A proposed law that would have improved the quality of palliative care in South Australia has been “killed off” by the Marshall Liberal Government.

The law proposed by local Member of Parliament, Mr Tony Piccolo would have immediately established an enquiry into the existing palliative care system in South Australia with the aim of ensuring that all South Australians had equal access to “world class” palliative care services irrespective of their financial status or where they lived in the state.

The Marshall Liberal Government used their numbers in the lower house to delay the consideration of the Bill despite it receiving the support of the upper house.

Mr Piccolo said the Marshall Liberal Government has effectively “killed off” the bill as it will lapse with the pending state election.

“What makes me particularly angry is that the Bill only required less than one minute of time to be finalised and passed, but the Liberals decided to send it to the back of queue,” said Mr Piccolo.

“I would like to thank crossbench members Frances Bedford and Geoff Brock for their support,” said Mr Piccolo.

Mr Piccolo first raised concerns about the current state of palliative care services during the Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) debate.

Mr Piccolo said the VAD Bill was based on the principle that people had choice when approaching their end of life.

“For that principle to have real meaning, people must have real and equal choices on how they wish to end their life.”

“The new VAD laws give people an additional choice, but it cannot be at the expense of people who wish to access palliative care.”

Mr Piccolo said a recent parliamentary inquiry into end-of-life choices found that during the process of hearing submissions from professionals in the field that “a number of consistent themes emerged” including,

1. Palliative Care is a critical part of our health and wellbeing system although it requires a greater level of funding to ensure that it provides more consistent and         equitable access.

2. Any improvements to the Palliative Care system should design services that are appropriate and accessible for people in regional areas, Aboriginal people and those         for whom English is not a primary language.

3. A key focus of Palliative Care should be on the dignity of people who are approaching the end of life.

4. There is a general need to improve data collection and reporting on palliative
        care – including the experiences of patients, their families and loved ones, clinicians and carers.

Mr Piccolo said this parliamentary report highlighted a number of gaps in our current palliative care services, which means that for the most vulnerable people in our community they do not have a real choice.

Mr Piccolo tried to amend the VAD Bill at the time it was debated, but the amendment was defeated.

“I have taken on board the feedback members gave me at the time as to why they didn’t support the amendment, reworked it and introduced it as a separate measure.”

“The inquiry would have been undertaken by the Health Performance Council who I consulted, and they advised that they had the capacity to do it.”

“An inquiry into our palliative care system has been talked about for many years and with the introduction of a VAD scheme later this year or early 2023 it is more critical that we have a world class palliative care service available to all.’

“Well funded quality care services should be available to all, irrespective of their wealth and geography”

“It is a question of justice and dignity.”

Every Liberal MP voted in favour of delaying the inquiry along with independents Sam Duluk, Fraser Ellis whose electorate of Narrunga covers the Yorke Peninsula and the Member for Mount Gambier Troy Bell.