Craig Kelly (Hughes, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I move the amendment circulated in my name.

(1) Page 21 (after line 8), at the end of Part 3, add:

17A Religious objections to COVID-19 vaccination

(1) To avoid doubt, if:

(a) conduct is engaged in because a person has not received a COVID vaccination; and

(b) the reason, or one of the reasons (whether or not it is the dominant or a substantial reason) the person has not received a COVID vaccination is that the person genuinely considers that doing so would be inconsistent with a religious belief held by the person;

then, for the purposes of this Act, the conduct is taken to be engaged in for the reason of that religious belief.

(2) This section applies in relation to conduct engaged in because a person has not received a COVID vaccination of a particular type (for example, vaccination with a particular brand of vaccine, or a first, second or third etc. booster) in the same way as this section applies in relation to conduct engaged in because a person has not received any COVID vaccination.

(3) Sections 37 and 38 do not apply to discrimination constituted by conduct to which subsection (1) of this section applies.

Vaccine passports

(4) Without limiting subsection (1), conduct is taken to be engaged in because a person has not received a COVID vaccination if:

(a) the person has not received a COVID vaccination; and

(b) the conduct is engaged in because:

(i) the person does not demonstrate that the person has received a COVID vaccination; or

(ii) does not demonstrate in a particular way (such as by producing a particular type of vaccination certificate) that the person has received a COVID vaccination.

Definitions

(5) In this section:

COVID means the coronavirus commonly known as COVID-19 (including any subsequent variants of that coronavirus).

During this debate, over many hours, I have heard many fine speeches. Most had a common theme—that all Australians should have the right to live free of discrimination. They should have the right not to be thrown out of their jobs because they have a truly held belief. There should be a right to practise your religion as you see fit, with, of course, the one proviso: that it does not cause harm to others. Today in this country there are many people who have a true and genuinely held belief that they wish to be vaccine-free and yet they are being discriminated against; they are being denied the right to participate in the Australian economy. I am talking about airline pilots, nurses, paramedics, teachers, even truck drivers and shop assistants. If we truly want a society where we end all of the discrimination, it should be across all areas. Therefore, the amendment that I seek to move would make it unlawful for a person to be discriminated against on their vaccine status if they hold a genuinely held religious belief that they wished to be vaccine-free.

I acknowledge that vaccination in general has been one of the greatest public health achievements over the last century. But the COVID vaccines, we must admit, use a novel technology that has never been tried or tested in humans before; therefore, it is only fair that citizens in a free, democratic country have the right to decide what substances they inject into their body free of coercion, free of discrimination, and this is what this amendment seeks to achieve.

The only argument against this is: does it put others at risk? Would allowing such an exemption put other Australians at risk? There may have been arguments for that six to 12 months ago, but the data now is crystal clear from around the world: if you are vaccine-free you are less likely to have COVID and less likely to spread it. For someone in my age group, the data from the UK COVID surveillance data shows I would have a double the probability of having COVID if I was vaccine-free.

I hear my good friend, the member for MacArthur, doubt that. I encourage you to get a look at that data—official data from the UK COVID health surveillance. That is clearly what official UK government data shows, so I would hope that members of this House would think about those thousands of Australians who are currently thrown out of their jobs, thrown out of their careers, doing it very tough at the moment. There are no grounds, no reason why those people should not be given the right to get back to work. That is what the amendment I propose would do. I hope it has the support of many members of this House.

See this speech in context