Say "No!" to the mandating of the COVID vaccines
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LATEST UPDATE:
Thank-you to all who have supported us in our first legal challenge to determine whether the mandate was lawful. We started disputes under our certified agreements which the QPS did not recognise. So, we went to the QIRC for conciliation. The QIRC referred the matter to the full bench and we were given only 5 days to prepare for a final hearing.
All the while various named applicants of the group and other QPS employees were having disciplinary processes served on them. These had the effect of standing us down with pay but will eventually mean we are stood down without pay and probably terminated. The QPUE also became involved in the case and backed the employer against us with our union fees.
Most of us came to the final hearing and so it came as no surprise that the QIRC found against the QPS employees. We still think that that there were only two lawful ways for our employer to impose a mandate for the COVID-19 vaccine. Either have parliament pass a law or apply to have the QIRC amend our certified agreements. We dispute that our employer has power to make a third option in the form of this mandate. We are disappointed in the outcome, but we are not giving up.
Most of us have had no experience with litigation of the sort we are currently involved in. In this field, we are just everyday Australian workers up against the combined might of the State of Queensland and our own union. As workers that oppose mandates believing in personal choice without coercion, many of us are being bullied, isolated and shunned instead of our personal choice being respected.
No one in power is standing up for the Australian worker. Our employer is not concerned about us nor our values and beliefs after years and decades of service to our communities. We are currently being disciplined by our employer for exercising our lawful rights. Most of us had legitimate exemption applications denied. Our union uses our years of contributions against us. Our politicians are silent. The media paints us as anti-vaxxers (we are not). Most lawyers won’t help us because it’s bad for their optics. Our GP’s and doctors won’t issue exemptions because it’s too risky for their licenses.
Despite us not earning enough to be seen as a group to be listened to by those in power, we still matter. We are people - husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, who deserve better from our country’s institutions. We still have our individual liberty (at a higher price each day). We are still equal before the law, or should be. Our government though unrecognisable is still elected by us for us, they do not rule us.
This matters. If we lose, every worker loses. That is why we will continue to fight until we have exhausted all legal options open to us. We should not need to go to court to determine that a mandate is wrong, but we will until we are found to be right.
Thank-you to all who have supported us in our first legal challenge to determine whether the mandate was lawful. We started disputes under our certified agreements which the QPS did not recognise. So, we went to the QIRC for conciliation. The QIRC referred the matter to the full bench and we were given only 5 days to prepare for a final hearing.
All the while various named applicants of the group and other QPS employees were having disciplinary processes served on them. These had the effect of standing us down with pay but will eventually mean we are stood down without pay and probably terminated. The QPUE also became involved in the case and backed the employer against us with our union fees.
Most of us came to the final hearing and so it came as no surprise that the QIRC found against the QPS employees. We still think that that there were only two lawful ways for our employer to impose a mandate for the COVID-19 vaccine. Either have parliament pass a law or apply to have the QIRC amend our certified agreements. We dispute that our employer has power to make a third option in the form of this mandate. We are disappointed in the outcome, but we are not giving up.
Most of us have had no experience with litigation of the sort we are currently involved in. In this field, we are just everyday Australian workers up against the combined might of the State of Queensland and our own union. As workers that oppose mandates believing in personal choice without coercion, many of us are being bullied, isolated and shunned instead of our personal choice being respected.
No one in power is standing up for the Australian worker. Our employer is not concerned about us nor our values and beliefs after years and decades of service to our communities. We are currently being disciplined by our employer for exercising our lawful rights. Most of us had legitimate exemption applications denied. Our union uses our years of contributions against us. Our politicians are silent. The media paints us as anti-vaxxers (we are not). Most lawyers won’t help us because it’s bad for their optics. Our GP’s and doctors won’t issue exemptions because it’s too risky for their licenses.
Despite us not earning enough to be seen as a group to be listened to by those in power, we still matter. We are people - husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, who deserve better from our country’s institutions. We still have our individual liberty (at a higher price each day). We are still equal before the law, or should be. Our government though unrecognisable is still elected by us for us, they do not rule us.
This matters. If we lose, every worker loses. That is why we will continue to fight until we have exhausted all legal options open to us. We should not need to go to court to determine that a mandate is wrong, but we will until we are found to be right.
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ORIGINAL STATEMENT:
We are a group of concerned Queensland Police Service (QPS) employees and their families who disagree with the recent COVID-19 vaccine mandate of our employer: the QPS.
We are not pro- or anti- the vaccine. This is not a pro- or anti- vaccine matter. It is a question of whether our employers, on behalf of the government, can authorise civil conscription and interfere with the relationship between a patient and their doctor by mandating a vaccine. Our country has a representative democratic government structured to afford its citizens legal protection against the exercise of arbitrary political power.
The Australian Immunisation Handbook states vaccines ‘must be given voluntarily in the absence of undue pressure, coercion or manipulation’.
We consider it to be the case that a mandatory vaccination policy at the initiative of an employer is incompatible with our workplace rights as employees and that it infringes upon our rights to give free and informed consent to a medical procedure.
The point is aptly framed by Webb J in British Medical Association v Commonwealth:
“If Parliament cannot lawfully do this directly by legal means it cannot lawfully do it indirectly by creating a situation, as distinct from merely taking advantage of one, in which the individual is left with no real choice but compliance.”
We seek donations from the Australian community at large who support this cause to help us meet the legal costs associated with testing the validity of this mandate.
Our group of dedicated QPS Employees and their families (the Group) has taken the first step and engaged a law practice to provide us with a legal advice. It will set out:
The Group’s rights at law; and
Whether those rights have been infringed upon; and
The potential remedies available to the Group; and
How the Group should reserve and assert those rights.
We are not pro- or anti- the vaccine. This is not a pro- or anti- vaccine matter. It is a question of whether our employers, on behalf of the government, can authorise civil conscription and interfere with the relationship between a patient and their doctor by mandating a vaccine. Our country has a representative democratic government structured to afford its citizens legal protection against the exercise of arbitrary political power.
The Australian Immunisation Handbook states vaccines ‘must be given voluntarily in the absence of undue pressure, coercion or manipulation’.
We consider it to be the case that a mandatory vaccination policy at the initiative of an employer is incompatible with our workplace rights as employees and that it infringes upon our rights to give free and informed consent to a medical procedure.
The point is aptly framed by Webb J in British Medical Association v Commonwealth:
“If Parliament cannot lawfully do this directly by legal means it cannot lawfully do it indirectly by creating a situation, as distinct from merely taking advantage of one, in which the individual is left with no real choice but compliance.”
We seek donations from the Australian community at large who support this cause to help us meet the legal costs associated with testing the validity of this mandate.
Our group of dedicated QPS Employees and their families (the Group) has taken the first step and engaged a law practice to provide us with a legal advice. It will set out:
The Group’s rights at law; and
Whether those rights have been infringed upon; and
The potential remedies available to the Group; and
How the Group should reserve and assert those rights.
We need to raise at least $22,000 to receive this advice. All donations received will be held on behalf of the Group and will be used to cover the legal costs for this advice and any subsequent litigation for QPS employees.
Even if you are not a QPS employee or family member, this affects you. We believe acquiescence with a vaccine mandate will set a dangerous precedent for our country.
Today, it is a vaccine. Today, it is us on the line. What will it be tomorrow? Who will it be tomorrow?
Organizer
A Concerned Australian
Organizer
Woodwark, QLD