Liberal MP Russell Broadbent says he is uncomfortable with the idea of a vaccine passport.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
The 70-year-old told south Gippsland newspaper theSentinel-Times he did not intend to be vaccinated with the products now available to Australians.The Age andThe Sydney Morning Herald have approached Mr Broadbent for comment.
Other politicians vocal about not being vaccinated include independent MP Craig Kelly and One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.
But Mr Broadbent said he wasn’t an anti-vaxxer,having received vaccinations for other diseases such as the flu,tetanus and polio,and said he was neither discouraging nor encouraging his constituents to get jabbed.
He said he was concerned that Australia’s leaders were not considering alternative paths.
“It seems of late that if you question the status quo around vaccinations,you are deemed to be part of the radical fringe of society,” he says in a videoposted on his Facebook page.
“I’m uncomfortable with mass vaccination of the population,with the vaccine that is,according to[Health] Minister[Greg] Hunt,being trialled across the world.”
He also says he’s worried that vaccine passports or proposals that allow only vaccinated people to do some things “will split this nation in two” to devastating effect,with those who choose not to be vaccinated faced with giving up their careers or being separated from family and loved ones.