Newsroom

February 18, 2022

State Member for Hill Shane Knuth said we don’t want a review of the mandates we want them gone, following the State Government announcing the review of restrictions this week. 

Mr Knuth said the vaccination mandate should never have been enforced in the first place and all it has achieved is isolating the hospitality industry, health workers, teachers, closed businesses, put people out of work and divided families and friends.

"There is absolutely no reason why it should remain in place,” Mr Knuth said. 

“The state has reached 90 per cent double vaccinated and despite the mandates forcing the other 10 per cent, who are unvaccinated, to limit their movement, we are continuing to see thousands of case numbers each day which proves that it doesn't matter if you are vaccinated or un-vaccinated in relation to spreading the virus."

Mr Knuth said the mandate had placed added pressure on the delivery of already struggling health care in Regional Queensland and our sick, disabled and the elderly are not receiving the appropriate care, yet the government would rather have no staff looking after the community rather than remove the mandates altogether. 

“I have recently been contacted by a health care provider, in my electorate, saying that their current staff can’t sustain the workload and are constantly being recalled to duty while their organisation has eight front line specialised health care workers at home, who are unvaccinated and want to work, which could be called upon to relieve staff and provide much-needed care,” he said. 

"When the mandate was introduced, 4,000 Queensland Health workers were suspended. 

“Our health workers do a fantastic job, but this Government has created massive pressure on them and the system, particularly in regional areas, through the mandates.”

Mr Knuth maintains this is a human rights issue. The State had achieved their 90 per cent double vaccination rate so now is the time to remove the vaccination mandate and get back to some form of normality.