Former Labor prime minister Paul Keating has stepped up his attack on Victorian Labor, slamming its move to legalise assisted dying which he called the "defeatism of those who think the struggle at the end of life is a struggle in vain".

Mr Keating, who attended the Sohn Hearts and Minds Investment Leaders Conference in Sydney, said one of the speakers had charted the extraordinary pace of medical knowledge which, together with lifestyle and nutritional improvements, offered the prospect of people ordinarily having life expectancies beyond 100 years of age within the the next 20 years.

Former prime minister Paul Keating in Sydney on Friday. Credit:Daniel Munoz

Buoyed by that and the narrow defeat of assisted dying legislation in the New South Wales Parliament during an all-night sitting on Thursday, Mr Keating said it was irresponsible for Victoria to be offering solutions to the ill, born of the "pessimism of suicide".

"By a whisker, the NSW upper house has preserved the country's ethical clarity," he said via a statement.