Laws regarding euthanasia or assisted suicide in Australia are matters for state and territory governments. As of 28 August 2026 all Australian states and territories have passed laws establishing schemes that provide assisted suicide and euthanasia for eligible individuals. These laws typically refer to the practices as "voluntary assisted dying".

Voluntary assisted dying schemes have been in effect in the following states and territories; Victoria since 19 June 2019, Western Australia since 1 July 2021, Tasmania since 23 October 2022, Queensland since 1 January 2023, South Australia since 31 January 2023, New South Wales since 28 November 2023 and the Australian Capital Territory since 3 November 2025. The practice was legalised in the Northern Territory on 27 August 2026, though will not be implemented and available until early 2028.

Between 1997 and 2022 federal law prohibited the self-governing territories; Northern Territory, Australian Capital Territory and Norfolk Island, from legislating for assisted dying. This federal ban was in response to the world-first legalisation of euthanasia for a period between 1996 and 1997 in the Northern Territory.

Throughout Australia a patient can elect not to receive any treatment for a terminal illness and can also elect to have their life support turned off. Advance care planning is also available throughout Australia.

History

Although historically it was usually a crime to assist in euthanasia and suicide, prosecutions were rare. In 2010, the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal quashed a manslaughter conviction of a Sydney woman who had previously been found guilty of killing her partner of 18 years with a euthanasia drug. In 2002, relatives and friends who provided moral support to an elderly woman who committed suicide were extensively investigated by police, but no charges were laid.

In Tasmania in 2005 a nurse was convicted of assisting in the death of her elderly father, who had terminal cancer, and trying to kill her mother, who was in the early stages of dementia. She was sentenced to two and a half years in jail but the judge later suspended the conviction because he believed the community did not want the woman jailed. This sparked debate about decriminalising euthanasia.

In 2009 Shirley Justins and Caren Jennings, were found guilty of manslaughter and accessory to manslaughter respectively for providing Nembutal to former pilot Graeme Wylie in 2006. Justins stated that Wylie wanted to "die with dignity". The prosecution argued that Graeme Wylie did not have the mental capacity to make the crucial decision to end his life, classing it as involuntary euthanasia.

Exit International made TV ads arguing for voluntary euthanasia, which were banned just before they were scheduled to broadcast in September 2010. The following year the Supreme Court of New South Wales gave a two-year suspended sentence to a 66-year-old man who had facilitated the death of his long-term 78-year-old partner by helping her overdose on drugs and suffocating her. The deceased suffered from severe pain arising from a spinal condition. Furthermore, the deceased had expressed a wish to die in a suicide note written prior to her death. The court convicted the man of manslaughter. The court accounted for the accused's substantial impairment at the time the act was committed as well the fact that he voluntarily revealed his involvement in the commission of the offence..

As of November 2014, 29 bills had been presented in Australian parliaments that sought to legalise access to voluntary euthanasia or physician-assisted dying.

An omission to provide life-sustaining medical treatment is lawful in Australia, unless the patient is deemed mentally incapable of consent..

Federal law As euthanasia is not a legislative power granted to the Federal Parliament under Section 51 of the Constitution of Australia, federal law cannot explicitly legalise or criminalise the practice. The subject is a matter for state parliaments.

Euthanasia Laws Act 1997

Despite the power to legislate for euthanasia being held by the states, under Section 122 of the Constitution of Australia the Federal Parliament has the power to override any law passed by a territory parliament. This occurred in 1997, when the Federal Parliament passed the Euthanasia Laws Act 1997, originally introduced as a private member's bill by Liberal MP Kevin Andrews. The legislation passed the Senate by 38 votes to 33 in March 1997, having previously passed the House of Representatives by 88 votes to 35 in December 1996. The law amended the Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act 1978 and Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988 to explicitly prevent the Northern Territory Parliament and Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly from legislating to allow euthanasia or assisted suicide. Laws concerning euthanasia. Matters excluded from power to make laws. An identical ban was placed into the Norfolk Island Act 1979, which was later repealed as part of the abolition of self-government on Norfolk Island by the Abbott government in 2015. (Cth) s 19 Legislative power of Legislative Assembly. Repealed as part of the abolition of self-government on Norfolk Island by the . As well as removing the power of those territories to legalise euthanasia, the Act specifically repealed the provisions of the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act 1995 (NT), which had previously been passed by the Northern Territory Parliament and allowed euthanasia to occur in the territory in the intervening period.

Euthanasia Laws Bill 1996 – Third Reading in the House of Representatives Party Votes for Votes against Abstained/Absent (76) (48) (18) (5) (1) – – Total (148) 88 35 25

Euthanasia Laws Bill 1997 – Third Reading in the Senate Party Votes for Votes against Abstained/Absent (29) (28) (7) – (6) – (2) – – (2) – – (2) – – Total (76) 38 33 4

Restoring Territory Rights (Assisted Suicide Legislation) Bill 2015 Over the following 20 years there were nine bills introduced to the parliament to repeal Andrews' legislation, though at no point did any repeal legislation come to a vote on the floor of either chamber of parliament. In 2018 the then Liberal Democratic Party (now called the Libertarian Party) Senator, David Leyonhjelm re-introduced a bill into the Senate to remove the federal ban on the ACT and Northern Territory legislating for euthanasia. Leyonhjelm's bill was given priority in the Senate after he secured the Turnbull government's agreement for a conscience vote in the Senate and possibly the House of Representatives (the question of the government permitting a vote in the House was unresolved), in exchange for his support to reinstate the Australian Building and Construction Commission. The Liberal/National government, opposition Labor Party and several minor party crossbenchers held a conscience vote on the legislation. Despite Leyonhjelm expressing optimism for the bill's prospects, it was defeated in the Senate by 36 votes to 34.

Restoring Territory Rights (Assisted Suicide Legislation) Bill 2015 – Second Reading in the Senate Party Votes for Votes against Absent (26) (25) (9) – (6) (2) – (2) – – (1) – – (1) – – (1) – – (1) – – (1) – – (1) – – Total (76) 34 36 6

Restoring Territory Rights Act 2022 The Euthanasia Laws Act remained in effect, even as all six state parliaments passed their own versions of assisted dying legislation between 2017 and 2022. The former Morrison government rejected requests by the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and Northern Territory governments to repeal the law. The Albanese Government, elected in May 2022, endorsed a conscience vote on repeal legislation that was introduced by Labor MPs Luke Gosling and Alicia Payne on 1 August 2022. The bill, titled the Restoring Territory Rights Bill 2022, removed the sections of the federal self-government acts for the ACT and Northern Territory that prevented those legislatures from passing euthanasia laws. It did not restore the Northern Territory's euthanasia law that was nullified by the federal parliament in 1997. Debate of the bill was prioritised by the government, and was approved by 99 votes to 37 in the House of Representatives on 3 August 2022. The bill passed its second reading in the Senate on 24 November 2022 by 41 votes to 25. It passed its third reading in the Senate on 1 December 2022, with no division called. The legislation received royal assent on 13 December 2022 and took immediate effect.

Restoring Territory Rights Bill 2022 – Third Reading in the House of Representatives Party Votes for Votes against Abstained/Absent (77) (42) (16) (4) – (1) – – (1) – – (10) – Total (151) 99 37 15

Restoring Territory Rights Bill 2022 – Second Reading in the Senate Party Votes for Votes against Abstained/Absent (26) (26) (12) – – (6) – (2) – (2) – (1) – – (1) – – Total (76) 41 25 10

Telehealth and carriage services The Howard government oversaw the passage of the Criminal Code Amendment (Suicide Related Material Offences) Act 2005, which passed the Federal Parliament in June 2005, and made it a crime to use a telephone, fax, email or internet carriage service to discuss the practicalities of suicide-related material. The law prompted the Victorian Health Minister to recommend doctors discuss voluntary assisted dying exclusively in person with their patients, so they would not run foul of the federal law. Western Australia's assisted dying law explicitly states that voluntary assisted dying is not suicide.

The presence of the federal law and its relationship with state laws that created lawful assisted dying schemes resulted in a legal grey area over whether voluntary assisted dying, as authorised by a state/territory law, constitutes ‘suicide’ within the meaning of the carriage service offences contained in the Commonwealth Criminal Code. In 2023 a Melbourne GP pursued legal action in the Federal Court to clarify the definition of suicide in the federal criminal code and its applicability to state-based assisted dying legislation. In November 2023 the court ruled that the law made it illegal for telehealth consultations concerning assisted dying to be conducted. Justice Wendy Abraham found that the term suicide, as used in the criminal code, applies to the ending of a person's life through voluntary assisted dying. The ruling prompted independent MP Kate Chaney to introduce a bill to federal parliament in February 2024, to amend the Code to make it clear that voluntary assisted dying services are not within the definition of suicide and therefore can be accessed via telehealth and carriage services according to state assisted dying laws. The bill did not proceed to a vote prior to the 2025 election. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has previously voiced his objection to the notion of assisted dying being captured by telehealth and carriage services. In July 2026 the governing Labor Party, at its National Conference, voted to allow its members of parliament (MPs) to cast a conscience vote on telehealth consultations regarding assisted dying.

State and territory laws Summary of current laws Jurisdiction Name Laws passed Commencement dateVictoria Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017 29 November 2017 19 June 2019Western Australia Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2019 19 December 2019 1 July 2021Tasmania End-of-Life Choices (Voluntary Assisted Dying) Act 2021 4 March 2021 23 October 2022Queensland Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2021 16 September 2021 1 January 2023South Australia Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2021 23 June 2021 31 January 2023New South Wales Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2022 19 May 2022 28 November 2023Australian Capital Territory Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2024 5 June 2024 3 November 2025Northern Territory Rights of the Terminally Ill Act 2026 27 August 2026 Early 2028

Past laws