Good argument Graham. I don't agree with conscription, but i would've volunteered for Vietnam had i been old enough, because my family suffered and some died under communism. I've had my 2 shots of AZ, but i don't support compulsory vaccination. I do believe that governments and employers have a responsibility to citizens and employees to mitigate threats to health and safety, whether biological or otherwise. I think the only way to respect everyone's individual freedom of choice is to give everyone working everyday face to face with public, i.e. retail sales + services including health, the choice to get vaccinated or choose alternative employment. OHS regs about personal protective equipment, seat belts, helmets are routinely accepted, even though they're nothing to do with public safety. That's infringement of individual freedom, widely accepted on economic, not ethical grounds.

If we open state boarders, depending on current vaccines to keep infection at bay, just watch the infection of both vaccinated & unvaccinated skyrocket. There is so much evidence around the world that this is so, that it is undeniable.

We all of know the Harry potter character, Lord Voldemort, "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" so to avoid being scrubbed I won't name Iv###ctin by name, but we all know that a couple of Indian provinces stopped the pandemic dead by issuing it to all citizens who had near contact with infected folk.

If we open international boarders as Morrison plans, just watch the infection rate then. Morrison & co will have to make these antivirals available then, although just watch them try to force the new, read "patented & expensive", antivirals, rather the old proven version.

This might be the chance for a party that favors the bulk of folk to arise. We could actually swim out of the swamp yet.

Dear GrahamY,

Firstly are you able to point me to where you have in the past come out passionately against the No Jab no Play rules for Childcare enrolment or the Immunisation requirements which have in the past applied for eligibility for Family Tax Benefit Part A (FTB-A) and Child Care Subsidy (CCS)?

You did fail to mention that the dissenting Justice also found:

“[57] It seems to me that if a direction in fact had been given by the respondent to the applicant to have a flu shot, any such direction would not only have been lawful it would have effectively reflected what in fact was the law as it applied in 2020 concerning employees working within NSW residential aged care facilities (subject to the exemptions within the PHOs); as a corollary, any such direction would not only have been lawful, but also reasonable.”

Which is a bit at odds with his Covid stance the main basis of which seems to be that no one should be forced to take an experimental vaccine. But Astrazeneca for instance has passed that phase and was given provisional approval in February this year.

Further the Justice quotes from the AHPPC:

[153] A statement on COVID vaccination requirements for aged care workers it issued on 4 June 2021 29 commences with the following:
“AHPPC does not recommend compulsory COVID-19 vaccines for aged care workers” (emphasis added)

However that recommendation has now changed.

“AHPPC recommends mandatory vaccinations for all workers in health care settings as a condition of work. Further, AHPPC recommends the first dose of a TGA approved COVID-19 vaccine by 30 October 2021 and a second dose by 15 December 2021. “

All that being said under normal circumstances outside a health setting, particularly aged care, I do not support vaccines being a condition of employment.

However I do accept that during a health emergency State Governments should be able to make a determination as to a vaccine requirement in some sectors for the duration of said emergency. After that the requirement should be removed.

>Mandating or coercing COVID vaccination is one of the most important civil liberties issues of my lifetime

MMmmm... vaccinations are mandatory for kids goign to school, did you complain then ?

Of course its a civil liberties issue but then so is driving on the LHS of the road, what if I want to drive in the right. will you articulate an argument to protect that right or just laugh it off ?

IMO the single biggest impingements of human rights is the need for a passport, where's the arguments agsint that or you want to keep the "riff raff" out ? much like the arguments those use for compulsory vaccination.

Civil liberty loss is a slippery slope, the compulsory vaccination movement needed to start years ago, first the came for the children, but I didn't care because I wasn't a child...

you know they can't justify it if they use safety, paedophiles or terrorism as justification, any reference to any of those is a red flag.

Graham. In my cursory analysis of the pros and cons presented here, I'm finding
[a] too much nebulous muscular individualism.
[b] a glib but indefensible reliance on dissenting and minority opinion.
[c] a partisan interpretation of word-meanings when hyperbole in national/global emergency is taken as an opportunity to accept said hyperbole as gospel under all circumstances, especially when the panic merchants, doom-sayers and agendum-pushers have been marginalised with their ratbag followers. The hype remains as if set in concrete
[d] The consequences of [a] means the strutting muscle-bound ego of the human righter has reduced his/her compassion, fellowship and plain neighbourliness, they are in limbo for the duration.

Humankind evolved as a social species and it is as a social species we have prospered to the pinnacle of a highly diverse food-chain....in a cosmic blink of an eye. Not as rugged individualists though, but as the latter we could utterly disappear in less time before the onslaught of a really awful virus. And too many experts who should know are warning this will happen without better attitudes and significant foresight in preparation.

It seems to me that stamping one's feet to draw attention to one's human rights in the face of a mild human catastrophe will look even sillier when the awful virus comes among us.

In my opinion based on the information of many experts (who have been censored, silenced), why inoculate the global population for a virus which has a high recovery rate. Protect the elderly and those with co-morbodities and let others go back to work and back to education. The inoculation does not prevent one from getting the virus, nor prevent its transmission. Look at Israel where most hospitalisations are from the double vaxxed.