The New South Wales statutory review of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2022 is underway and submissions are being invited from the public ahead of the 27 February 2026 deadline.
The review will assess how the law has operated since it commenced in November 2023, including its safeguards, access and protections – including for conscientious objection – for healthcare workers and patients.
NSW Health stressed it is not a discussion on voluntary assisted dying itself.
In a background paper it states the review focuses on “strengthening the model and frameworks that support voluntary assisted dying in NSW and will not examine whether voluntary assisted dying should be precluded.”
The findings will be presented to New South Wales Parliament by November 2026.
The review takes place amid ongoing debate about the place of faith-based care in the VAD regime.
In November 2025, Liberal MLC Susan Carter introduced a private member’s bill that would have allowed residential faith-based aged care facilities to refuse to facilitate on-site voluntary assisted dying. These protections are already afforded to hospitals.
The bill was defeated in the Legislative Council, 23 votes to 16, and opponents said the statutory review was the proper forum to consider the issues it raised.
Why it’s important to have your say in the NSW voluntary assisted dying review
Catholic leaders are expected to make submissions, and the submission by the Archdiocese of Sydney will focus on the disproportionate number of VAD deaths in regional areas and the effect of the VAD regime on aged care.
Faith leaders including Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP have been staunch critics of the VAD laws.
In a message to supporters in November, the archbishop said the right of faith-based institutions to object to hosting VAD practitioners should “not be controversial” as similar laws apply in Victoria and Tasmania.
“We know many in our community, whatever their beliefs, seek out faith-based aged-care facilities especially because of our view that every human life is sacred,” he wrote.
“Our frail elderly should be given the choice to live out their final days in a place where they know they will be safe from VAD.”
Those who have spent decades in the service of the sick and elderly “should not be forced by law to stand back and allow people to come into their homes and administer deadly drugs to their residents. It is antithetical to the mission to which they have given their lives.”
