The TGA believes the campaign broke copyright law and criminal law by using the Commonwealth agency’s logo on a political party website that conveyed “adverse event notifications” in a way that tried to discourage people from being vaccinated.
“The TGA is very concerned about any information which provides an incorrect picture of the safety of COVID-19 vaccines,particularly if that information is distributed widely to the public,” a spokesman said.
“The use of the TGA logo in this instance potentially breaches both copyright legislation and the Criminal Code Act 1995.”
The authority is talking to other federal agencies about the move but is yet to receive final legal advice,which means it is yet to demand any changes from Mr Kelly.
The text messages were sent to more than 14 million phones and triggered complaints to federal regulators as well as questions about how Mr Kelly,who has joined Mr Palmer’s United Australia Party,obtained personal numbers. He toldThe Sydney Morning Herald andThe Age the texts were sent with a “rotary” system using random numbers.
Several regulators have conceded they areunable to stop the bombardment,with the Australian Communications and Media Authority saying it can only act on commercial text messages and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission saying it only investigates “trade or commerce” disputes.
Political parties are exempt from the Privacy Act and are allowed to send campaign messages under the Spam Act,which means the TGA’s legal action might only force changes to the campaign website rather than being able to stop the texts.