Palmer's party 'undecided' on immunisation as candidate questions risk of vaccines

Potential election kingmaker Clive Palmer is undecided on the merits of immunisation after one of his candidates said parents should question vaccine advice given by doctors.

Alexander Stewart, the United Australia Party candidate in the NSW seat of Cowper, has been labelled an anti-vaxxer over a deleted Facebook post in which he said there was no evidence the benefit of vaccines outweighed the risk to his children.

Clive Palmer's party is undecided on the merits of child immunisation.Credit: AAP

Mr Stewart said he was not against vaccination but was "a vaccination questioner" who was "appalled at the incomplete scientific analysis of the risk versus the benefits" of immunisation.

"What I am saying is that we need to ask questions," Mr Stewart said on Wednesday. "Mere effectiveness is not good enough in the public arena ... we need to consider the side effects.

"If you want me to remove the weeds from my garden, one option is to use a nuclear weapon. Yeah it would remove the weeds from the garden, but it would have a lot of consequences."

Alexander Stewart of United Australia Party claims he cured his children's whooping cough and measles "in a day or two".

When asked for his view on these remarks, Mr Palmer - through spokesman Andrew Crook - said the party was undecided on the merits of immunisation.

"The United Australia Party hasn't finalised a position on this at this stage," Mr Crook said. Asked to clarify whether that related to the broad topic of vaccinations, he said: "Correct."

Another minor party leader, Pauline Hanson, was forced to apologise for remarks in 2017 when she advised parents to get their children "tested" for adverse reactions to vaccines. She later conceded there was no such test but her reputation was damaged by the saga.

Mr Stewart said parents should follow the advice of doctors but conceded his own children were not vaccinated. As evidence of the side effects of immunisation, he pointed to a court ruling in Italy in 2012 that found a vaccine had caused a child's autism.

However, that ruling - based on a now-discredited study by a gastroenterologist who has been struck off the United Kingdom's medical register - was overturned on appeal in 2015.

Mr Stewart also questioned the efficacy of measles vaccines. "The thing was 95 to 99 per cent already solved before the vaccination was even invented," he said. "So the fact that we don't have those diseases now is not proof of the effectiveness of the vaccination.

"In the UK there is a society of vaccine-damaged children ... that's just a fact. I'm not saying don't have vaccination, I'm saying let us evaluate scientifically whether the benefits outweigh the non-zero risk that a vaccine will kill or damage my child."

Mr Stewart, 69, claimed he cured his children's whooping cough and measles "in a day or two using large doses of vitamin C".

In response, president of the Australian Medical Association, Tony Bartone, said: "There is absolutely no evidence, no skerrick of reliable, reproducible scientific evidence to lend any weight or credibility to those claims."

Dr Bartone added: "We would hope that any candidates – especially in this election at such a time – do not see themselves as agents for anti-vaccination or a lukewarm response when it comes to the robustness of Australia's world standard immunisation policy."

NSW is experiencing its worst measles outbreak in five years, with 33 cases recorded in the first three months of 2019. There were also 8000 laboratory-confirmed cases of influenza - more than double the same period in the previous two years. The true flu rate is likely much higher.

Mr Palmer's party has fielded candidates in all 151 lower house seats and has also entered a preference deal with the Coalition which will increase Mr Palmer's chances of being elected as a senator from Queensland.

An Ipsos poll conducted for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, published on Monday, found the UAP's primary vote was 3 per cent nationally, behind One Nation on 5 per cent. However, preferences from the UAP could decide the outcome of some very close contests.