Labor will come under pressure to implement changes to its national policy platform and allow Australians to access voluntary assisted dying through telehealth services, with the Greens and independent Kate Chaney to introduce legislation.

Last week’s national conference in Adelaide changed the ALP platform and committed Labor to overturn a Howard-era law banning people from having medical appointments regarding euthanasia via telehealth services.

New language added to the platform suggests Labor MPs would have a conscience vote on the issue, but the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said on Sunday the government might not progress laws through parliament.

The party’s platform is a set of policy principles but changes are not always immediately reflected in government legislation.

Albanese said while he supported assisted dying, also known as voluntary euthanasia, he believed the telehealth change risked undermining proper medical safeguards.

“It is important that people have the right to die … with dignity,” he told ABC TV.

“But it’s also important that protections are placed around it. Now, if someone has a heart attack or an acute health condition, they need a doctor. They can’t do that over telehealth.

“I think someone ending their life is just as important. I think it should be face-to-face recognition and face-to-face engagement. My concern is … the potential for misuse but also the potential it has to undermine the system itself.”

Asked if the federal government would move to change the law to reflect the updated national platform, Albanese said the cabinet would decide on whether new legislation would be drafted, in consultation with MPs.

“Governments determine what governments do around our cabinet table. What the conference does is put the general direction of what they want, and it’s clear that it’s a matter of conscience,” he said.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young on Sunday indicated she would quickly move ahead with a private member’s bill on the issue, an apparent attempt to force Labor’s hand.

The Curtin MP, Kate Chaney, had said on Friday that she would move to reintroduce her own private member’s bill in the lower house, saying it would give Labor “the earliest opportunity to bring this cruel anomaly to an end and give country people the same access as Australians in the big cities”.

“This overdue change in Labor policy on voluntary assisted dying should mean an end to the needless suffering of people in the final stages of life, particularly for those in regional areas who are currently forced to travel, sometimes repeatedly, just to access lawful medical care,” she said.

Doctors and advocates for voluntary assisted dying have long called for changes, arguing the telehealth ban adversely affects patients who live in rural and remote areas, and those whose conditions limit their movement or make travel painful.

The federal criminal code prohibits the use of a carriage service to incite or encourage suicide, so health professionals risk breaking the law if they use telecommunications for many aspects of the VAD process.

Fines of up to $300,000 are also possible for breaches of the law.

Labor’s updated national platform says the party will “remove barriers that exist in federal law to the provision of end-of-life care (including via telehealth) as part of lawful access to voluntary assisted dying in the states and territories, while maintaining appropriate clinical safeguards”.

It also guarantees a conscience vote on the issue, where MPs are not bound by the government’s position on a bill.