Backbench revolt over vaccine mandates threatens PM’s agenda

A vaccine revolt is set to block Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s agenda when Parliament resumes on Monday for its last sittings of the year, escalating a fight over rules that limit freedoms for Australians who will not sign up for coronavirus vaccines.

The government will struggle to pass contentious bills in the Senate after two renegade Liberals called for an end to restrictions they consider unfair for unvaccinated people who are barred from events.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison receives his COVID-19 booster vaccine on Friday. Credit: Kate Geraghty

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation is also joining the blockade in a bid to pressure Mr Morrison into easing the restrictions even though the rules are being imposed by the states to encourage people to be inoculated.

Senator Hanson will introduce a bill to Parliament this week to try to force the rules to be relaxed, presenting Mr Morrison with an ultimatum after she asked the Prime Minister to act on the issue in a private meeting last Thursday.

The Senate stand-off is a widening policy row over when to phase out public health orders that require people to show proof of vaccination to go to movies, retail stores, gyms, large gatherings, sport and other events.

“I’m concerned that these mandates are unnecessary and they’re verging on cruel,” said Queensland Liberal Senator Gerard Rennick, who said he would not vote for government bills until the situation changed.

South Australian Liberal Senator Alex Antic has also threatened to withhold his vote on the same grounds and Nationals Senator Matt Canavan is backing the One Nation move, highlighting the tension within the Coalition on vaccine mandates.

The moves threaten government legislation due to go to the upper house this week to toughen sentences for terrorism offenders or require identification for voters at elections.

With the government running out of time to legislate its agenda before Christmas, cabinet ministers are yet to decide whether to proceed with a bill to set up a commonwealth integrity commission in the face of strong concerns from legal experts that the proposal is too weak on corruption.

The government is also facing obstacles with a draft law on religious discrimination, which has been scaled back to quell objections from some Liberal MPs but has triggered criticism from Labor and the Greens about whether it would allow statements of personal belief that offend LGBTIQ people.

The government appears resigned to Senate objections over vaccine rules but is calculating that Liberal and Nationals Senators will relent in the end when asked to vote with their party colleagues on issues such as national security.

Liberal MPs said on Sunday they were yet to see the draft of the Religious Discrimination Bill despite their requests to see the detail before it goes to the Coalition party room on Tuesday and is then introduced into Parliament.

Senator Hanson told Sky News on Sunday night she did not expect the Religious Discrimination Bill to go to a vote in the Senate in this fortnight because it would be sent to a review by an upper house committee.

The dispute over vaccine rules led to a debate in federal cabinet in recent weeks over the message to voters about easing the rules, with Mr Morrison arguing that Australians wanted fewer rules over where they could go and what they could do.

“Australians have done an amazing job when it comes to leading us through this pandemic, but now it’s time for governments to step back,” he said on Thursday.

But state leaders have maintained tougher rules for unvaccinated Australians in the hope it will encourage more people to receive two doses of the vaccines.

While the NSW government has set a provisional date of December 15 to change the rules, saying proof of vaccination will no longer be required by public health order, other states are yet to set similar deadlines. The NSW change could come sooner if 95 per cent of people aged 16 and over are fully vaccinated before December 15.

Mr Morrison sparked a political storm last week when he expressed sympathy for protestors who have marched in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane to overturn the restrictions on the unvaccinated, with some demonstrators displaying nooses and gallows.

While the weekend protests were largely peaceful, the violence last week led Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews to claim again on Sunday that Mr Morrison was “pandering to extremists” with his remarks.

Mr Morrison said last Thursday the violence had no place in Australia and would not be tolerated, but Mr Andrews asked why the Prime Minister had not condemned the violence.

“That speaks to him, his character and his leadership,” Mr Andrews said.

Senator Rennick told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that the vaccination rate was already high enough to drop the restrictions on those who had not been vaccinated.

“If you had said to the Prime Minister and the premiers last year if they would take 84 per cent double-jabbed, I think everyone would have said ‘Yeah, that’s a fantastic result’ and I expect it to climb higher.

“There was nothing in the exit plan about discriminating against people who didn’t get the vaccine.”

Asked if there was anything on the government agenda he would vote for, Senator Rennick said: “No.” He said he had not been vaccinated with AstraZeneca, Pfizer or Moderna because he was waiting for Novovax.

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