Sam McMahon (NT, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about the appalling state in the Northern Territory of the vaccine mandates inflicted upon Territorians by the Gunner Labor government. In the Northern Territory anybody who has a job, who has contracts, who has a business cannot work unless they're vaccinated or they are someone who works from home and never sees another human being during the course of their day. Mr Gunner said yesterday that anyone who does not support vaccine mandates are antivaxxers. This means he's calling the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the entire government antivaxxers, which is clearly not the truth. He also went on to say that anyone who gives comfort or support to anybody who argues against the vaccines is an antivaxxer. This is disgusting. This is un-Australian and this is un-Territorian. This means that he is labelling people antivaxxers if they give comfort or support to anyone who does not wish to be vaccinated. This covers thousands of individuals, including people out on Indigenous communities who have chosen not to be vaccinated and other Territorians who for various reasons have chosen not to be. There are many Territorians who choose not to be vaccinated, not because they're being belligerent, not because they're being difficult but because they have a genuine fear and terror of being vaccinated. I might feel that their fears are unreasonable and unfounded, but to them they are real. Fears and phobias are not rational or logical. Most people who are terrified of planes have never been in a plane crash, most people who are afraid of spiders have never been bitten by a spider and most people who are afraid of heights have never fallen from a great one, yet their fears are just as real.