Scott Morrison backs vaccine passports, saying businesses have right to refuse entry
The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, has thrown his support behind the use of vaccine passports, saying the concept is sensible and has “nothing to do with ideology”.
Despite internal resistance within the Coalition over the use of Covid vaccination certificates for things such as travel and major events, Morrison said any business had a “legitimate” right to refuse entry to someone who had refused to get vaccinated.
The government has backed the use of a QR code-style vaccination pass that would verify a person’s vaccination status using information from the Australian Immunisation Register. The type of pass is often referred to as a vaccine passport.
“A business under property law has the ability to say ‘no, you can’t come in’, and they can ask for that [proof of vaccination], that’s a legitimate thing for them to do, and they’re doing that to protect their own workers, to protect their other clients,” Morrison told 2GB radio on Wednesday.
“It’s got nothing to do with ideology, and these issues around liberty and so on. We all believe in freedom, but we also believe in people being healthy.
“The sheer fact of it is, if you’re not vaccinated, you represent a greater public health risk to yourself, to your family, to your community and others about you, so it’s only sensible that people will do sensible things to protect their public health.”
The endorsement comes amid debate over the use of vaccine mandates by employers, with the government refusing to issue public health orders to bring them into effect, instead leaving employers to follow guidance from the Fair Work Ombudsman and take their own legal advice.
Qantas last week announced it would require all of its staff to be vaccinated, following the move by food manufacture SPC last month. The company has also said it is likely to require passengers to be vaccinated for international travel.
The prime minister backed Qantas’s move, but has ruled out supporting federal government-imposed vaccine mandates beyond the aged care and quarantine systems, saying that a voluntary program is a key principle of the country’s vaccine program.
Several Coalition MPs have spoken out against the use of vaccine passports, with the Queensland MP George Christensen running a petition labelling the concept a “coercive measure” that would force people to get a vaccine or be denied “services and rights that will be available to others”.
“A free and democratic society should never restrict or withdraw freedoms or force people into undertaking a medical procedure or require private medical information to be divulged to others,” the petition states.
Christensen has threatened to cross the floor on any enabling legislation that may be required. Other Liberals, including Russell Broadbent, Eric Abetz, Gerard Rennick and Alex Antic have also spoken out against vaccine passports.
Morrison, who has been facing resistance from some states and territories over the risks of reopening while Covid case numbers are high, also warned that Queensland and Western Australia needed to show “more urgency” to get vaccinated in anticipation of the Delta strain coming into their states.
The vaccination rates in Queensland and WA are lagging behind other states at about 28% fully vaccinated, compared with the national average of about 31%. Nationally, about 54% of people have had a single dose, compared with about 47% in WA and Queensland.
On Wednesday, the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, announced a pause on arrivals from New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT into Queensland, saying the state was “overwhelmed by new arrivals relocating to escape interstate lockdowns”, which was placing pressure on the state’s hotel quarantine system.
Morrison said the states needed to remain committed to the national plan signed off by state leaders in July, warning that the virus could not be eradicated and vaccination was the key for the country to “get moving”, including Queensland’s tourism industry.
“A sense of urgency is necessary because Delta can strike in Queensland, Western Australia,” Morrison said.
“The powers of state governments are not more powerful than the Delta strain of the virus, and they are not more powerful than the vaccine, what is needed for the health and safety of people right across the country … is getting the population vaccinated.
“You get vaccinated, then you’re able to open up the country, people can go back to connecting with each other again all around the country, moving around, our economy growing, people going back to work, not having their hours reduced, and they can go forward with certainty.
“And in a state like Queensland in particular, where you have so much that depends on the tourism industry, both domestically and internationally, getting vaccinated, getting the plan going is the best plan to get Queensland moving and you can’t withdraw from that.”