Russell Broadbent (Monash, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

More than 140,000 Australians have lodged, on the TGA database, adverse reactions to the not-so-safe and ineffective COVID vaccines. But thousands of these Australians have been unable to access compensation due to the scheme's overly onerous requirements and very narrow eligibility criteria—people like Tracey, who came to my office today, and Bernice, Dirk, Jason, Jerry, Joel, Kara, Karen, Linn, Margaret, Michelle, Naomi, Orida, Rado and Sandra. But Chris, a 51-year-old father of two, was more fortunate; at least, he thought he was.

With the help of a lawyer, Chris navigated his way to securing compensation after suffering horrific life-altering injuries from the COVID vaccine. This process included 12 months of compiling more than a thousand pages of documents and then a further 500 days for the claim to be assessed and settled. Chris's financial settlement is in the millions of dollars, compensating him not just for the short-term impacts of his injury but also for lost income, given he's unable to return to his career of 30 years.

But Chris's horrific story doesn't end here. It turns out his compensation will be subject to full taxation in the year the payment is received. This means that around one-third of his compensation will be lost in tax and returned to the very government that mandated these unsafe and untrialled vaccines. In my opinion this is cruel, callous and unconscionable behaviour by government and completely at odds with the intent of the compensation scheme. These compensation payments should be tax free.

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