Victorian relief teacher to fight state’s coronavirus jab mandate

A Victorian teacher has launched court action to fight the state’s ‘no jab, no job’ vaccine mandate, trying to stop it going ahead.

A Victorian teacher is the first to launch legal action against the state’s ‘no jab, no job’ vaccine mandate.

Relief teacher Belinda Cetnar launched an urgent application against the policy and will appear in the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

The Victorian government announced last month teachers and staff must receive their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine by October 18 if they want to continue working at schools.

Chief health officer Brett Sutton (pictured) is named in the legal action aiming to halt mandatory vaccines for teachers. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

In court documents, the teacher claims the mandatory vaccine policy should be prohibited because it is not “legally or ethically justified”, undermines the rule of law and is “inconsistent” with human rights provisions.

The teacher also argued the mandate was an “extreme measure”, according to the statement of claim.

“The blanket mandate approach does not consider the human rights of those it is imposed on and the defendants have failed to consider less restrictive means reasonably available to achieve the purpose for which they seek to achieve,” it reads.

Education Minister James Merlino announced the vaccine mandate for teachers and school staff in September. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

A vaccine mandate was not a “proportionate” response to the pandemic, the claim states.

Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton and acting chief health officer Deborah Friedman are listed as respondents to the court action.

The action comes as more than 100 people were arrested at the weekend protesting against the ‘no jab, no job’ policy after Premier Daniel Andrews mandated the vaccine for all authorised workers.

Ms Cetnar was contacted for comment.