Family First will preference Labor MPs Anthony Carbines, Natalie Suleyman, Iwan Walters, Kathleen Matthews-Ward and Anthony Cianfone ahead of the Liberals at next year’s state election.
The party expressed shock and disappointment at Liberal leader Brad Battin and other Liberals who this week voted to force pro-life doctors to participate in euthanasia and to allow doctors to initiate a vulnerable person’s euthanasia.
“Forcing participation in killing and allowing doctors to initiate euthanasia are chilling Rubicons crossed this week,” Family First Victorian Upper House candidates Bernie Finn and Jane Foreman said.
In an act of courage and commonsense, the five Labor MPs crossed the floor to defend freedom of conscience and to uphold the principle that doctors should never be agents of death, let along the ones to initiate it.
While euthanasia is an emotional issue, it was disappointing that emotion seemed to drive the debate.
“Hard cases always make bad law but the reality is the overwhelming majority of people can expect to die a dignified death if modern palliative care is provided,” Mr Finn and Ms Foreman said.
“Euthanasia means people will be killed wrongfully and palliative care will not be properly funded because public policy supports a cheaper alternative.”
The so-called Voluntary Assisted Dying Amendment Bill 2025 passed Victoria’s lower house by 67 votes to 13, dramatically weakening safeguards promised when euthanasia was first introduced in 2017.
Under the new laws, doctors will now be able to raise euthanasia as an “option”, even with patients who may be frightened, depressed, or struggling to cope.
The bill also forces conscientious objectors to provide information about euthanasia, stripping away the right of doctors to practise according to conscience and ethical conviction.
Liberal Leader Brad Battin was joined by fellow Coalition members David Southwick, Sam Groth, Jade Benham and Emma Kealy in backing Premier Jacinta Allan’s radical reforms. Their votes helped deliver one of the most far-reaching expansions of euthanasia powers in Australia’s history.
“Allowing doctors to suggest euthanasia fundamentally changes the doctor–patient relationship,” Mr Finn said.
“No one should underestimate the power of a doctor’s suggestion. When a person is sick, frightened or depressed, even the hint that they are a burden can become a nudge toward wrongful death.”
The reforms also double the eligibility window from six to twelve months and remove the safeguard requiring a third medical opinion in neurodegenerative cases—changes that Family First says make wrongful deaths more likely.
“We were told there’d be tough safeguards and that there was no slippery slope,” Ms Foreman said.
“Now, just eight years later, they’re removing those very protections. The slope is real, it’s steep and it has grease all over it.”
Family First warns that Victoria risks following the same grim path as Canada, where euthanasia has been offered to the elderly, disabled and even those struggling with mental illness.
Family First will stand pro-life candidates in every Victorian electorate at next year’s election and will preference against all MPs—Liberal or Labor—who backed this assault on conscience and life.
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