COVID-19 Vaccination

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (14:59): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Health and Wellbeing regarding health.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.E. HANSON: Senator Antic said last week, and I quote:

People are being coerced into taking COVID vaccinations against their will. In South Australia thousands of people are being stood down from their employment because they have elected to exercise their right to refuse the vaccine. What is happening is wrong. The federal parliament must act to protect the freedom of Australians to choose their own way of life without interference from government, corporate Australia and bureaucracies with authoritarian tenancies.

Senator Antic has also today been revealed as the surprise keynote speaker at an Adelaide freedom rally, which is scheduled in Adelaide to denounce vaccine mandates. My questions to the minister are:

1. Will the minister publicly denounce the comments from Liberal Senator Alex Antic, who has decried the emergency directions in South Australia?

2. Does the minister believe that Senator Antic is jeopardising the public health response?

3. Is the minister concerned that Senator Antic is the keynote speaker at the Adelaide freedom rally?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:00): The Premier, the Chief Public Health Officer and I share a common view that vaccination should not be generally mandated, and that is particularly true in relation to COVID-19. It is important that people see this as a procedure that benefits them, protects their loved ones and the wider community. The Premier has consistently outlined the view of this government, which is that vaccinations should continue to be free and voluntary and only mandated consistent with national cabinet advice and with specific health advice.

In terms of the basic principle, which is a fundamental principle of the Liberal Party, that we uphold people's individual rights, that is certainly our perspective, but a key context for individual rights, expressed by J.S. Mill—I will not try to quote it exactly—is that people have the right to take actions, as long as their actions do not cause harm to others. So in the context of mandatory vaccination, the State Coordinator has been mandating vaccinations, but very much in the context where a person's failure to be vaccinated would constitute a risk to others.