Cairns police vaccinations: Matt Cornish and pilot Luke Meissner suspended over mandate refusal
Strict vaccine mandates have collected two high-profile scalps within the Far North police service after a helicopter pilot and a prominent officer refused to get the jab.
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STRICT vaccine mandates have collected two high-profile scalps within the Far North police service after a helicopter pilot and a prominent officer refused to get the jab.
The Queensland Police Service (QPS) is advertising a $184,297-plus-extras vacancy for a chopper pilot to fly the Rescue 510 helicopter in Cairns.
Veteran airman Luke Meissner, who has played a role in numerous daring rescues, was stood down after refusing to comply with a direction that all staff must be inoculated.
QGAir, which delivers aviation services for the state government, only came under the auspices of QPS in April as its former operator the Public Safety Business Agency was disbanded.
Mr Meissner refused to comment but a QPS spokeswoman said unvaccinated staff would be suspended from duty with full pay initially.
“The QPS has mandated vaccinations for its entire workforce with all members required to have their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine by October 4, 2021 and their second dose by January 24, 2022,” she said.
“The QPS mandatory vaccination direction has not impacted QGAir’s service delivery.
“QGAir continues to provide aeromedical and inter-facility transfers, motor vehicle accident response, search and rescue tasking and law enforcement tasking in Brisbane, Townsville and Cairns.
“The dynamic nature of the work undertaken by QPS means frontline officers and personnel interact with large volumes of people. It is important the Queensland community has confidence and feels safe when interacting with members of the QPS.”
Mr Meissner’s story followed that of Senior Constable Matt Cornish, who was one of the city’s key media liaisons until his vaccine refusal precluded him from police activities.
“Unfortunately the QPS hasn’t accepted my medical exemption application so I was given the choice of gambling my health or end my police career. I chose my health,” he said in a group email to media personnel.
Mr Cornish did not wish to provide further comment.
As of November 11, there were 92 QPS officers and 66 staff members who had been suspended on vaccine-related matters out of a workforce of 17,218.
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