Qantas passengers travelling internationally will have to prove they have had a COVID-19 jab to fly on the airline, CEO Alan Joyce has confirmed.
Qantas is one of the first major corporations to introduce the mandate.
Despite some alarm over the announcement, vaccine requirements are absolutely legal in Australia and the norm in many industries. But how likely is it that other organisations will follow suit?
You’ve forgotten how normal this is
University of Sydney medico-legal expert Professor Cameron Stewart told Crikey the legislation allowing Qantas to introduce the vaccine mandate was not new.
Get Crikey FREE to your inbox every weekday morning with the Crikey Worm.
“The contract between Qantas and its customers, and the terms of service of the airline, can determine things like a dress code and the way people behave,” he said.
“There are individual freedoms mandating these things. If I own the place or the plane, I get to decide who gets into or onto it.”
Sporting events, racecourses and ticketed events can all refuse entry and set requirements for customers.
Vaccines are also a requirement to work in many professions. Health workers need to be protected from most diseases, and plumbers have to be up to date on their Hepatitis B vaccinations, Stewart said.
Companies will have to allow exemptions for people with conditions preventing them from being vaccinated, lest they run afoul of anti-discrimination laws.
“We need to be wary of pandemic exemptionalism,” Stewart said. “This stuff isn’t new … the laws that are there have been there for a while and are operating very well.”
What about public spaces?
If private companies can introduce vaccine requirements, can governments do the same? According to Stewart, the answer is yes.
Local councils could implement a vaccine mandate for anyone entering a library, for example, because they own the space. State governments could likewise implement one for entry to public spaces — though this could get controversial.
“There might be stronger arguments against public spaces, though these are likely to be more political than legal,” Stewart said.
Will other airlines follow suit?
Airlines might not have to introduce mandates themselves, with the Australian government flagging vaccination as a possible condition of re-entry into the country.
Shortly after Joyce made the comments in an interview with A Current Affair last night, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced it was developing a digital health pass to help governments verify health and vaccine information for passengers.
University of Technology Sydney behavioural economics Professor Lionel Page told Crikey some airlines may use the requirements as a way to target customers.
“Those who are risk-averse might want to fly on Qantas, where they feel safe, while non-risk adverse passengers might take other airlines,” he said.
“You may have a sorting of passengers.”
Whether customers turn away from the airline or support it comes down to a perception of fairness, he said.
“If you think it targets you and feels unfair, you may react negatively.”
Leave a comment
legal or not, this fascist crap makes me want to spew.
a well considered thoughtful argument
Whoa there! Hold your horses…
Shouldn’t we (including Qantas and Alan Joyce) first consider whether, in light of the best information presently available, any such vaccination program is actually justified or necessary?
Keeping an open mind about this issue is more important than ever, and to that end I would invite Crikey readers to indulge in some continuing education by watching the video on this webpage:
https://www.aier.org/article/an-education-in-viruses-and-public-health-from-michael-yeadon-former-vp-of-pfizer/
Use an alternate airline!
I currently hold a more than significant portfolio of Qantas bonds. At 8.30am this morning I instructed my broker to sell immediately at any price achievable.
Even the investment world is sensitive to fascism.
…on an alternate planet.
It’s a staggering eye-opening and sobering piece by Michael Yeadon. Not to mention the scores of other honest virologists and epidemiologists who have been shouting from the roof-tops saying the exact same things.
It’s been a massive conjob from the beginning. All national govts have taken covid advise and direction from the Industrial Health and Medical complex via institutions like SAGE. According to Michael Yeadon – and he should know – they l-e.
How long was this announcement by Alan Joyce in the planning? No sooner was it announced and within almost minutes the IATA proposes a digital health pass for international travelers..surprise surprise! we all knew it was coming.
Didn’t Joyce say earlier that one metre distancing was equivalent to seven in the air, or something like that, prior to this announcement/backflip. I reckon it’s ok, kids have to be vaccinated to go to child care/kindergarten.
Cherry-picked statistics and twisted logic. Yeadon makes no sense.
It’s not as though this is a new phenomenon. I’m old enough to flown as a university student in the late 1970s and for the first time I remember we had a yellow vaccination card. This was stamped to indicate that we were travelling with our vaccinations up-to-date including smallpox and various other vaccinations depending upon which country you may be travelling for example yellow fever, rabies.
Sure, but back then it was an honest attempt at health service. Today it’s almost a private industry with links to population control. Are people really that deaf, d-mb and bl-nd?
Can you be specific. What links to population control?
Hey, he’s on a roll, don’t throw details in his path.
Is it Indunnce for short?
So, as well as being unable to think you also cannot count.
It must be snowing outside.
I still have copies of mine. Stop picking on the old buggers with experience. LOL
In the 60s & 70s it was more important than ones passport in some areas.
A favourite fortnight’s sojourn was to be had when returning to Iran from the East by throwing it away.
This meant getting all the shots, for free at the well funded facility at Taybad on the Afghan border.
It was a joy – good food, hot & cold showers and a pleasant walled garden in which to gird ones loin for the next stage back to Europe.
Happy daze.
Beautiful, just beautiful.
Don’t think that I would want to travel for hours, in air conditioning, with an unvaccinated passenger on either side of me. Years ago vaccinations were a normal part of travel, depending on one’s destination. With covid rampant around the world it seems to make perfect sense to take precautions. All the most recent cases of covid-19 in this country have been found in hotel quarantine i..e. incoming passengers.
I feel mandatory vaccination is very dangerous. If you have an adverse reaction, long or short term, who is legally responsible? The airline, the government, the pharmecutical company? Or is it a case of, ‘all care, no responsibility.’ You have a private, for profit corporation telling you to inject a substance into your blood stream, not just asking you to wear a button up shirt or closed toe shoes. Big Brother is getting too big.
It’s only mandatory if you choose to fly with that airline.
Do you really think that other airlines won’t follow suit?
It’s the govt using Qantas as a back-door vaccine mandate knowing that most people will fight tooth and nail for their right to fly. Remember Morrison initially stated the vaccine would be compulsory but later watered down by the health Minister as “optional.”…yeah, “optional ” if you want to fly, enter libraries, go to school, football matches, buy food from the supermarkets all guaranteed to increase the vaccine uptake.
And what’s the problem with that? Getting vaccinated is the act of a responsible citizen.
Not having a vaccination may have an “adverse reaction “ . Laws mandate things ~ such as the side of the road we drive on . Not doing so has potentially adverse outcomes