Tuesday, 17 October 2023

COVID-19 vaccination

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (21:59): (508) My adjournment matter this evening is for the attention of the Minister for Emergency Services. I have raised with the minister before the number of firefighters who are healthy but unvaccinated, and they are unable to return to work because of directives by the FRV. Now, it seems completely ludicrous that these individuals can go into a hospital to visit loved ones, they can go into any crowded area – into a sporting arena, into –

Melina Bath: A pub.

Georgie CROZIER: a pub, into clubs. They can –

A member: Fly internationally.

Georgie CROZIER: They can fly internationally and they can do all aspects of everyday living, yet they cannot go back to work because of an FRV directive. In a letter I have seen it talks about the measures that FRV have adopted to address the risk of transmission and infection with COVID-19 in the workplace. Twelve months ago this government provided that there was no requirement for mandatory isolation. It ended a year ago. Most people, I suspect, in this house have not had a vaccination update for many months, if not years, and yet you have got healthy, able people willing to work, wanting to work, being banned by their workplace. Is that not discrimination because of a directive by the FRV which makes no sense whatsoever? It is a disgrace. The letter I have seen goes on to say:

FRV continues to monitor the legal and occupational health and safety dimensions of the evolving COVID-19 landscape and will keep employees apprised of any material change to FRV’s approach.

Clearly they are not even budging on this, not allowing these healthy, able workers to return to work, based on some ideological bent that they have because of the ‘evolving COVID-19 landscape’, where the rest of the community can get on and live their lives and these individuals can do everything but go to work. I want to find out from the minister the legal dimensions around the ‘evolving COVID-19 landscape’ that this letter talks about and how it is impacting on the rights of those employees to be able to return to work. I want to understand what advice the minister has, so the action I seek is what advice she has had around the legal implications for the discrimination against these workers who are able to work, healthy and wanting to go back to work.