A jury of Canberrans will advise on a decision-making process for people desiring voluntary assisted dying who have lost their capacity to make decisions.
A citizens' jury of about 50 people will be established to bring Canberrans together on the sensitive project, supported by clinicians, legal experts, consumers, carers and advocacy groups.
The ACT government announcement marks the next stage of voluntary assisted dying policy, considering what should happen if a person loses decision-making capacity after the final assessment stage of the process.
The citizens' jury is set to provide recommendations to the ACT government on how to establish a substitute decision-making process with safeguards, enabling people who have expressed a clear wish to access voluntary assisted dying at the end of their lives to have their decision upheld.
The 2026-27 ACT budget will invest $3.1 million over two years to support the project.
On Wednesday, Attorney-General Tara Cheyne said the jury's work would cover decision-making frameworks for people who have been assessed as eligible for voluntary assisted dying, and may have the substance available to them when they lose decision-making capacity.
"In Australia, we know that there already have been many cases where people have perhaps lost capacity but then it's come back, or they've been quite close to losing capacity and some decisions or some actions have had to be taken pretty quickly," she said.
Dr Kerrie Aust said there was significant fear about loss of autonomy for people pursuing voluntary assisted dying.
"We hear feedback from patients all around the country that sometimes they delay or refuse access to pain treatment, because they're afraid of losing capacity, and we don't want that," she said.
"I've had a lot of conversations with patients, with advocates, with friends, with doctors, with nurses, with nurse practitioners... about all of these possible scenarios and what it looks like as a patient, as a family member, as a possible VAD attorney, as a doctor, as a nurse, as a nurse practitioner and none of us have got a solution yet."
A government spokesperson said the approach would allow future policy considerations to be informed by evidence, including lived experience and early implementation insights, as well as robust community deliberation.
The ACT's voluntary assisted dying scheme began in November 2025. As of January 2026, 14 people had died using the legislation.
The Care Navigation Service, which is operated by Canberra Health Services, had made or received 1500 phone calls and recorded nearly 90 inquiries about voluntary assisted dying by January.
ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said she knew there was continuing community interest in the question of access to voluntary assisted dying for people who have lost capacity at the end of their life.
"No other Australian jurisdiction has yet acted on this issue and our priority is to get this right," she said.
"Any reform must have clear social licence and appropriate safeguards. It must be grounded in strong clinical governance and engagement with experts, to ensure it is safe, ethical, and consistent with human rights and community expectations.
