Premier Daniel Andrews insists Victoria's euthanasia laws will be the most conservative in the world, including unforgiving penalties for those who break the rules.
Doctors, family and friends could face a prison life sentence if they breach strict guidelines attached to the assisted dying legislation, which was introduced to parliament on Wednesday.
The historic and divisive proposal will be "the most conservative, most measured" scheme in the world, Mr Andrews said.
People will need to apply for permits to end their lives, the lethal medication should be self-administered and new crimes will aim to enforce the rules.
A doctor or person who administers medication outside the permit would face life in jail either under current homicide laws or the new offences, Attorney-General Martin Pakula said.
Anyone who tries to induce someone into applying for the scheme could spend five years in jail.
A review board and the Department of Health and Human Services will oversee the scheme.
Only Victorian adult residents with a terminal illness and a life expectancy of less than 12 months will be able to apply.
"The status-quo in my view is producing some very cruel and unnecessary outcomes with terminally ill patients taking their lives at a rate of one per week," Health Minister Jill Hennessy told reporters.
"It is the quiet voices of the vulnerable, of the dying that need to be heard and we've put the needs of those people, those patients and their families front and centre in this bill."
The bill has been two years in the making, including upper house examination, and when Mr Andrews' father died of cancer prompting the premier to shift his stance, he ordered an expert panel to investigate.
The proposed scheme is based entirely on the findings of that panel.
Ms Hennessy was still drafting the laws when her mother, a Catholic and assisted-death supporter, died several weeks ago after a decades-long struggle with multiple sclerosis.
"She would regularly talk about how frustrated she felt that her views, desire, capacity and competence to make a different decision about how she wanted the end of her life was something she felt was very unfair," Ms Hennessy told ABC radio.
Greens MP Colleen Hartland unsuccessfully pushed for assisted dying about a decade ago and said on Wednesday she expected a respectful and considered debate.
Reason Party's Fiona Patten, who supports the scheme, said the bill was an "extraordinary milestone".
Opposition leader Matthew Guy is not supporting the bill, but says his MPs can vote how they see fit.
"Every MP is human, they have a point of view, they have moral values and they have beliefs and they may not align with every other person," he said.
The bill will be read a second time on Thursday with debate expected to start in October and a conscience vote due by the end of 2017.
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