A bill to legalise euthanasia in Victoria has passed the state's lower house 47 to 37, sending the legislation to the upper house where it could become law.
The vote came after a marathon debate which ran overnight on Thursday and resulted in emotional and heated scenes among parliamentarians.
The proposed law would allow people who are over 18, sound of mind and with a terminal illness to request lethal medication if they have no more than 12 months to live and are suffering intolerably.
If it is passed, Victoria will become the first jurisdiction in Australia to legalise assisted dying.
Premier Daniel Andrews spoke in favour of the bill this week, giving an emotional account of what it was like to watch his father die in palliative care and how it changed his mind on euthanasia.
"Only when you've experienced something like that, only when you've seen someone you love succumb to, feebly and painfully, to what some people might even describe as a good death, you start to think 'what on earth must qualify as a bad death'," he told the chamber.
Andrews' deputy premier James Merlino, who is strongly opposed to the legislation, attempted unsuccessfully to block the bill in the lower house.
The debate has also seen interventions from former prime minister Paul Keating, who penned an op-ed for Fairfax in which he argued the bill "stands for everything a truly civil society should stand against".
During the debate, opponents to the legislation proposed over 100 amendments, each of which failed.
Speaking after the final vote, Andrews said that none of those amendments needed to be passed.
"We’ve had a process led by experts, run by experts," he said. "This has been carefully done. It’s been done in a considered way."
"Public life for me, politics, and the great gift we’ve been given as the government of the state, is about getting big and important things done. For me and many Victorians, this is not just a big reform but a very important reform."
All Victorian MPs have a conscience vote on the legislation. It now goes to the upper house for further debate.