Mandating vaccines for frontlines workers ruled unlawful

A judge has ruled that mandating covid vaccines for some Queensland frontline workers was unlawful based on human rights grounds.

Transcript

00:00 All cheers and smiles as these police officers and paramedics celebrate a legal win.

00:07 That decision that the QAS and QPS's mandated vaccination policies breached part of the

00:19 Human Rights Act. Because of this, a Supreme Court judge ruled the directive by the Police

00:24 Commissioner during the pandemic was unlawful. The direction given around the same time by

00:30 the Director-General of Health was also found to be ineffective and of no force.

00:35 They've been vindicated, a lot of them, some of them have been facing disciplinary proceedings

00:41 and hopefully now that will see an end to all of that. So, yeah, it's a good win.

00:48 Several other grounds argued by the groups were not established, including limitations

00:52 placed on their human rights to not be forced into medical treatment.

00:57 In a summary of his lengthy judgement, Justice Glenn Martin said although each of the directions

01:03 limited the rights of requiring an employee to undergo a vaccination without their full,

01:09 free and informed consent, the limit was reasonable in all the circumstances.

01:14 I just want to make it very clear, we're considering the decision, but it was a decision about

01:20 how directions were issued, not the fact that mandatory COVID vaccinations were contrary

01:26 to human rights. This is the first legal test of many challenging

01:30 their workplace mandates in Queensland and many cases are still pending. But for now,

01:36 the ones in this case will no longer face any disciplinary proceedings.

01:42 Mandates for both organisations have since been lifted, but for some workers, the damage

01:47 has already been done. I think there's a lot of rebuilding to be

01:50 done and hopefully whoever the new commissioner is will sit upon that task with gusto.

01:54 In a statement, a police spokesperson said the service acknowledged the court outcome

01:59 and would carefully consider its options moving forward.

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