"All of the State Health Ministers raised with me, and I know some have raised with Mark Dreyfus, the Attorney-General, that their doctors in the jurisdictions are saying that the ability to implement those laws, passed by the parliament of those states is hampered by this long-standing Commonwealth piece of law."

Health Minister Richard Butler discussed Voluntary Assisted Dying and telehealth laws on ABC Radio Adelaide. He said:

“It is, it’s something that the State Health Ministers raised with me when I met them the week before last. There's a provision in Federal legislation that essentially makes it a crime to assist someone in dying over a telecommunications device, over a phone. And that was put in place by the Howard Government, really in the area that some of your listeners might remember is when Philip Nitschke was putting about his way of assisted dying. Since then, the landscape has changed dramatically. Every state now has voluntary assisted dying laws in place, even if they're not necessarily in operation yet, like here in South Australia. And all of the State Health Ministers raised with me, and I know some have raised with Mark Dreyfus, the Attorney-General, that their doctors in the jurisdictions are saying that the ability to implement those laws, passed by the parliament of those states is hampered by this long-standing Commonwealth piece of law. So, Mark Dreyfus and I've already had a talk about it. I've had a discussion with, as I said, the State Health Ministers including Chris Picton, and we're looking at ways in which we can move forward on it.”  Radio interview with Minister Butler and Stacey Lee  (Info provided to DWDQ from Liz Jacka VAD Media Watch 17/07/2022)