AFLW footballer Deni Varnhagen’s vax mandate trial in flux – again

A footballer’s challenge to vaccine mandates is in flux yet again – this time because the judge is in Covid-19 isolation.

The future of AFLW footballer Deni Varnhagen’s vaccine mandate challenge is once again uncertain because the judge hearing the case has been placed in Covid-19 isolation.

In a specially-convened Supreme Court hearing on Friday, Justice Judy Hughes said the trial, scheduled to start next Tuesday, may not be able to go ahead.

Speaking by video link, she said she was a close contact of a family member who had been hospitalised with the virus – and that she, too, was in “stringent quarantine”.

“My isolation may come to an end at midnight on Monday but, whilst I’m Covid negative, it must be considered I may become Covid positive,” she said.

“If (my family member) is not discharged, they will continue to isolate and a person with them cannot come and go … I’m advised that if I left the hospital, I would not be permitted to return.

“It’s most unfortunate but I assure the parties if there was any other possible way to deal with the matter then I would (enact it), but there is not.

“It’s simply not possible to conduct the hearing from hospital.”

Benched AFLW player Deni Varnhagen. Picture: Supplied.

Varnhagen, a registered nurse, has not been working at either of her jobs due to vaccine mandates. Picture: Supplied.

Varnhagen, fellow nurse Courtney Milligan, teacher Craig Bowyer, childcare worker Kylie Dudson and police officers Adam Zacary Cook and Rosalyn Smith are challenging the mandate.

They claim authorities failed to exclude all “obvious, alternative, compelling, reasonably practicable” alternatives that do not affect “common law rights or freedoms to bodily integrity”.

The trial was originally supposed to start before the state election but was twice postponed – once because government counsel were in Covid-19 quarantine.

On Friday, counsel for Varnhagen’s group and for the government agreed Justice Hughes needed to prioritise the health of herself and her family member.

They asked the start of the trial be postponed until Wednesday, in the event Her Honour had left isolation, and adjourned to a later date if she had not.

Simon Ower SC, for Varnhagen’s group, asked Chief Justice Chris Kourakis be approached about the situation.

He argued the recent axing of mandates for police officers and teachers validated his clients’ stance, saying the trial had to continue for the sake of health care workers.

“This case is important not only to my clients but a large number of people in the health care sector,” he said.

“If Your Honour is not available that will mean the third adjournment of this matter, possibly in circumstances where the utility of litigation will be severely curtailed.

“We implore the Chief Justice to give consideration to appointing an Auxiliary Justice to hear the matter at short notice.”

Justice Hughes agreed to inform Chief Justice Kourakis and adjourned the trial to potentially begin on Wednesday.

Originally published as AFLW footballer Deni Varnhagen’s vax mandate trial in flux – again