Mandates Ruled Unlawful in QLD – Duh!

A few years ago, back during the dark days of the pestilence, I remember the university I worked for sending out an email with a link to a survey that all employees had to fill out. It asked whether we would be comfortable around coworkers and students who had not taken the prescribed medication. They were obviously probing for information to see whether they had the numbers to implement a mandate. This in itself means it wasn’t about health in their eyes, it was about popularity. Were there enough people on campus who would support them? If the prescribed medical procedure was vital to the survival of the university, then they needn’t have asked, they should have just dictated it. Thank God, sanity prevailed and they didn’t implement it. Enough of my colleagues responded in such a way that the university thought they would have gotten too much pushback. People power won the day.

However, the state government implemented a rule, stating that only those that took their medicine were allowed to attend coffee shops and the like. So although I was allowed to enter the university proper, I was forbidden from entering the university coffee shop. I was deemed unclean by the powers that be, a risk to everyone’s health. Even though I sat next to people in the office, I was not allowed to sit next to those very same people in the presence of coffee. Yes, it’s laughable when you look back at it. Honestly, I didn’t care. “Good!” I thought. I can save some money by not buying overpriced coffee and sandwiches. By the way, that cafe has since closed. The Government with their stupid rules destroyed them, as they did with many other small businesses around Australia.

As a university employee, I got off fairly lightly, but other workers didn’t fare so well. Many workers had to take the prescribed medicine or else lose their jobs. It was coercive, it was wrong, it was a breach of human rights, but at the time, if you dared say such a thing, you were shouted down and called any number of names. Dissent wasn’t allowed.

But yesterday, a bit of vindication or redress, a Queensland Supreme Court judge ruled that a certain government-implemented mandate for frontline workers was unlawful. Not only was it unlawful, it breached human rights. All I’ve got to say is duh! At the time, in my opinion, it was obvious, and I made many videos saying as such. But unfortunately, people capitulated and let it happen. Not everyone of course, but the majority of people did. But as we saw at my university, enough people said no, and they were forced to not implement the mandate.

Justice Glenn Martin ruled that the Queensland Police Service and Queensland Ambulance Service policies breached part of the Human Rights Act, specifically, section 58 which requires you to act and make decisions compatibly with human rights. Justice Glenn Martin found Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll failed to comply with this section of the act, and therefore ruled that her directions were unlawful. That doesn’t sound right. A police commissioner breaking the law? It should be noted that Commissioner Carroll announced last week that she is resigning as of Friday 1 March 2024.

Queensland Health Minister Shannon Fentiman, you know, the one that defines the word woman as anybody who identifies as a woman, said she wanted to make it “very clear” that the ruling did not find the mandatory medical procedure contrary to the Human Rights Act, but that the directions were issued unlawfully. Hmm, sounds like a bit of political spin to me. “It was lawful, and it was compatible with human rights, but there was insufficient evidence to demonstrate that it was a reasonable direction under the employment contract”. You know what would have been nicer: “Sorry, we made a mistake. Here’s some compensation.” But no, of course not. The Government will never apologise.

Criminal lawyer and former Queensland Law Society president Bill Potts said, “The decision is a very live can of worms as to whether the workers involved can request compensation. It would be a matter for the courts whether the workers would be able to successfully receive compensation for loss of employment or lost and suffered damages.”

Even the United Nations make it very clear: “Human rights require bodily autonomy for all – at all times.” There’s no excuses. There’s not emergencies that can take away this right. The only way this right is taken away from us, if if we capitulate and let them take it from us.

Anyway, this Supreme Court ruling is good news, even if it’s only just a start. But I think the Government should start to question how it treats its citizens from now on. Of course, we can’t trust them to do this, so the only advice I can give is that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

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Allégro by Emmit Fenn