Vaccination war of words

As the Victorian government said the lockdown will remain in place and increased its calls for vaccination, Russell Broadbent, Federal Liberal member for Monash has spoken out against the current Victorian lockdown, saying it is crippling the economy.

He also criticised the idea of “vaccination passports”, saying it removed the basic human right of freedom of movement, and that calls for mandatory vaccinations for some workplaces threatened people’s jobs.

Last Friday, Premier Daniel Andrews said people who choose not to be vaccinated would not be able to enjoy the same freedoms as fully vaccinated people, once the state began to open up.

“We are not going to lock the whole state down to protect the people who won’t protect themselves,” Premier Andrews said at the daily press conference.

He hinted that only vaccinated people would be able to buy tickets to certain entertainment and sporting events once restrictions start to ease. He also said trials could be undertaken in regional areas in the coming weeks, “we will do some industry pilots quite soon”, which would only be open to those who are vaccinated.

In addition, National Cabinet has commissioned the state governments to develop a vaccine passport, with Victoria, Tasmania and Northern Territory working together on the concept, including what “not being vaccinated might mean from a rules point of view”, Premier Andrews said.

National Cabinet has already flagged the use of vaccine passports to regulate domestic travel and recent polling by The Guardian newspaper showed the majority of Australians support the proposal.

However Mr Broadbent doesn’t agree with the concept and said people who choose not to be vaccinated were putting only themselves at risk.

In his weekly video message, he quoted Harvard Medical School professional Martin Kulldorff who claims natural immunity offered more protection than vaccines, which meant vaccination passports were unscientific, discriminatory and unethical.

“It’s a massive government over-reach,” Mr Broadbent said.

“This proposal of vaccine passports which stabs at the heart of our freedom must be defeated.”

In the weekly post on his website, Mr Broadbent also said people were “threatened by the demand to vaccinate their children”, which he said was unwarranted, as children were not severely affected by the disease.

However other research, including from the Gemelli University Hospital in Rome, and the UK Office of National Statistics, has shown more than a third of children who contracted Covid suffered ongoing health issues, or “long Covid”, and that the long-term effects on children needed to be closely studied.