Catholic Health,which has thousands of hospital and aged care beds in NSW including St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney and Calvary Hospital in Newcastle,is opposed to the bill.
Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich introduced his private member’s bill to the lower house on Thursday,with 28 MPs as co-sponsors from Labor,the Coalition,the Greens,Animal Justice and the Shooters,Fishers and Farmers.
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His fellow independent MP Greg Piper is also supporting the bill.
Mr Watkins said Catholic Health Australia,which runs 25 per cent of private hospital and aged care beds across the country,had lobbied against voluntary assisted dying in other states,most recently Queensland.
“We oppose the bill in NSW but if it does pass,we want to make sure it has the appropriate safeguards in place,” Mr Watkins said.
The upper house debated the issue in 2017,however it was narrowly defeated by just one vote. Mr Greenwich’s bill will be restricted to “people who are terminally ill and whose extreme suffering cannot be alleviated”.