Terminally ill people in the state will be able to access drugs to end their own lives after the state legislature voted to legalise the practice.

The voluntary assisted dying law passed with a majority of 61 votes in the Queensland Parliament, with 30 votes against.

The result was met with applause from the public gallery.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles said Queenslanders “who are suffering and dying deserve to have choice and autonomy about their end of life”.

“This bill is fundamentally about compassion, but it is also about giving back control to people who have had their autonomy stripped from them by illness,” he said.

“Anyone who has watched a loved one die in prolonged pain knows what a bad death looks like. Why make a rational adult who is begging to die quickly, die slowly instead?”

The scheme will come into effect in January next year and will bring the state into line with Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia.