In dying, James Valentine taught us how to live<\/a><\/p>\nJames helped us make sense of life and gave us permission to laugh at the absurdity of it all \u2014 and ourselves.<\/p>\n
“So many people are traumatised by the very word ‘death’ and certainly the word ‘cancer’ that they shut down. And I think James modelled something very healthy,” he said.<\/p>\n
For Valentine’s wife Joanne and their two children, Ruby and Roy, they said they felt grateful he was “given the option to go out on his own terms”.<\/p>\n
“In his final moments, he was still concerned about making a difference and that was something that was so important to him,” Ruby told 702 ABC Sydney.<\/p>\n
“He wanted it to be something that people knew that he did, that \u2026 he could lend his voice to the argument of why this is such a necessary thing for so many people.”‘People need to know about it’<\/p>\n
VAD in Australia is heavily safeguarded and governed by some of the strictest laws in the world.<\/p>\n
Queensland and NSW now account for almost two-thirds of all assisted deaths in Australia.<\/p>\n
The Northern Territory is the only jurisdiction in Australia where VAD remains illegal. A commitment has been made, however, by the territory government to draft and debate VAD legislation in 2026.<\/p>\n
Denton founded national charity Go Gentle Australia, which provides information and education on end-of-life choices.<\/p>\n
![\"Andrew](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/409c4eeba0790afe52008d3e1d1e65e3.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Andrew Denton has spoken fondly of James Valentine and his lasting legacy. (AAP: David Mariuz)<\/p>\n
Their 2026 State of VAD report highlighted key barriers to access for eligible people, such as process complexity and difficulties in finding trained practitioners in regional and rural locations.<\/p>\n
Research from Queensland University of Technology in 2025 found only 62 per cent of Queensland health practitioners surveyed correctly identified that VAD was legal in their state.<\/p>\n
Go Gentle Australia CEO Linda Swan said education remained critical.<\/p>\n
“We clearly have strong evidence now that the voluntary assisted dying laws that have been legal in Australia for over six years are delivering safe, careful, compassionate care,” Dr Swan said.<\/p>\n
“People need to know about it.”<\/p>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/a39b1a893c695108ada905e1feab2fb4.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Linda Swan urged Australians to have a conversation with their families, carers and health professionals about end of life choices. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
Federal roadblock remains, says advocate<\/p>\n
In NSW in particular, there are VAD care pathways in place across all 15 local health districts and a centralised navigation service, Dying with Dignity NSW president Penny Hackett said.<\/p>\n
An issue across the country, however, is the federal restrictions of electronic communication in the VAD process.<\/p>\n
The Criminal Code Act made it an offence to use a carriage service to publish or distribute material that counsels or incites a person to suicide.<\/p>\n
A technicality, in theory, means no conversations about the delivery or administration of a VAD substance can therefore take place over the phone, video call or email between a practitioner and patient.<\/p>\n
Experts and Australian suicide prevention organisations agree VAD should not be described as suicide because conflating the two can be damaging.<\/p>\n
“The ban on telehealth for voluntary assisted dying consultations causes an access issue in regional areas,” Ms Hackett said.<\/p>\n
“We have been pushing for years to try and get it overturned.”<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/de137cdbb30667ee4d4d850a51fca578.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Penny Hackett says advocates believe the ban on telehealth for voluntary assisted dying must change. (AAP: Joel Carrett\u00a0)<\/p>\n
Ms Hackett said many end-of-life care advocates were grateful to Valentine and his family for their “generous gift” in opening up the conversation.<\/p>\n
“People just don’t want to talk about death and dying,” she said.<\/p>\n
“For people generally, VAD or no VAD, the more openly you can express your wishes, the better your end of life is going to be.<\/p>\n
“The generous gift that James and his family have given us is a really significant moment in terms of getting those discussions going.”<\/p>\n
Dr Swan added: “I’m sure he and his family were very proud of the impact he had.<\/p>\n
“His family said he was still making them laugh right at the very end. That’s such a lovely way to remember someone.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A master behind the microphone, James Valentine’s legacy from effortlessly connecting with audiences to spotlighting jazz now extends…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[304946,64,63,304949,304944,134,304938,304937,304943,206806,304941,304939,304945,304942,304940,304948,304947,85151,304933,304932,85152,304936,304934,304935],"class_list":["post-629347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-andrew-denton","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dr-linda-swan","tag-dying-with-dignity-nsw","tag-entertainment","tag-euthanasia-in-nsw","tag-euthanasia-laws","tag-go-gentle-australia","tag-james-valentine","tag-james-valentine-abc","tag-james-valentine-death","tag-james-valentine-kids","tag-james-valentine-radio","tag-james-valentine-vad","tag-penny-hackett","tag-ruby-valentine","tag-vad","tag-vad-explained","tag-vad-in-nsw","tag-voluntary-assisted-dying","tag-voluntary-assisted-dying-in-nsw","tag-what-is-vad","tag-what-is-voluntary-assisted-dying"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777094354_765_e69044e051d2a3bfd288c6a0f7f37acd.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n