Senator Gerard Rennick wins concession in vaccine mandate vote block

Rebel Coalition senators blocking government bills have secured a win, with the Federal Treasurer making an offer in the wake of their campaign against vaccine mandates. But the chaos will continue, as the blockade goes on.

Rebel Coalition senators running a blockade on legislation over vaccine mandates have secured a concession from the Morrison Government.

While there has been anger from some in the government over the rebel actions, Queensland Senator Gerard Rennick defended his position, saying he is “not throwing rocks” but trying to achieve outcomes.

He told The Courier-Mail on Wednesday morning he would now vote with the government on procedural motions in the senate in return for the threshold for compensation claims related to adverse impacts of vaccine to be dropped from $5000 to $1000.

Queensland LNP Senator Gerard Rennick has secured a concession in his vaccine mandate protest. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

This concession was confirmed by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s office.

“We have got the threshold lowered from $5000 to $1000 for compensation claims. That’s in relation to procedural votes only,” Senator Rennick said.

He said he would continue to vote against government legislation unless more was done to overturn state government vaccine mandates.

Senator Rennick said discussions were ongoing and he was anticipating a phone call with a legal adviser from the Prime Minister’s office regarding constitutional issues preventing the Commonwealth from intervening in the state government restrictions.

“Some Ministers are better than others (to work with),” he said.

The Queensland Senator and SA Senator Alex Antic are abstaining from voting with the government, while One Nation is voting against their bills, over the vaccine mandate issue, effectively blocking contested laws from passing.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday bluntly warned his backbench that unless they showed discipline and unity they would be “allowing Labor to win government”, while one government member said the rebels had “done more damage in five minutes than Albo has in three years”.

Senator Rennick acknowledged not everyone was happy.

“What I’m trying to do is achieve a positive outcome for the Australian people,” he said.

“Some people think I’m trying to throw rocks, which I’m not doing.”