Toowoomba Regional Council votes on vaccine mandates at ordinary meeting

Vaccine mandates caused a major split within the Toowoomba Regional Council at Tuesday’s ordinary meeting. Here’s where every councillor stands on the issue.

The Toowoomba Regional Council spent more than an hour fiercely debating whether it would acknowledge and potentially apply the State Government’s controversial vaccine mandates to its own facilities.

Councillors voted 9-2 on Tuesday in favour of Mayor Paul Antonio’s motion, which acknowledged the Queensland Government was “responsible for determining pandemic-related public health policy and regulations” and that the council “will continue to act in a lawful manner by complying with all public health directives issued by the state”.

In a rare break from council meeting protocol, Mr Antonio allowed every elected representative a chance to speak on the matter.

Here is an extended excerpt from every councillor’s speech, in order of speaking, and how they voted:

MAYOR PAUL ANTONIO (FOR)

This has come as a result of significant work I’ve been doing in co-operation with the LGAQ, Moreton Bay and other councils.

I’ve made a choice, and I have tremendous respect for the medical fraternity in Toowoomba, and the work they’ve done to take care of us.

When you consider some of the things that are happening and the implications of opening up the border, we’ve got to do what we think is best for ourselves.

The current first dose rate in the Darling Downs Health area is 93.1 per cent, the second dose is 85.3 per cent.

My choice is based on the way that medical science has looked after me in my life, the relationship I have with my GP.

NANCY SOMMERFIELD (AGAINST)

I think we might have record numbers watching online, and I urge them to continue doing this long after this meeting.

I find this resolution quite wordy and benign.

Everyone knows these are public health directives that have to be adhered to.

The fabric of democracy is fragile because it depends on the will of citizens to protect it. When it becomes dangerous for them to defend it, it can be lost.

It takes strength and courage to ensure democracy remains in our country.

Councillors, for me, this is the most significant issue I have experienced in my lifetime.

Our communities are in turmoil, the last time I saw our community divided was the recycled water debate.

It took years for our community to mend, and I didn’t think I would see it again in our lifetime, yet here we are.

I’ve been having concerns about our way of life quite some time ago, and you will recall I made a request in the August council meeting to discuss with the Premier other Covid issues that should be taken into account.

These included increased domestic violence, increased mental health issues and increases in child sex.

We need clearer statistics to assist everyone to understand the effects mandates are having on our community now and into the future.

We have read personal stories from people candidly explaining they’ll probably lose their homes, their jobs, their ability to put food on the table, as a result of this mandates.

These emails indicate many people who did get vaccinated did it to keep their jobs, or to visit a relative who is unwell.

I’m aware of a very popular bakery making a decision that their business would be takeaway only, once these barbaric mandates would take place.

Is it OK to marginalise people who want to avoid an adverse reaction that could potentially impact them for the rest of our lives?

As a council, we can decide whether we open our libraries and facilities to all, and it’s definitely our duty to communicate the views of our community to the State Government.

Our constituents are crying out for us to support them, to lobby the Government on their behalf.

REBECCA VONHOFF (FOR)

This is a very serious issue and is deeply felt by each of us.

Personally, even within my family, you’ll know there’s a family member who has lost his job in regards to vaccination.

My husband intubates people when they can’t breath, so this is a deeply felt issue.

I commend our community on those vaccination figures.

That’s really hard-fought and we have to think about the future and cast our minds forward. We know that the modelling under Delta was 800 cases per day in Queensland by mid-January and that is where we’re headed and that’s what we have to consider.

We have had a blessed and fortunate situation where Covid hasn’t been a daily front of mind consideration for most of us.

We do have freedom of choice, and we operate as a democracy around this room.

I thank the hundreds of people for expressing their views logically, respectfully, and I thank Cr Sommerfield for her views.

Nothing we do here is done flippantly, and I commend this motion to you.

BILL CAHILL (AGAINST)

With all due respect, I speak firmly against this motion.

It’s a vanilla statement, and it’s not transparent because the people outside and in the broader community haven’t even had a chance to look at the wording

As community leaders, do we subscribe to the coercive nature that these mandates bring forth? Coercion, no jab, no job. Exclusion, do we subscribe to that? I live in a democratic country, I thought.

When you have thousands of people getting stood down, how do we help people whose lives are impacted?

These mandates are inciting inappropriate behaviour that people may take to feed their families in the future.

I’m not being melodramatic here, the erosion of family and community fabric is real.

Any wonder there is a growing concern in the community with vaccinations proposed as the only answer to Covid.

There are multiple types of people (opposing), both vaccinated and unvaccinated.

This isn’t about one camp or the other and I’d suggest to Councillor (Megan) O’Hara Sullivan that vaccinations aren’t the only answer out of this pandemic.

I do not want to be found wanting on the public record of being potentially complicit in inaction in representing the interest of all our community.

I think that whether you’re vaccinated or not, it’s not a personal issue for me, but there are a lot of people feeling ripped off that they didn’t get warned of six-monthly boosters when they embarked on their vaccinations.

There is a growing amount of concern and a groundswell of opposition, so I implore you as councillors. We need to stop standing behind workplace health and safety (rules) and doing the flick pass to the state (of responsibility).

MEGAN O’HARA SULLIVAN (FOR)

We are living through a global health pandemic, and the simple fact is Covid-19 is a very serious infectious disease.

It has affected the entire world, it has affected Australia and Toowoomba.

We need to be respectful and acknowledge those Australians who have lost their lives, over 2000 of them.

The vast majority were before a vaccination was available.

We also need to acknowledge the sacrifice of our frontline workers, the doctors, nurses, cleaners, police officers.

They’ve sacrificed time with their families and put themselves at risk to keep us safe.

I’m standing with them and the overwhelming majority of people who in our community, almost 92 per cent, who have done the right thing and gotten vaccinated.

Whether you like it or not, unfortunately mandates are there for a reason – they’re there to get people vaccinated.

The borders have been opened because people have been vaccinated.

The economic impacts of long-term lockdowns in NSW and Victoria are clear.

New South Wales has lost 174,000 jobs and Victoria has lost over 126,000 jobs.

By contrast, over the same period, over 90,000 jobs were created in the Queensland economy.

We talk about how little we’ve been affected by Covid in this state – that’s not luck.

This is, to me, a first-world problem, where people are rejecting a vaccine here whereas people in the third world are begging for it.

Turning now to the proposal to not extend vaccinated-only venue measures to council facilities and events.

Why should this council set a lower standard of health and safety in our facilities and at our events than the rest of Queensland?

TIM MCMAHON (FOR)

This council acknowledges vaccinations are a personal choice, as we should.

I commend you Mr Mayor for showing some sort of leadership, which says we recognise these vaccinations are and should be a choice.

I’d like to talk through the individual parts of this motion but before I do, I’d like to make some caveats.

We have seen some interesting behaviour in our community as of late, things like death threats on the windscreens of our frontline staff.

I’d like to, as a leader, condemn that behaviour.

I would also like to make a special mention to our frontline staff who have kept us safe.

Second of all, this is a personal one, we as a community have used some interesting language to describe this current situation.

To liken it to previous events in history, words like civil rights movement, apartheid, holocaust, Hitler — this morning I heard the word genocide being used.

There are some very impassioned perspectives on this, but those words just don’t sit right with me.

I would ask as a community in this debate that we refrain from using these words.

I appreciate there is a lot of hurt in the community because of that, but let’s use Toowoomba in 2021 on its own merits.

We owe it to our community as representatives to inform the State Government that these current mandates are not good enough.

If I could focus on a small business, we’re going to have 20,000 less customers in the pool, one week before Christmas.

Our small businesses are closing left right and centre, mostly because they can’t get staff.

Note: Mr McMahon clarified to The Chronicle on Thursday that he voted with a subsequent motion by Ms Sommerfield expressing opposition to the new laws, and has stated he is against vaccine mandates.

CAROL TAYLOR (FOR)

I acknowledge the anxiety around the vaccination issue and I don’t believe that the attention should be forwarded to the local government, it should be aimed at the State government.

Regardless of what we might like to believe, Covid-19 is real and it’s deadly.

It’s a deadly virus, and the world is in the grip of a global pandemic.

My son lives in northern Italy. In his small village alone, he has lost his doctor, his best friend who lives next to him and three nurses in a village of about 250 people.

One hour from him, two towns between them lost over 50,000 people, such that they didn’t have anywhere to put them in morgues and left them in hearses.

Our good friend who was in Toowoomba came home not realising he had it, and he was in hospital.

He was on a respirator and nearly died, and his life will never be the same again

We can say what we like and tell yourself that it’s just another flu, but it is not.

I support Councillor Megan and Councillor Tim’s comments.

I thank Councillor Bill and Nancy for their comments, but I would say while we are individuals and we do have free choice, our choices have an effect on other people.

I have never smoked in my life, I have had three life-threatening cancers and each of those have been caused by passive smoking.

The language that’s been used around this about the holocaust — I worked with Israelis for 14 years.

One of my best friends from Israel, her grandmother was the only survivor from a family of 20 from Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Don’t use those words because it’s not the same as a genocide of a race of people because of who they are.

I appreciate everyone’s efforts in getting vaccinated, despite all the scare tactics that have been used against it.

KERRY SHINE (FOR)

I support the mayor’s motion and it confirms council’s obligations.

On the issue of vaccination, I support the government’s actions to date, I acknowledge the right of people to protest and not to have the vaccine.

I respect the genuine and passionate views of those who oppose the mandate and the passionate views of Councillor Carol made in supporting the resolution.

Having said that, I think it’s important in my view to follow the advice of the bulk of medical advice – that vaccination is the best method in the battle against this pandemic.

We are in a war, this justifies restrictions on our rights.

Our rights and freedoms are important, but nobody has the right to endanger another’s health.

Therefore, these restrictions, thought regrettable, are justifiable in my view and in fact are necessary.

I support the resolution and congratulate the State Government on its actions to date.

MELISSA TAYLOR (FOR)

I have listened to the concerns of our community and by supporting this motion, it doesn’t imply I haven’t listened.

I do take offence to those who imply that by supporting this I am not listening.

I thank Councillor Nancy and Councillor Bill for their comments and respect the views of those around the table – that is democracy in action, that’s why we represent our community, because we value those values.

It’s important we all have our view and we have the opportunity to speak to that.

It has been an atrocious time for our frontline workers, to witness this horrible disease and what it does to members of our community.

To struggle to breathe, I cannot imagine what that would be like.

I’m actually quite petrified for our small businesses with our borders opening.

The diabolic effect this virus will have on our community once the borders have opened will be worse than what a mandate will be.

The effect that that will have on small businesses, because they have to shut down due to the virus, is frightening.

Having run a small business and still do, I manage that business through some of the toughest couple of years I’ve ever experienced.

I’ve been running that business for 17 years and to know I had to manage that business through that pandemic and know that I had 20 families relying on me to steer it through was some of the most horrifying times of my life.

To think that we are now facing that again because the borders are opening is absolutely terrifying to me.

I think it’s important we support this mandate and we support the motion going forward to keep our community safe.

JAMES O’SHEA (FOR)

What we’ve put on the table is (explaining) what powers Toowoomba Regional Council has in regards to this.

All of the emails we’ve received, in excess of 1000, have essentially been asking us to reject the mandate, and I think that’s probably an important point that’s been clarified.

We also need to acknowledge and recognise the fact that so many people have made representation to us on this issue.

The amount of people who have made representations to us does need to be acknowledged.

When people have written to us asking for our support or asking us to end the mandate, while it’s not something for us to be able to do, they can look to us to make that representation.

While I’m supportive of the motion that you’ve put forward Mr Mayor, I do encourage we push, through our correspondence to the state government, that we do need to acknowledge those words in the many emails that have come to us.

GEOFF MCDONALD (FOR)

I respect all of the views and acknowledge the bravery of Councillors Sommerfield and Cahill in respect to this motion.

I note Councillor Cahill said to not flick-pass this back to the State Government.

Workplace health and safety is a legal binding obligation as a council.

I would hate to see anyone in this room put in a situation because we didn’t adhere to regulations.

We’re actually not flicking anything – this is a law given to us by the state, influenced by the federal government for this to happen.

All this has done is actually given clarity to all of the community, both those vaccinated and unvaccinated, on where local government actually sits.

I do want to acknowledge the many people who have raised their concerns – some vaccinated and some unvaccinated.

I really want to show respect to those people who have stood up and said that, because we are in a free country, but we also have a freedom to make sure we make decisions that are to the betterment of everyone in the community.

At the end of the day, we’ve seen 93 per cent first dose and 85 per cent second dose who have thought differently, by way of making sure they’re doing their best to make sure those vaccinated and unvaccinated can continue to live the free lives that we have.

We’ve been able to stand together as a community and work through it.

There may mean there could be consequences for those who are unvaccinated, but we need to say that it’s their choice.

The laws to open and the ability for unvaccinated people to move as freely as vaccinated, is a law that will be changed by the state and federal governments.

That’s where we need to strive towards, and what we need to do as a community.

We need to stick to our values of being accountable for our community.