Former deputy premier John Barilaro has made his final speech in NSW parliament, speaking in favour of voluntary assisted dying.

Mr Barilaro said the occasion had caused him to reflect on the role of politicians in trying to improve the lives of their communities and particularly vulnerable people.

“It’s not enough now to bury our heads in the sand,” he said. “We … know that some of these people are taking their own lives.

“The current law in itself is unsafe and results in untold suffering. 

“The conditions of good death and enabling every person to experience them anywhere in the state and under any set of circumstances is the foundation of a deeply compassionate and dignified modern society,” he said. 

Mr Barilaro is one of 33 lower house MPs to so far signal his support for the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2021, which requires 47 votes to clear the lower house. 

Twenty MPs have spoken against the bill. All have been afforded a conscience vote. 

Debate will continue until Friday evening, with supporters hopeful they’ll know by the day’s end whether they have the support of a majority. 

Also in favour of the bill was Treasurer Matt Kean, who acknowledged his leader Dominic Perrottet “genuinely and passionately” opposes the reform. 

Mr Kean said he was the Christian son of devoted Catholics, but his position was motivated by his “enduring attachment” to personal liberty.

“A person who is dying faces the most invidious of choices,” he said.

They will consult their own conscience, their families, their doctors, and perhaps a person of faith, he said.

“Does it help to effectively have to consult the government as well? I believe we should remove that constraint as much as possible. We should grant them their own wishes,” Mr Kean said. 

Earlier on Friday, Castle Hill Liberal MP Ray Williams was overcome with emotion as he recalled his father’s 1998 diagnosis of incurable liver cancer and his mother’s death six years later from emphysema.

Mr Williams said as “a lover of life” he would vote against the proposal.

Peter Sidgreaves, the Liberal member for Camden, said he was “deeply conflicted” as a Catholic who believed in conserving life.

But he said he would vote for the bill, after 68 per cent of people in his electorate said they supported it.

Labor deputy leader Prue Car said she was also a Catholic, but that meant approaching the world with compassion for others.

“I actually can’t think of anything more compassionate than this … It’s voluntary,” she said.  

The bill will likely go to a vote next Thursday, when attention will then turn to debating suggested amendments.

Mr Greenwich said he was negotiating in good faith with a number of MPs.

“I’m also aware that there are opponents of the bill drafting up likely hundreds of hostile amendments to the bill,” he said.

He said he was hoping for an orderly process that would see the debate wrapped up by next week, the final sitting week for the year. 

If the bill passes, it would make NSW the last state in Australia to permit voluntary assisted dying.

It restricts euthanasia to terminally ill people who would die in no more than 12 months. Two doctors will have to assess applicants, and the bill makes attempting to induce a person to apply for voluntary assisted dying a criminal offence.

AAP

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