Wednesday, 29 November 2023

 Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (18:03): (637) The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care states that:

Informed consent is a person’s decision, given voluntarily, to agree to a healthcare treatment, procedure or other intervention …

It also says that:

At the commission, we believe informed consent is a key quality and safety issue.

It talks about how it is a human right. It also talks about how hospitals and day procedure services have to have informed consent to comply with legislation, law requirements and best practice. However, the COVID vaccine mandates were the biggest violation of human rights we have seen in our time in our state. Having to choose between a medical intervention or your job is coercion, yet this is happening in Victoria today. Vaccine mandates undermine the basis of ethical medical care, which is informed consent, yet this is happening in Victoria today.

Gaining informed consent is a legal, ethical and professional requirement, yet this is not happening in Victoria today. The reason I bring this up is an FOI document regarding vaccine injuries in fire and rescue has recently come to light. The information revealed in this FOI request is confronting, and what is even more concerning is how Fire Rescue Victoria and the firefighters union have conspired to suppress it. Fire Rescue Victoria is the only fire agency in Australia that still has COVID vaccine mandates and requires boosters. Their own risk assessment acknowledged the risks and side effects of the COVID vaccines and listed them, saying that other side effects may include myocarditis, pericarditis, thrombosis or immune thrombocytopenia.

I am not an anti-vaxxer, but I am anti mandate and I am unapologetically anti mandate. It is not up to your boss or your union to make a decision on your health. It is up to the individual, and today there are at least 30 firefighters who cannot work, due to their vaccination status. This should be their own private business and nobody else’s. I am worried right now for the thousands of fireys who have had this information deliberately kept from them despite repeated attempts by members to see this report. Again, this flies in the face of informed consent. Right now there are a number of firefighters in Victoria that are vaccine injured. Some are still working, and others cannot.

My adjournment is for the Minister for Emergency Services. We need all hands on deck with this fire season coming up. The action that I seek is for Fire Rescue Victoria to drop their mandates immediately.