Anthony Albanese has warned he won’t support the rollout of telehealth for voluntary assisted dying consultations despite the Australian Labor Party conference backing the move.

The 50th ALP national conference passed a series of motions on Friday to allow a conscience vote going forward on voluntary assisted dying and to expand telehealth services.

Those services are currently banned in Australia under federal law with doctors facing $300,000 fines for discussing VAD via phone or video.

This is a major concern in rural and regional areas, as the terminally ill risk being locked out of care.

Speaking on Insiders on Sunday morning, the Prime Minister said while he supported choice for the terminally ill, he didn’t support telehealth consultations.

“It’s a conscience vote, but I haven’t changed my position on that. I’m a supporter of voluntary euthanasia,’’ he said.

“I think it is important that people have the right to die in dignity, with dignity.

“But it’s also important that protections be placed around it. Now, if someone has a heart attack or an acute health condition, they need a doctor. They can’t do that over telehealth.

“And I think that it should be face-to-face recognition and face-to-face engagement, because otherwise, from my perspective, that would undermine voluntary assisted dying.

“That’s my position. I always — these are very personal decisions, so that’s why it’s a conscience vote. So I respect the fact that there are different views on this.”

Mr Albanese said that if and when a vote comes before Parliament it is a “matter for conscience”.

“I have a position, and I haven’t changed that position. So that’s now for the caucus to decide,” he said.

An amendment endorsed by the ALP conference stated that “Labor will remove barriers that exist in federal law to the provision of end-of-life care (including via telehealth) as part of lawful access to voluntary assisted dying in the states and territories, while maintaining appropriate clinical safeguards”.

But speaking in favour of a conscience vote on VAD, Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said she also wasn’t completely sold on scrapping the laws banning telehealth.

“I am personally not convinced that a person confronting an end-of-life decision shouldn’t be afforded the dignity of a personal face-to-face consultation with a medical practitioner,’’ she said.

“I acknowledge the well-intentioned advocacy in this area, particularly with respect to the needs of remote and regional patients. I expect that any further work on this will be accompanied by rigorous evidence and safeguards.

“I come to this issue as Attorney-General, needing to consider the wider implications of any change in this area across my portfolio, including for the effective operation of the criminal code.

“There are currently provisions in the criminal code that make it an offence to use a carriage service, either over the phone or online, to counsel or incite suicide.

“These provisions are there for a good reason – they were enacted to deter ill-intentioned individuals from encouraging vulnerable people to self-harm or commit suicide.

“This issue continues to be of serious concern, with the number of cases of incitement trending upwards. This includes many cases of young people being encouraged to self-harm or commit suicide online.

“AI is already exacerbating risks in this area – where chatbots or those with malicious intent potentially masquerading behind convincing AI generated avatars, seek to cause serious harm, again particularly to children and young people.”

She also warned of the risks of elder abuse in the context of voluntary assisted dying when adult children or caregivers might inappropriately influence a vulnerable older person’s end-of-life decisions.

“If these decisions are being made over a carriage service, these risks will only increase without adequate safeguards,’’ she said.

Earlier, Victorian Labor MP Ryan Batchelor said the amendments sought to remove barriers to the lawful provision of human life care including a 30-year-old provision in the federal criminal code inserted by the Howard government that effectively bans the use of electronic communication and the provision of information about voluntary dying.

“These laws hinder care and cause unnecessary delays. It’s inequitable. It’s distressing, and it must change,’’ he said.

However, another opponent of the changes told the ALP conference that Telehealth is not the way for VAD to happen.

“Telehealth has its place, but it cannot be the answer to all of our health needs,’’ she said.

“When voluntary assisted dying was adopted and introduced and debated over many, many years, many people who had very real concerns were told that we’re going to be strong guardrails. And now we need to be careful that we don’t call those guardrails down bit by bit.”

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