Carlton Supporters Club

I know how you feel! I had 1 vitriolic poster suggesting I was the type who would have handed over Jewish people in Hitler's Germany for extermination. Can you believe that? It's hard to think of anything more vile, vitriolic and despicable than invoking the holocaust in that way. You'd think someone like that should have spent a bit of time reflecting on his behaviour.

Thryleon, that’s 1 guy’s legal opinion and when cases come to court they are matched by an opposing legal submission which will also be incredibly well written and perhaps even more so. This is the sort of dispute that’s currently being heard by the NSW Supreme Court. When decisions start coming out of superior courts, we’ll have the answer about the legal enforceability of vaccine mandates.

Let’s acknowledge that no one will be physically or even legally forced to take the vaccine. Suggestions to the contrary are pure rhetoric. Like it or not, that’s a pretty major factor in challenging vaccine mandates.

As for blaming a failure of governments to educate, the old saying is apt: “A lie gets halfway around the world before truth puts on its boots”. No government has found a way to counter the firehouse of lies and disinformation through social media. Imagine how hard it would be for a regional government to fund an education campaign that would target its electorate as comprehensively as global anti-vaxxer propaganda. No doubt Government websites throughout Australia would educate anyone who bothers to access them. The media has educated the public via extensive interviews with epidemiologists and doctors. How do you educate someone who doesn't watch those interviews but instead binge-watches antivax propaganda promoted by algorithms whose sole aim is to keep people engaged with its site's content? 

Great to see you setting such a fine example when it comes to inflammatory and vitriolic remarks. You're nothing but a hypocrite.

Gee, takes one to know one ... that takes me back to primary school days. Didn't you get suspended after your Hitler comment (not that I sought or wished that)? At least you had a bit of time to reflect (though it didn't seem you used the time all that well).

Human rights issues

Section 10(c) states that a person must not be subjected to medical treatment without his or her full, free, and informed consent. Because vaccination is a medical procedure, forcing a person to be vaccinated against his or her will is a clear violation of this right.

Section 12 states that every person lawfully within Victoria has the right to move freely within Victoria and to enter and leave it, and has the freedom to choose where to live. Requiring that a person may not travel to his or her place of employment without being vaccinated limits this right.

Section 13 states that a person has the right not to have his or her privacy unlawfully or arbitrarily interfered with. Requiring a person to disclose his or her vaccination status to an employer or a government agency potentially limits this right.

Section 14 states that every person has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief, and that a person must not be coerced or restrained in a way that limits his or her freedom to have or adopt a religion or belief in observance or practice. Conscience is a person’s conviction as to what is right and wrong. Some people may object on political grounds, believing that it is not the proper role of government to force people to be vaccinated, even if they do not object in principle to vaccination. Some people are genuinely concerned that receiving a vaccination poses a substantial risk of physical injury or harm. Some people may object on religious grounds to being vaccinated — for example, because tissue or cells from aborted foetuses have been used in the development of the vaccines. For all these categories of people, forcing a person to be vaccinated violates that person’s freedom of conscience or religious beliefs, or forces them to do something they believe is potentially harmful.

Underlying all the rights protected by the Charter Act is the concept of autonomy and dignity. Each person has the right to determine for himself or herself matters of bodily integrity including whether to be vaccinated.

But according to Brett Holmes, the general secretary of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association, opposition to mandates among staff have been overblown. Holmes said that while a small number of his members had resigned after the mandate, feedback suggested many of those were leaving the industry because of what he called “pandemic fatigue”.

But Holmes is concerned about staff shortages. In northern NSW, often held up as a stronghold of vaccine hesitancy, he said shortages had been a problem long before the pandemic.