Anti-vaccination lobbyists tricked their way into school hall for a rally, government sources reveal

AN anti-vaccination lobby group that hired out a Gold Coast school hall for a controversial documentary screening tricked the principal. Now there’s widespread fall out.

Anti-vaxxer rally at Miami. Picture: Jack Harbour.

AN anti-vaccination lobby group that hired a school hall for a controversial documentary screening allegedly misrepresented the purpose of their meeting.

A Queensland Government source said the woman who hired the Miami State High School hall told the school her event was to “promote organic food and drink for a healthy lifestyle, particularly to help the aged and homeless”.

Anti Vaccination Rally in The Flagstaff Garden in Melbourne.

Instead, the Australian Vaccination-sceptics Network (AVN) hosted a screening of a documentary called ‘Vaxxed’ that claims to prove links between autism and vaccinations.

“There was no disclosure that the hire of the school hall would be used for screening Vaxxed, nor was there reference to any other organisation including Fans of the AVN,” a spokesman from the Department of Education and Training Queensland said.

“The school principal has today met with the business owner who booked the hall to

express the school’s concerns.”

Minister for Education and Minister for Tourism and Major Events Kate Jones said the school had been misled. (AAP Image / Glenn Hunt)

Education Minister Kate Jones spoke directly with the Miami State High School principal yesterday, who was furious that school officials had been misled.

Ms Jones said the school required written documentation about the group’s intentions, held an interview with the woman and researched her business before agreeing to allow her use the school hall.

The Minister said school staff were shocked when they discovered the event was in fact an anti-vaxxer rally and met with the businesswoman in question yesterday, who is said to have admitted her wrongdoing to school officials.

A building of Miami State High School where the film was shown. Photo: Jessica Huxley

Ms Jones slammed the woman’s behaviour.

“This is just more lies from the anti-vaxxers,” she said.

“They lied on the (venue hire) form, they lied to the school and they lied to the community.”

The AVN refuted claims that the school had been misled.

A spokeswoman said she thought the Queensland Government had “misled” the public by claiming the AVN misrepresented the purpose of the rally on Tuesday night.

“We have a copy of the paperwork that was sent to the school that specifically says there was a film night,” she said.

“They never asked for the name of the film.

The AVN says they submitted the paperwork with their name clearly on there.

“Our public liability policy was provided at the same time we submitted the paperwork and that public liability specifically says ‘Australian Vaccination-sceptics Network’.

“We never told them anything about the film except that it was a film and we were quite open that we were the ‘Australian Vaccination-sceptics Network’.”

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk slammed the lobbyists for misrepresenting the true reason for the meeting.

“We are incredibly strong about the need for people to be vaccinated, especially children,” she said.

“I don’t think they were very clear in their purpose and I don’t think they should have been allowed to present in such a manner ...

“They misrepresented what they were going to be talking about at that school.”

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk slammed the lobbyists. (AAP Image / Glenn Hunt)

More than 300 people attended the controversial event, which included a question-and-answer session with the documentary’s stars – prominent anti-vaccination advocates Brian Hooker from the US and Polly Tommey from the UK.

When asked to stand up if affected in some way by vaccination injury, roughly 10 people stood up at the Miami event.

It came after women wiped away tears during the documentary’s screening when shown images and commentary about children who were allegedly injured as a result of being vaccinated.

Griffith University School of Medicine Associate Professor Neil Harris said there was no doubt vaccinations were safe and said the measures were a proven way of protecting people from infectious diseases.

Dr Harris said vaccination was about protecting the herd.

“Vaccination is a proven, well-established population health strategy,” he said.

“It’s about protecting the herd. When we have people who choose not to vaccinate, then that weakens the herd.

“Events that promote not vaccinating can often … discourage people or make people question whether the vaccination is right for them.

“This then is a problem because if that reduces the percentage that are vaccinated, then again that becomes an issue for the herd … the population as a whole.”