A Queensland inquiry into aged care and assisted dying should be held as soon as possible, advocates say.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced on Sunday that a wide-ranging parliamentary review would look at a range of issues including palliative care and assisted dying for terminally ill adults.
The announcement comes after Victoria passed assisted dying laws last year and a parliamentary committee recently recommended the introduction of legislation in Western Australia.
Clem Jones Trust chair David Muir said the announcement was "not before time".
He said the government should begin the inquiry as early as this week in order to prevent people being forced to take their own lives in painful ways.
"The premier needs to start this inquiry as soon as possible... and it's important that the inquiry be an inclusive inquiry to hear all schools of thought," he told ABC radio on Monday.
"There's an urgency because as revealed by the coroner in the parliamentary inquiry in Victoria, each week in Victoria there's somebody taking life into their own hands by killing themselves in brutal and terrible and lonely circumstances, so there's been damage done by delay."
However, Deputy Premier Jackie Trad said the inquiry would not begin until its moves to change abortion laws are finalised.
The government introduced laws to decriminalise abortion to state parliament last month, with the bill expected to be debated and passed before the end of the year.
"Rather than do two inquiries poorly we'll do one after the other," Ms Trad said on Monday.
The Liberal National Party opposition's official position is against voluntary assisted dying.
The party says there are more pressing issues to be addressed, such as congestion and cost of living.
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