to participate in VAD, only to permit reasonable access to external health professionals such as doctors, pharmacists, and care navigators.
Opponents of the amendment say the bill directly contradicts the Aged Care Act 2024 (Cth), which enshrines the rights of residents to dignity, choice, and access to services. Legal experts have also questioned the bill’s constitutional validity, warning it may be struck down if challenged.
Go Gentle Australia CEO Dr Linda Swan said the growing list of signatories reflected widespread alarm across the health, legal, and advocacy sectors.
“Susan Carter and her co-sponsors must immediately withdraw this ill-conceived and highly divisive bill,” Dr Swan said.“The people of NSW have made it clear they will not stand by and see the rights of religious organisations trump those of dying people.”
Dying with Dignity NSW President Penny Hackett went further, labelling the proposal “legally invalid and morally wrong”.
“How could any MP vote for a bill that allows aged care providers to prioritise religious ideology over the end-of-life rights of residents and force them out of their homes in their dying days?” she said. “The churches and religious aged care providers seeking the right to treat their dying residents in this way should be ashamed of themselves.”
The joint statement warns that similar restrictions in other states have caused “stress, anxiety, and harm” for dying residents, with some forced to relocate in their final days. The move, it argues, would particularly hurt older people in rural and regional areas, where faith-based providers often dominate and alternative accommodation is limited or non-existent.
According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, it takes an average of 41 days to secure a place in aged care. For someone nearing the end of life, advocates say that delay could mean the difference between a peaceful death and prolonged suffering.
The statement also criticises the timing of the bill, which arrives just weeks before a scheduled statutory review of the NSW VAD Act is set to begin on 28 November.
“A surprise amendment, with little or no consultation with those most affected, pre-empts and undermines the agreed review process,” the statement notes.
Advocates argue that aged care homes are, first and foremost, people’s homes, not hospitals, and that residents must retain the same rights to medical care and personal choice as any other Australian.
“Older people have paid to live in these homes and should not be deprived of lawful, carefully safeguarded choices at the end of life,” the statement concludes.
The coalition is calling on members of the NSW Upper House to reject the amendment when it comes to a vote, and to stand with older Australians in protecting their hard-won right to access voluntary assisted dying, no matter where they call home.
What are these governments who gives them the right to take away anything for the aged in nursing homes it’s not allowed to mentioned but why if cognitive they know they are dying have they not the right to choose how they want to go as last days to fight to die with dignity is a right not a facility concern it can done privately in a home or a facility but they have a right to choose. Why go to hospital and be left there with no comfort care or people around that care as you no there is no lovely palliative care in Launceston that is a beautiful setting for one to die in peace .
Unfortunately there are people in positions of power who believe they have a right to tell other people how to live and die.
If voluntary assisted dying is not available in particular Age Care Facilities that MUST be stated in all their brochures, websites and Services Agreements.
I will certainly not pay to live where I can’t die.