Cobie Campbell: Hospital admin worker challenges NT Covid vaccine mandate

A fifth plaintiff has joined a Supreme Court challenge against the NT’s vaccine mandate as a Justice dismisses a protected cost application.

A HOSPITAL admin worker is battling to avoid the jab by joining a legal challenge to the Territory’s vaccine mandate.

Cobie Campbell has joined as a fifth plaintiff against the NT’s Covid mandate, which forces workers in ‘high-risk” environments to be fully vaccinated.

Ms Campbell joined a Cullen Bay Day Spa owner, Buslink driver Ray Phillips, Coles worker Conan Thomas Hammett and Power and Water Corporation employee John Anstess in their Supreme Court Challenge against the Chief Health Officer.

On Monday Ms Campbell officially joined the challenge, which claims the health measures are unlawful and racist, as they classified Aboriginal people as a “vulnerable” group.

Outside the court lawyer Danial Kelly identified the newest plaintiff as a health worker at a Northern Territory Hospital but was unwilling to specify which clinic or her role there, saying workers who came out against the mandate faced criticism.

Ms Campbell is not listed on the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency’s register of practitioners, however her LinkedIn account states she worked in an administrative and human resources role at Darwin Private Hospital as an Healthscope executive officer.

Outside the pandemic, Ms Campbell’s only publicly available health advocacy work was a story with the NT News about decrease in sexual activity following a heart attacks in 2015.

Cobie Campbell has joined as a fifth joined the fight against the NT’s Covid mandate which forces workers in ‘high-risk” environments to be fully vaccinated.

In the hearing, Justice Sonia Brownhill dismissed a protected cost application from the anti-mandate plaintiffs, with the reasons for her decision to be released at a later date.

United NT Businesses spokesman Mario Tsirbas said this would mean there would be no limit on the financial penalties with an adverse finding in their “David and Goliath case”.

“We knew from the very beginning that we’re up against the endless coffers of the NT government, and so we were under no illusions as to how this was going to go,” he said.

“And the fact that at the end of this process, a healthy check will be coming our way signed by the NT Government is not a victory for us.

“It’s actually a loss because it’s the people of the Northern Territory who continue to pay time and time again for their waste and recklessness.”

Cobie Campbell has joined as a fifth joined the fight against the NT’s Covid mandate which forces workers in ‘high-risk” environments to be fully vaccinated.

Justice Brownhill also ordered the trial date be pushed back to June and doubled the length of the upcoming hearing.

Solicitor General Nikolai Christrup said the previous dates conflicted with the availability of the government’s expert witness on the Racial Discrimination Act and raised questions over the proposed four-day hearing.

“I have some serious doubts about the idea that the entire matter can be dealt with in four days,” Justice Brownhill agreed.

“Four expert witnesses can take four days, let alone all the other issues that are alive in the hearing.”

The plaintiff’s barrister Koulla Roussos representing said a previous agreement found four days was “ample time”, but Justice Brownhill said she was “not sure how that is possible”.

A new split trial was set, with the first hearings to begin on June 14-17 and the second round to run from June 28 to July 1.

Justice Brownhill ordered both sides to agree on a trial timetable for those eight days.