(Patriot.Buzz) – Stepping up the fight against federal overreach into American lives, a judge recently deemed the COVID-19 vaccination requirements for certain frontline workers in Queensland as not legal, citing human rights concerns.
In 2022 a group of Queensland Police Service (QPS) and Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) personnel challenged their workplace vaccination orders in the Supreme Court and refused to adhere to these mandates.
They questioned the legality of these mandates under the Judicial Review Act (JRA) and the Human Rights Act (HRA).
Although Justice Glenn Martin concluded that the challengers had not proven any aspect of the JRA, he did identify a violation of section 58 of the HRA and emphasized that public service decisions must account for human rights and align with them.
He found that the police commissioner did not follow this mandate and rendered the QPS’s vaccination directives illegitimate.
Furthermore Justice Martin determined that the health department’s chief could not justify his authority to issue the QAS vaccine mandate under their employment terms, which makes it ineffective.
QAS staff had until December 2021 to get their two vaccine doses while QPS employees had until January 2022 with exemptions possible under specific conditions.
These mandates allegedly aimed to minimize health risks to patients and the community. Similarly, the QPS mandate was established due to officers’ extensive public interactions.
Since then both mandates have been lifted.
Justice Martin recognized the significant impact of non-compliance on the challengers and instructed the police commissioner to pause any enforcement or disciplinary actions related to the QPS mandate. Likewise, he ordered Queensland Health’s director-general to cease enforcement and disciplinary proceedings for the QAS mandate.
The court’s decision was met with applause from a substantial group present for the announcement.
Outside the court police staff’s lawyer Justin Sibley celebrated the “excellent outcome” and noted the job losses faced by officers defying the mandates and the need for rebuilding within the force.
Lawyer Sam Iskander, who represented officers, ambulance staff and healthcare workers, appreciated the court’s recognition of the mandates’ unlawfulness and hoped for an end to ongoing disciplinary actions.
