By Rex Martinich For Australian Associated Press and Olivia Day For Daily Mail Australia
A court has found Queensland police and ambulance workers were given unlawful directions to get Covid-19 vaccines or face potential disciplinary action.
Covid-19 vaccine mandates for Queensland police and ambulance service workers were made unlawfully, the state’s Supreme Court has found.
The court on Tuesday delivered its judgments in three lawsuits brought by 86 parties against Queensland Police Service and Queensland Ambulance Service for their directions to workers issued in 2021 and 2022.
The judgements did not make a ruling or attempt to make a decision about the transmissibility of a particular variant of Covid-19 or the efficacy of a particular vaccine.
A court has found Queensland police and ambulance workers were given unlawful directions to get Covid-19 vaccines (pictured, a nurse is vaccinated in Townsville, Queensland)
Covid-19 vaccine mandates for Queensland police and ambulance service workers were made unlawfully, the state’s Supreme Court found this week
The prior directions required emergency service workers to receive Covid-19 vaccines and booster shots or face potential disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment.
The court found Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll failed to give proper consideration to human rights relevant to the decision to issue the vaccine mandate.
Former Department of Health director-general Dr John Wakefield was unable to prove he issued the vaccine mandate under an implied term of the employment agreements for ambulance service workers.
As a result, both vaccine mandates were found by the court to be ‘unlawful’ and to have no effect.
The court also found the directions limited the human rights of workers because they were required to undergo a medical procedure without full consent but it was reasonable in all the circumstances.
Senior Judge Administrator Glenn Martin said the police and ambulance services were trying to prevent their employees from suffering infection, serious illness and life-changing health consequences.
‘The balance between the importance of the purpose of the limitation, and the importance of preserving the human right… is complicated by the fact that these directions were given in what was, by any measure, an emergency,’ he said.
It comes just weeks after a public servant who was forced to get a Covid vaccination to keep his job won a major legal battle and received compensation.
The court found Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll (pictured) failed to give proper consideration to human rights relevant to the decision to issue the vaccine mandate
It comes just weeks after a public servant who was forced to get a Covid vaccination to keep his job won a major legal battle and received compensation for his medical expenses
Daniel Shepherd, 44, received two Covid-19 vaccinations when he was a youth worker at Baptist Care South Australia in 2021 and suffered adverse reactions.
The father of one started a new job with the Department for Child Protection (DCP) on October 19 that year, but was told on January 28, 2022, that he had to get a booster shot to keep his job as a child and youth worker.
Mr Shepherd was given a Pfizer mRNA jab on February 24, 2022, but a day later he had serious chest pains.
The pain kept getting worse until March 11, when he thought he was having a heart attack and was rushed to Adelaide’s Ashford Hospital. There he was diagnosed with post-vaccine pericarditis – an inflammation of the membrane around the heart.
The illness meant Mr Shepherd was only able to work for a few months in a part-time administrative capacity.
In a landmark ruling, the judge ordered that Mr Shepherd should get weekly income support payments and the payment of medical expenses.
The ruling came despite SA Health still enforcing a mandatory Covid vaccination policy for some employees, even though other states dropped similar policies.
