Just when you thought nobody, not even your established union was on your side, along came the Nurses Professional Association of Queensland. Filmed September 2021 during the 'pandemic'. Presented by Jack McGuire.
TRANSCRIPT:
(This is derived from an automated process. The video recording is authoritative.)
Thanks very much, and thanks very much for having me. Um, just from the top, uh, unfortunately, some of the stuff we're talking about here will be Chatham House rules. Um, one of the legal strategies in particular, um, needs to have a lid kept on it because, uh, if it gets out, um, it could be perceived as not being done in good faith, and that ruins the entire legal strategy. So, um, we do have another legal strategy, which isn't so Chatham House. Um, and there's a lot of other things that we're doing, um, to try and fight this, um, that I'll go through. But, um, I guess just from the outset, um, in terms of the law, I'll be brutally honest, it isn't great. Um, we're certainly fighting an uphill battle, um, but we are doing everything that we can and we're throwing the kitchen sink at it, um, no matter what. Um, and as I said, we're sort of thinking creatively and outside of the box about how we can, uh, attack this as well. Um, but I thought I'd just be upfront and frank with you to begin with. Um, so I am Jack McGuire. Um, I'm, uh, both the Secretary of the Teachers Professional Association of Queensland.
So we're an alternative to the Queensland Teachers Union and the Queensland Independent Education Union. Um, and I'm also the managing director of the, uh, Red Union, uh, group, or the Red Union Support Hub.
We provide all the services to the TPAQ, the, uh, Nurses Professional Association at Queensland, uh, and a, uh, Professional Drivers Association. So, uh, we have, I think about 8,000 now, uh, nurses in the nursing union. Uh, 500 in the teacher's union. It's only just started, uh, sort of two years ago, just at the very beginning of covid. Uh, and we've also got, uh, about a hundred in the bus drivers union. Um, we, uh, as I said, provide all the legal services. We, um, as, as a union, provide the exact same services. And, and we are a trade union, uh, everything that you would expect of your traditional union, the Queensland Nurses Union, or of the Queensland Teachers Union.
We negotiate wages, uh, we provide professional indemnity insurance. Um, some unions, particularly in the teaching space, don't provide professional indemnity insurance. So we offer, uh, in some circumstances even greater protection. Um, and our main difference though, is that we offer, uh, membership to our unions at roughly half the price.
So I think as a nurse in the Queensland Nurses Union, it's around $700 or so. Uh, we're, we're $442 per annum. Uh, and we stake that down to baking into each of our constitutions for each of our associations, the inability, uh, to provide, uh, financial or in-kind support to political parties.
So we remain avowedly apolitical. If we see, um, a shin that needs to be kicked, we'll kick it. Um, but, uh, we certainly aren't in bed with a political party.
We're not prop propping up a political party. Uh, and all of our money, uh, that we collect from members go back into supporting members. Um, unashamedly, um, we're in a bit of a funny position or a tricky position. I, I apologize in advance that if, uh, the presentation isn't, isn't so up to scratch, we usually try, usually hold ourselves up to a more professional standard. But, um, uh, when trying to do this, uh, presentation, we were, uh, hit with a curve ball, and that was the latest mandate from Queensland Health saying that it's now mandatory requirement to get the jab across all Queensland Health facilities.
So that happened over the weekend, and we're now, uh, have been experiencing unprecedented growth, um, which is a, a good thing and a bad thing, I guess. Um, we've had, uh, our biggest Sunday on record ever on Sunday. Yesterday we had our, our largest growth day for members ever had over a hundred members in a day. Um, uh, and today is look looking like it may even dwarf yesterday. So, um, and, and the reason why I say it's a little bit tricky, um, and I may need your help to get the word out, but, uh, a little bit tricky.
It's sort of like we had always had, um, the rule that if you, uh, come to us with a pre-existing issue, we'll provide, uh, access to our legal services at cost price. We won't take on your issue.
I guess it's similar to, uh, if you, uh, try and get insurance while your kitchen's on fire. The insurance companies say, oh, it's a bit tricky. Um, but this is a, this is a, an issue worth fighting for. It's an issue that's very important.
So we do want to try and extend as much as we can to those new members. And I know when speaking to some people only just joined us, uh, in the last couple of days or last week, um, we do want to try and, um, provide that support. So we may need to, um, uh, seek assistance from the public to, to generate a legal defense fund, but we'll see how far we can go, um, uh, and on that, funnily enough.
So that's one area we have to face that cash for every reality. But on the other side, uh, one of the best ways to get action is to keep getting, uh, nurses to join the NPAQ, because every time, uh, a nurse leaves the Queensland Nurses Unit, it's $700, uh, per annum.
That doesn't go to the Queensland, uh, nurses union anymore. Uh, and we suggest that perhaps some of that money may end up, uh, going through the, um, uh, Queensland Council of Unions to then the Labor Party and all sorts of other, um, in-kind support. So as you sort of vote with your dollars, um, uh, they sort of get the message. So even in the last day, we've had a a few hundred members join us.
That's $210,000 per annum that isn't going to the Queensland Nurses Union. Um, we're turning over with our size, with the, just the, the nurses we're turning over, um, about $3 million a year, and it's costing that or more to run it. Um, uh, that's $600,000 per annum that isn't going to, uh, sorry, $6 million per annum, which isn't going to the preexisting unions, which, uh, I suggest have also sold out their members and aren't doing what they are supposed to be doing. They have, uh, they're the big guys. They're the ones with tens of millions of dollars in the bank, um, and can fight these things, um, but they choose not to. So, um, so this is the problem. Um, nurses have been in the front of, uh, the Covid 19 injection queue, uh, for many months.
So that's 13,500 nurses and care workers in Queensland that remain un jabbed. Um, there are fears of staffing shortages of covid 19 vaccination rates still lagging. Um, it's reasonable to assume that those people who wish to be vaccinated have already been vaccinated. Um, and I guess the, the remaining people fall into two camps for moral ethical reasons, objective mandatory vaccination, or believe that the injections themselves, um, may be more harmful than getting covid itself. Um, just to give you a bit of an idea, so in Darwin, there's, um, uh, it was reported in Sky today. They, they have, uh, severe nursing shortages, uh, and care worker shortages, um, in wa, um, uh, they are offering, I think it was up to $6,000, uh, as a referral fee, if they can get a friend to come and work in hospitals over there. Um, I don't know how they get through the borders, but, uh, they're seriously struggling to get people to work for them over there.
Um, and in Queensland, to give you an on the idea of some of the shortages, so this is, um, just anecdotal evidence, but, uh, we have nurses being texted three or four times a day asking them to work at double shift because they're so stretched at the moment. Um, uh, nurses are being, I guess, ripped out of the wards and being put into vaccination clinics. Um, this is another issue in and of itself. Many nurses, uh, who are graduating, uh, university had been putting in their grad year into vaccination, uh, clinics, where that, that is the year that they're supposed to be sort of chaperoned around the hospital and shown all sorts of different things. And, and they learn their breadth of skills and sort of be able to be nurses with their training wheels on. Um, but they're exclusively doing vaccinations.
So the following year, they'll be a, a fully graduated nurse out in the, out in the field, and they just will not have the experience. So that's sort of another issue that's, that's looming that, um, no one's really talking about at the moment. But, um, in aged care, there is a deadline of Friday. Um, Friday, uh, uh, aged care workers gonna be locked out of, um, aged care facilities if they aren't vaccinated. Um, there are some exempt, some exemptions to that lockout. One is that if they haven't been able to reasonably have access to the vaccine before, but I, I don't think that will fly at the moment.
And the other one is if they have a, uh, contraindication, um, which is, we've had all sorts of troubles trying to get that, um, can't even get that out of a gp. Now. They, they want us to get it out of a specialist. So, um, um, and if anyone here is a nurse, um, uh, and they're not in the NPAQ yet, and they are seeing that problem, uh, please join and if you are an NPAQ nurse, uh, put in a member support form immediately so that we can give you tailored advice, because I must say a lot of the, a lot of the work that we're doing, um, has to be tailored.
And it can't just be a sort of broad brush class action approach, um, which obviously ups the cost, but, um, uh, provides the best outcome for you guys. And it, and it's just sort of the necessary way that we have to go with this.
But in terms of the aged care facilities and the vaccination rates, um, our modeling, and this has taken off, self-reported data on, um, uh, Australian government website. Um, there are currently still, uh, so backtrack, uh, our aged care nurses, uh, experts have said that if, uh, aged care facilities can get up to 80% vaccination rates, um, amongst their staff, they lose 20% of their workforce, that's enough that they will have to fall back to a, like, essential services only. So, uh, elderly residents will not be getting showered anymore, um, just to try and, uh, keep, you know, keep the show on the road, uh, if they dip below 75% and they can only get 75% vaccinated, and, uh, uh, they lose 25% of their workforce.
Um, our guys say that really they need to be turning the lights off, uh, and shutting down the hospital, uh, shut, shutting down the aged care facility, calling the ambulance, and getting those residents shipped to a hospital, which we're already being, which we're told are sort of, uh, at, at the hospitals are at their limits anyway. So, um, I think, as you can see up there, there's still 15 that are well below, um, the shutdown mark at the moment. Um, five aged care facilities are below 40% vaccinated. So they're really digging their heels in. Um, and with 15 below the shutdown mark, if they, you know, that could be up to a thousand residents out on the street, and it could be about a thousand, uh, aged care staff looking at, um, uh, totally losing their jobs, let alone the other 20% that have left the industry.
So, Queensland's facing some serious, serious issues, um, in aged care, I've tried to tell any number of politicians on both sides of politics. Um, I'm supposed to be sitting down with the crew male, uh, to explain this to them tomorrow. Although I took, we, we were at a lunch with them, uh, last week. And it's, it really is trying to take these people on a journey. 'cause um, they, as soon as you start raising some of these issues and they, and the, there's a hesitation that, uh, staff have with it, we just instantly get labeled anti-vaxxers. I don't know if, um, any of you're listening to four BC this morning. Um, but our Secretary Angus was on there, um, and he was saying, we as a union totally believe in choice.
And I'll get to why we believe in choice as what our members, um, tell us to believe in. But, but I think, uh, philosophically it's a good thing for us to, to back in anyway. Um, so this is one example of us, I guess, trying to shift that over to window, getting people to talk about these sorts of things. Um, and going, uh, you know, our solution to this is, well, is it better, um, to have mom or dad or grandma or granddad cared for by someone who is unvaccinated in circumstances where mom, dad, granddad, et cetera, has been vaccinated themselves?
So, if, you know, vaccination, we, if it is the case that, um, you know, you can still pass on the vaccine, and really the only thing, it's a personal decision because it, um, you know, limits your hospitalization rates are saying at the moment. Um, so therefore, if it's gonna stop someone from dying and they've had the vaccine, what's the big deal? Why can't they be, why can't they be, um, treated by someone who has it, uh, who hasn't had the vaccine? All the alternative is, um, we fire all these people, we, um, kick them out of the workforce and we roll the dice 'cause we've never had anything like this happen before.
It's a front page story when one care facility shuts down, let alone if we have, uh, five, 10, or 15 shut down, and you have thousands of people that you're trying to, um, or even hundreds of people that you're trying to, to relocate and put into hospitals. I just, it's, it's a big, it's a, um, even, even today, um, uh, we saw Yvette Darth, um, talking about, uh, aged care and mandatory vaccinations, and was already hinting at the fact, which we had suspected for some time that, uh, the state government would be running down on a wet track in terms of aged care, uh, vaccination, because they, it's almost as if they want, uh, an issue to happen because they've been saying for, for many, uh, for many months now, that aged care is a federal responsibility.
So if there is a disaster that happens, um, in private aged care facilities, that's blamed squarely on Scott Morrison. Um, and they get their political points, um, from that, uh, to hell with the consequences and, and what may come of that.
So I don't even know how you plan a, a contingency plan for having that many, uh, facilities shut down. So probably Why they brought in the sister dying thing so soon.
Well, um, uh, and it's not just us talking about this. So over in WA, um, there was a survey done by the Australian Nursing Federation, which is the union over in wa. Um, funnily enough, they're actually seem to be doing their job. But, um, out of 800 surveyed, 33% in WA said they would rather quit than get the, um, get the jab.
So there is no way that the industry can cope with a 33% exodus. So they're worried about that. We're worried about that. Uh, we suspect something similar may be coming here. And, um, yeah, it's frightening. Um, off the back of our stance on a lot of this stuff, we've been inundated, uh, by various different industries of people wanting to set up, uh, unions because they feel like they've been sold out by the unions, particularly in Queensland, um, uh, where a lot of the unions have simply backed in what the government has said. So, um, we were approached by a group of police, um, to, I think it was about 300 police, um, because there was a mandate by the police commissioner saying that everyone must be jabbed. Um, uh, I think it was sometime in sometime next month.
Um, uh, and, uh, the police union came out with a direct, with a, with their legal advice three minutes after the Queensland, uh, police commissioner had sent out that direction, uh, basically, um, saying that this is all fine, we're waving it through, we'll back that in. Um, and not only that, um, we will be, uh, legally backing any vaccinated member or police officer who doesn't want to work with an unvaccinated police officer. So, um, really picking the divisive side there, um, on, so we, uh, we weren't able to take that one on because, um, it's, it's just too, it's too expensive to take on all these legal matters upfront. Um, and it, I guess, you know, the union unions are supposed to act like a bit of an insurance policy, so there's only so much of this pre-existing stuff you can take on.
But interestingly enough, I have had a, a conversation with a member of, um, Clive Palmer's family, um, potentially about a miscellaneous workers union. It sounds like he, he may be entering into the fray, um, to help out a police officer mate, um, that he has.
So there may be something that happens in that space. Not sure. But, um, uh, other reassuring note, we have been approached by a group of doctors who are also interested in, uh, through JUUL actually, um, uh, who are interested, uh, in setting up something similar to our, uh, nurse's union, teachers union.
They wanna set up an alternative to the AMA, um, 'cause they, they had set up, uh, the Covid Medical Network, I believe Robert Brendan has already, uh, addressed, um, really smart guys. So, um, uh, they wanna set up an alternative to the AMA because many of them are, are facing AHPRA investigations because they're providing their own medical thoughts and on, on research, et cetera. Um, but it goes against government line. And that's, uh, that's against your code in a and they're now being investigated.
So that one way that they can continue to have that voice is if they do it through a trade union. Similar to the, um, uh, the AMA. But we are, uh, you heard hit it first, actually. Um, we are going to announce it tonight, but the launch is tomorrow, the Australian Medical Professional Society. Um, it'll be for doctors, um, uh, primarily as voting members, but affiliates can join.
So anyone else in the health services sort of sector. Um, so that's gonna be led by a, a cardiologist who is a lead cardiologist. I think he, uh, heads a department down in Victoria. Um, uh, uh, also a retired GP is gonna be the, the secretary and have a lot of comments in the media. Um, so he can't be investigated by APA anymore. He is not in that space, but he can still speak quite intelligently to a lot of these issues. Um, a neurosurgeon in Brisbane as well, um, will be on the executive. Um, and finally, uh, I think Robert himself is gonna be on a, uh, psychiatrist. So, um, sure Robert Face is his own Kroo court on Thursday, and he may not be a doctor after Thursday.
Um, so that, that will be an important, um, 'cause some of these legal strategies will eventually result in a battle of the science, I guess, um, which is where we want to get, uh, and get there as quickly as possible. Um, and these guys will be critical to that or that, that, that particular union.
Um, but quickly moving on. So, um, we did survey some of these police officers and, um, found out some interesting things. So, um, out of the, we only had a, uh, a sample group of 200. Out of the 200, uh, 81% had not, uh, taken the mRNA jab. Um, uh, 96% believed that shouldn't be mandatory. Um, uh, 96% believed that you could still be infected with covid after being jabbed.
Um, 94% believed that you could still pass it on after being jabbed. But even more interestingly, um, 62% were ex jack. And these are, these are Queensland police. Yeah, the police, the Answer would be about Victorian police.
Yeah. Well, yeah. I think they're the only, um, uh, state that hasn't had a Royal Commission into their police force, but Interesting. No, I don't, no, this is just on purpose. So, um, how this one was interesting, how comfortable are you with enforcing current public health orders?
62% were extremely uncomfortable. 19% were uncomfortable. Um, our other policing areas being neglected. Mm-hmm. Um, this one was particularly, uh, shocking. I thought someone said personal example. I've had to tell a rape victim multiple times that her matter has been delayed in court because the forensic officers aren't have to complete forensic analysis on the evidence because of hotel and airport deployments. Oh. Um, I was speaking again to another fellow that used to be in charge of, uh, the Logan Ipswich district, um, the road policing command. Uh, he said that out of the six, uh, road policing command, there's now only one on the road, 'cause the other five have been deployed to the border.
So he said that road tolls are now through the roof. Um, we did a survey of our nurses in the very early days of the pandemic, uh, and when they first announced that, uh, there would be a vaccine, um, uh, out of about 300 respondents, 76%, uh, said they were against the vaccine being mandated. Um, and then the next, the next, um, uh, one was in the, we actually, it was quite a loaded question in the interest of patient safety. Um, uh, should vac, should vaccination, uh, impact employment, um, uh, non-vaccinated impact employment, uh, 70.9% said that vaccination should, um, not impact employment. So, um, even then we've got a pretty clear, resounding answer from our members.
Now, today's survey, we put another survey out today. Um, and we've had a thousand responses, uh, to it over, Uh, About four hours. So it's, um, really gone off. Um, 27%, uh, were not members, 72% were members. Um, uh, 53.8% said they still haven't, well, they hadn't received a covid jab, and 46 uh, percent said they had received a jab. Um, it's interesting that these percentages amongst healthcare professionals seem to be, um, more hesitant to get the vaccine than, um, in other areas in society.
Perhaps they're seeing, um, some of the results of the, the vaccines. I'm not sure. Um, do you think that a, uh, vaccine should be an individual choice made between a doctor and patient? 73.4%? Yes. 16%? No. How strongly do you agree or disagree with the COVID 19 JA JAB mandate? Um, 28%. Um, uh, agree, strongly agree, but 54% strongly disagree with the, uh, covid JAB mandate.
Um, this is sort of getting into some of the areas that we may have to head into. Uh, would you take legal action? Uh, 52.9 said, said they would take their matter to court, um, which is gonna be, which is gonna be part of this. Um, our strategy is finding the model litigant, the person who is most like Bambi, I guess, who can, uh, who we can advance that, uh, advance that case, and hopefully we can start setting some precedents. Um, uh, another concerning one, have you been coerced into getting the C Ovid 19 vaccine? Uh, 38% said yes. So outta those people that had been vaccinated, uh, quite a significant number of them, uh, had said, suggested that they'd been coerced.
So we'll be contacting those people tomorrow to see whether they've had any adverse reactions to the vaccine, if they have, or potentially there's personal injury claim there because they haven't given valid consent, and then we can go down that path. Um, 56% said that they would be open to taking, um, legal, industrial action.
Um, that is a, that's difficult at the moment because, um, most places, well in the, the most places have an enterprise agreement on foot. If you have an enterprise agreement on foot, you're not generally allowed to take protected industrial action, because that's sort of, I guess, the trade off bosses say, um, you don't go on strike, and in exchange for that, we'll give you favorable conditions and we'll give you pay rises and that sort of thing. Um, but we had a situation in Queensland where, uh, politicians, they gave themselves a pay rise, but they delayed the pay, uh, uh, the pay increases for, uh, Queensland health workers, um, and extended arbitrarily the, um, cutoff date for the, um, EB by an extra 12 months.
So they didn't have to negotiate. Um, which brings this to the next point, would you be willing to take unapproved industrial action, which would be unlawful industrial action? Um, and even 38% would say were saying yes to that. So, um, we do think there is a, an argument that could be run that if we took unlawful industrial action, it, you know, we could still say, oh, well it's potentially outside of the eb 'cause they arbitrarily extended it and it was not a valid, uh, contract. 'cause the nurses were never given a, a, a chance to agree to it. But, um, that's another legal fa another legal fight that we may have to have. Um, other forms of, uh, unapproved industrial action may be, um, and these are quite controversial things, but the things that we're sort of exploring with our members, um, you know, things like rolling, uh, coordinated sick days, taking sick days on the same day, all sorts of things to try and make politicians and, and I guess providers wake up, um, probably won't win as many friends.
Probably won't win as many friends in the media, uh, or in the, in the, in public either. But, um, I guess it just goes to show how far we're willing to take this fight from members. Um, would you be willing to take protest action? 61.8%? Uh, one of the things we're looking at doing is potentially having a snap protest on Friday, um, this coming week, uh, this coming Friday, rather the day that, um, these mandates come in. Uh, and then rolling protests, um, over the course of the coming months. Um, and trying to highlight, I guess, this issue. 'cause um, I guess it starts with nurses, but it certainly won't finish with nurses.
There'll be plenty of other industries that this will start to impact. Uh, we've already seen it, uh, in the, um, uh, private sector, um, people going sort of well above and beyond. Um, and then, you know, would you be willing to donate to a fighting fund? 62%. Um, and funnily enough, people are really torn, um, right across, uh, these, so how, how do you feel about these, um, statements?
Covid 19 vaccination prevents hospitalization due to serious illness. It's almost split, um, directly 50 50, uh, either way. Uh, covid 19 prevents people from getting covid 19. Most people, uh, disagree with that. Um, covid 19 vaccination stops or prevents transmission.
Most people disagree. Uh, covid 19 vaccination leads to vastly lower viral loads and nose and throat compared to the unvaccinated. That was a split across the board. Uh, there are no effective off-label drugs that can be used to treat, uh, or less in terms of Covid Ovid 19, slightly skewing towards disagree. Uh, uh, yeah, to disagree. Uh, I believe that my individual covid Ovid 19 vaccination is affect, affect the community that's split 50 50 as well. Um, the current covid 19 injections are mRNA gene therapies. Uh, and that was, um, funnily, only 40% said that they were, yeah, well, Um, so even amongst nurses, it's quite a controversial topic, I guess, but, um, I guess we can take solace in, in, uh, uh, nurses still, even if they have con, you know, um, conflicting opinions on the, the vaccines themselves.
They still believe in choice and they still will back each other to have a choice, even if they're personally vaccinated, that, um, you know, their colleagues should have that choice to make their own decision with their own doctor. Um, so, um, there has been, uh, I don't know whether you've been watching, but there is a significant, um, court case playing out in, uh, new South Wales at the moment.
Uh, taking on Brad, uh, Brad Hazzard, the minister down there, and, um, uh, good on them for doing that. Um, uh, AFL Lawyers, I think they are. Um, uh, I must say, uh, I've only just, um, been given by someone else a copy of their pleadings today. So I've, I've, uh, haven't had a chance to properly digest it.
But I understand they are raising the constitutional challenge, which is the, um, uh, the conscription argument. Um, now I'm not sure how they're gonna go with that one. I've, we, we got, um, advice from our, uh, q from a QC who's done some constitutional stuff, um, previously, um, and I'll read out what he said. Um, 'cause I posed the question to him in, uh, the form of a quadrant article, which was, which was talking about this. Mm-hmm. Uh, and he said, as I understand, the proposition being advanced in the quadrant article is that Section 51, um, uh, 23 A of the Constitution specifically prohibits, uh, conscription in relation to medical services. That cannot be correct.
Section 51 sets out the areas in which the Commonwealth Parliament can legislate. It does to not prohibit anything. It simply sets out the limits of the cons, the Commonwealth legislative power.
It would be more accurate to say that Section 51 23 A does not enable parliament to legislate to conscript persons to perform medical or dental services. If the Commonwealth Parliament were minded to legislate to compel vaccination as a condition of working at a nursing home, I would think it would simply rely on the corporation's power Section 51 20. Uh, given that virtually all nursing homes would be operated by corporations of one type or another.
You may recall the high court accepted the proposition that the work choiceless legislation was justified by the corporation's power, even though it was primarily industrial legislation. If you're gonna challenge the Commonwealth legislation, you'd probably need to look at getting, uh, uh, look at getting the high court to reconsider the work choices legislation, the, the work choices decision. That would be difficult.
But there has been some criticism of it, uh, as leading, uh, as reading the corporation's power too widely. So it's not outta the question. Another, uh, circumstance which might arise, uh, might be if these Commonwealth decides to make, uh, subsidies nursing homes conditional upon vaccination of staff, they'll raise questions such as those, uh, rose, the school chaplain's case. Um, so it's, they have a, as I said, a lot of these legal battles, they have a, uh, uh, have an uphill battle, uh, to go. Um, you know, with, I think the, I will, I will keep going on with our legal strategy that we have, but, um, I think we may get more joy in running public, public arguments, um, industrial action, all those sort of things that are outside the court. Um, and I'll get into why, because some of these powers that these politicians have given to themselves are, are almost wartime powers.
But, um, so there's a current mandate out at the moment was just released, um, uh, uh, saying that Queensland Health workers now will have to get the jab. Um, Yvette Darth was in the, uh, media saying, oh, it's fine. You know, we haven't had a great uptake in Queensland Health, uh, amongst our staff. But, uh, that's for a number of reasons.
Many people have been on leave. Uh, some people are pregnant. Uh, you know, if we, we need to open up a lot more information to these people so that we can help them get, you know, reach the decision to get vaccinated. Um, uh, and basically said that. But if there were people such, you know, uh, as pregnant women or people of childbearing age, well, they will deal with those. And, you know, we'll take those on its merits and perhaps they won't need to get vaccinated.
But then in the FAQ section of, uh, explaining this mandate, it said, uh, it's can to will Queensland Health employees be forced to receive the Covid 19 vaccine to continue working in or entering facilities where carers provided Queensland Health employees are required to be vaccinated. However, these employees will not be forced to have the vaccine employees who do not meet the vaccination requirements will require an exemption based on exceptional circumstances to continue to be able to work in or enter a facility where car is provided. If an employee is not being granted an exemption, uh, they'll be required to access their leave entitlements or leave without pay. So it's pretty compelling to me. I would say it's, uh, pretty mandatory. So, so she's saying one thing in the media, and then the, um, the actual director of directive is saying something totally different. Um, now what they rely on for their, um, Uh, for their directive, um, uh, is the, is section 51 of the hospital, uh, and Health Boards Act 2011.
Um, I don't know if you can read it out up there, it's probably a bit small, but basically says that, um, uh, the Chief executive may is issue, uh, health employment directives about the conditions of employment for health service employees. Two, without limiting subsection one. Uh, so that's quite broad and wide, wide sweeping.
A health employment directive may be about the following remuneration of the health executives or senior health, uh, service employees classification levels, um, the terms of contracts, uh, and professional developmental training.
So there is a potential legal argument that we're gonna try and run to challenge it, but it's, it's, again, it's not great, um, that they have gone beyond their scope, uh, and they're acting outside the scope, and therefore it should be invalid.
The directive. Um, I guess the, the argument with all the things that they've listed there in the, um, in their, um, uh, examples are that, uh, these are things that people should know before they engage in employment. And, uh, it isn't, all these things aren't sort of necessarily changed on people, um, midway through the stream. Um, the best advice, though, seriously, is still the contraindication.
Um, the, the, the mandate, even in, uh, the pub in the, um, aged care sector says that people, uh, just need to have a recognized contraindication. The immunization handbook says that there are a list of things that are not recognized contraindications. Um, and the only ones that are, you know, definitely contraindications are anaphylaxis, but there is a lot of other things that are, are, are recognized. So, um, we've had a lot of employers that would say that they're only gonna recognize, um, anaphylaxis and just to help with everything else. Some aged care providers like Eventide have said, um, even if you have a contraindication, we don't care. You must be vaccinated. If you can't get that, we'll just get rid of you anyway.
Um, we've had, now some private hospitals say, well, you don't have to get the, uh, you don't have to get the vaccine, that's fine, but you'll be have, you'll have to be subjected to two PCRrapid covid tests a week at $140 a pop, um, in order to keep working. So, you know, 380 bucks a week for a nurse to keep turning up to shifts is a big, um, uh, big barrier. Um, so that leads us to our sort of secret strategy or the one that we're, we're potentially gonna use. So, um, we have been asking members to come forward and give and fill out a member support form if they think that they're, uh, if they think they're at risk, that is, um, this looming deadline and they haven't been vaccinated or, or now the Queensland Health, uh, mandate and they haven't or don't wish to be vaccinated. So our strategy is, um, to simply ask for the risk assessment that they have done, which shows that the Covid 19 risk assessment that shows that that vaccination of every single staff member is the best way of handling this.
And whether they have risk assessed each employee and each group of employee, um, on, in their characteristics. Uh, and we say that most of them haven't, uh, in fact, I think it's only Queensland, some Queensland health facilities that have, um, but they've got a blanket, um, risk assessment. And at a, um, the Workplace Health and Safety legislation says it must be done on a, uh, uh, PCBU level, which is essentially almost a ward level. Um, they must have a risk assessment done. So, um, and if they haven't done that, it becomes an unsafe work, uh, uh, environment, and a worker has a right to cease unsafe work and essentially stand down.
So we're at the stage now where a lot of people have, um, basically just tried to obviate, um, and we are sending out this letter to a lot of people this week to, uh, force a meeting on people as per our right under the Workplace Health and Safety legislation. Um, I'm, uh, I'm a member of the, uh, NPAQ. A member representative of the NPAQ.
The NPAQ is an Industrial Association of employees, as recognized on section four of the Industrial Relations Act, provide services to nurses. I write regarding our member. We understand our members raised some concerns regarding a personal safety issue. Um, you know, that person sought a copy of the risk assessment under Section 28 A, the Workplace Health and Safety Act. Uh, the request was made on date and subsequently refused or has not been supplied.
Specifically, there was a failure on the part of the employer to provide a member with a copy of the risk assessment at 0.0 request. It's a legal requirement pursuant to section 19 F of the ACT to provide an employee with a copy of such information. For clarity, Section 47, 1 of the ACT identifies the duty to consult with workers and the civil penalties for the PCBU. Um, basically that, um, uh, uh, business unit, um, who fails to consult subject to the provisions A of the ACT representative of our organization will be on site Thursday, uh, to undertake consultation as representative of, uh, x into ongoing health and safety, uh, matters in the workplace.
That's probably the best one that we can come up with at the moment. Um, but, um, it pains me because some of the people joining in aged care now may have left their run too late. It, it, it, I guess employers now can wait a day or two and reasonably respond to not giving us a risk assessment by saying, it's only been a day and now this has come upon us. And so, early action is really the, the best.
If you have colleagues that are hesitant in getting the, um, uh, the vaccine, they really need to get in touch with us earlier. And if you have, if there're people in this room haven't filled out a member support form and they're members of the NPAQ, um, please do so so that we can give you, um, this tailored, tailored sort of service. 'cause that's where it needs to go.
Can I, sorry, can I just ask, is that just for people who've actually received the man the letter? Or is it for people like me that assume that they're going to at some stage? So, Uh, so this is to try and, uh, protect your position.
And this is in the aged care sector, um, uh, primarily 'cause that's when the, the deadline's looming. But we would use the same strategy in, um, uh, the public sector as well. Uh, when they bring in the mandate.
Yes. Sorry, You know, that under the Federal Biosecurity Act, there is a provision to fine a state ger for the local official who issues an UN law contrary to your Commonwealth Rights.
Uh, yeah, I'll, well, I'll get to the buyer 40,000 bucks each time. Yeah, I'll every month I'll get to the Bio Security Act 'cause that's in here as well. But, um, sorry. And then once we're, once we're in the meeting too, um, we'll ask questions, you know, like, is the vaccine provisionally approved or fully approved?
Whether the vaccine's been tested against, for instance, um, young men who are showing, um, you know, increased risk of myocarditis pregnant women where we don't know the long-term effects and, you know, potentially, uh, this mRNA stuff accumulating on ovaries.
What does that mean? Um, presenting to them the, the science of that database of adverse event notifications, that, that even the TGA list, although even, uh, anecdotally, uh, my grandfather was a GP. He sold his GP clinic to a, uh, a doctor down in Bathurst. She, uh, administered the vaccine to a pregnant woman who then ended up with a, a, a myocarditis two weeks later after the first vaccine event. Um, all of those adverse events had to go through the nurse unit manager at Bathurst Hospital. Um, they did that, uh, and the nurse unit manager refused to believe there was a connection between the myocarditis and the, and the vaccine. So I guess there's even potentially some, some question mark as to the validity of even those reported events.
And I know there's about 500 reported deaths, but only nine have been attributed to that. I think we're gonna start really ramping up with this new doctor's union tomorrow. Um, there's a fellow Jerry, uh, who's gonna be the secretary, he, uh, suggests that potentially only 1% of these people have been, uh, have undergone a, um, um, a post-mortem, uh, to see how they died. So, um, so that'd be interesting as well. Um, but anyway, so other questions. What is the risk of harm disability or death?
Would they be willing to take on the, all the legal and financial responsibility for harm that results? Um, funnily enough, that's a, a big portion of our nurses would, um, uh, have said that they would potentially look at getting the, the vaccine, if a employer would take on all that liability and responsibility. Um, and then also whether there are alternative PPE options, which there obviously are, but people seem to not want to engage with that anymore. Um, now, uh, so this is all, obviously this is the, that risk risk assessment stuff, data and data, um, I'll just quickly show, wanna show you a video. Um, They're the photos that have shocked Queensland nurses.
They may as well not be wearing anything at all. It's dangerous. Frontline nurses forced to work in fever clinics without protective masks and gloves. Nurses are handling swabs, uh, barehanded without surgical gloves on Internal government documents. Confirm the state's p p e stocks are very low.
And call for staff to think innovatively to manage the crisis. What's left, put a hanky over your face Despite this. Here's what the chief Medical officer wants you to believe.
There is absolutely no concern for the public health system about their stocks of personal protection equipment. We have If nurses get sick and they cannot attend hospitals, hospitals stop. As for the Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union, they're towing the government line, telling their members on Facebook that they know for a fact that Queensland is well placed when it comes to PPE stock.
It does not help for those unions to be perpetrating or perpetuating this message that Jeanette Young is putting out into public saying that there is enough. PPE, there isn't. The Nurses Professional Association of Queensland has independently sourced 50 million masks ready for shipment to Australia and is demanding the Health Minister Act. Now, we've Written to Steven Miles health Minister and we've heard nothing.
I'm outraged There's a solution there that they're not jumping on. Are you a Queensland nurse not being provided with adequate PPE, sign the petition and join a union that will fight for you.
There needs to be more pressure put our politicians to actually act now before our supplies of PPE dry up. So just to give you some context, this was back in March of 2019 at the very beginning of the pandemic.
Um, and, uh, this was back when we didn't have much data of what was, what was coming out. In fact, the data that was coming out was, um, pretty horrendous coming outta China. So, um, Sorry, Uh, full screen. This, Um, pretty horrendous coming outta China. So we had, you know, people, I remember images of people just dead in the streets and, and, and I guess it was back when the virus was at it, its most virulent, uh, and dangerous. Um, there were directions coming out to staff saying that staff were not allowed to wear masks at work, uh, at work and in hospitals because it would scare people, uh, scare patients. Um, we had, uh, masks under lock and key.
We had, uh, some, uh, people, I think it was up at Caboolture. Uh, some nurses were told to microwave their surgical masks in brown paper bags and to reuse them. Um, and now these are the people that are coming out and it's totally a roundabout saying, oh no, now masks are mandated and, and all the rest of it.
So these are the people that we trust, these public health bureaucrats to make all these decisions. Um, uh, this is a recent article in the Courier Mail about how the, uh, husband of, uh, Jeanette Young, um, has connections to Pfizer, yet she comes out and attacks AstraZeneca. And the main beneficiary of that is Pfizer.
So it's just, it's astounding. Um, these people, um, I dunno whether you remember, there was a, a nurse in Blackwater who was basically accused of killing, uh, that Nathan Turner. Um, uh, and then it came out, he didn't even have Covid. Um, we now have hauled both Anesta or all of Anastasia Paler, Steven Miles, Jeanette Young, uh, and Brittany Logger, um, have a matter where we're, uh, prosecuting them before the Human Rights Commission for that action. So, um, these people are, yeah, I don't know why there's so much faith put in these people. Yes. Um, I won't, uh, read out all of this, but just to give you an idea, um, of the, the breadth of the Biosecurity Act.
Um, and during an emergency period, and I guess one of the reason, one of the things we really need to fight is this emergency period, whether we are in a state of emergency, but, uh, 'cause they just get given so much control, but they can essentially direct anyone to do anything that the Health Minister deems reasonable, um, to, to prevent the spread. Um, uh, and failure to do that, uh, it's five years imprisonment maximum, or 300 penalty units or both. Um, so we were looking at this provision back when, um, we had a, a directive put out from Clinical Excellence Queensland to, um, uh, well, our president now, Mark Gilbert, who was, um, the, the night duty manager at Prince Charles Hospital.
So I think she's the 3IC and, uh, of the hospital at night and was given this document that said that, uh, PPE stocks are very low need to think innovatively in her approach of saying, what the hell is this? Um, two days later on the tv, Jeanette Young said, there's no worries with PPE stocks. So just total lies. And, and we looked at this and we basically said, well, if Greg Hunt wanted to, he could compel nurses to turn up to work with no PPE at all. And again, this is going back to when we thought Covid was even far more deadly than it is, um, now showing to be, um, problems under the Anti-Discrimination Act. We can't run a, uh, an anti-Discrimination Act because there's a section in there for public health.
A person may do any act that is reasonably necessary to protect, um, public health, uh, which really constrains the Anti-Discrimination Act. Human Rights Act needs to be piggybacked onto something else and other actions.
So that makes it tough to bring a human rights action in and of itself. But, uh, it also says that is an intention of parliament to override, uh, to have an override declaration. Um, and that examples of exceptional circumstances where that would apply would be war, a state of emergency or an exceptional crisis, constituting threat to public safety, health or order. So, uh, we face issues there as well. Um, uh, we where to next?
Um, we have only just today, this afternoon, um, launched a legal fighting fund. We're speaking with another group of, uh, well, a number of groups of lawyers who are doing this, and we're all collaborating and sharing, uh, what we're doing. Um, there's a particularly good one up on the, um, uh, up in Toowoomba.
Uh, it looks like they may be, uh, taking, um, some action and we're working with them. Um, again, we're trying to coordinate protests and take industrial action. We're trying to take the, and some of those jour, uh, journalists on a journey with us, um, trying to highlight some of the issues that are happening, um, without necessarily jumping, um, straight to where we're trying to get to. But, um, it's a tough uphill battle. But, um, please know, we're certainly doing everything that we can for nurses, um, and, and soon teachers, I guess. Um, and we're certainly not, uh, uh, in the canby Yvette Darth came out and said, oh, we consulted with all trade unions. They're all on board with this.
So they certainly didn't consult with us and we're not on board with it. Yes, so Excellent. Thank you. Sorry I didn't have the silver bullet, but we’re trying.
