Western Victoria Region
Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (14:03): (767) My constituency question is for the Minister for Emergency Services and concerns a constituent suffering the ongoing COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Fire Rescue Victoria is the only fire service in Australia still enforcing mandatory vaccination. Their stubbornness is mystifying. Why are they such an outlier? It makes no medical sense. The last mandated dose was March 2022. It cannot be effective now. Nor does it apply to volunteers, who with the same vaccine status can work. The mandate is also contrary to Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation recommendations and ignores FRV’s suppressed risk assessment, only obtained through FOI. The Queensland Supreme Court concluded that a similar mandate contradicted human rights legislation, recognising a person’s right not to be subject to medical treatment without full, free and informed consent. Given this ruling and the fact that – (Time expired)