This Looks Like A Bit Of A Throwback To The Howard Era To Me.

I noticed this a few day ago.

GP takes Attorney-General to court over VAD telehealth ban

4th August 2022

By Sarah Simpkins

A GP is taking the Federal Government to court over laws that ban doctors from discussing voluntary assisted dying in telehealth consultations.  

Since 2005, federal laws have banned ‘using a carriage service to counsel or incite suicide’, including phone calls, text messages, emails and video.

The punishment is a fine of up to $220,000.

When Victoria became the first state to legalise voluntary assisted dying (VAD) in 2017, the state's Minister for Health warned GPs to only discuss VAD face to face because of the federal laws.

But with all states now passing VAD laws, Melbourne GP Dr Nick Carr has launched a court case against the Commonwealth Attorney-General in an attempt to remove any legal threat to doctors. 

His hope is that the Federal Court of Australia will declare that VAD does not count as suicide under the law.  

Dr Carr told Australian Doctor he couldn't comment on the case while it was before the court.

But last month, the federal Minister for Health hinted that the government was unlikely to put up a fight.

"That [law] was put in place by the Howard Government when Philip Nitschke was putting about his way of assisted dying," Mark Butler told ABC radio.

"Since then, the landscape has changed dramatically. Every state now has VAD laws in place.

This appeared a few days ago.

https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/gp-takes-attorneygeneral-court-over-vad-telehealth-ban

This really is a bit of nonsense inspired by an ultra-conservative Liberal MP  who was also responsible for preventing the ACT and NT legislation to legalise VAD. (His name was Kevin Andrews if you are wondering. He was out of touch then and has drifted further away from reality since!)

If you can discuss abortion, suicide and all other matters what rubbish is this?

This should just be fixed, as I am sure many don’t even know it is an offence! We can all to without this brand of repressive conservatives trying to control our lives.

Have your say on the poll this week!

David.