Defence chief told to reconsider Covid-19 vaccine order

Friday, 16 February 2024

The Chief of Defence Force has to reconsider internal policy that added Covid-19 vaccination and booster doses as necessary for staff.

A Court of Appeal decision issued on Friday said the members could have been dismissed if they did not comply with the vaccination order.

The Covid-19 vaccination and booster doses were on a list of vaccinations that service members needed to be ready for deployment. But the requirement to have the Covid-19 shots was more stringently applied, with less flexibility to take into account individual circumstances.

The Court of Appeal said the more flexible approach should have applied to the Covid-19 vaccination as well.

It did not say that the whole of the order was invalid.

Four members of the armed forces had challenged the vaccination order. Two were not vaccinated, and two had the first vaccination but not booster doses.

Their names were suppressed.

The Court of Appeal said that until the order was reconsidered it would be inappropriate for the Chief of Defence Force to take any action against the four members based on the vaccination order.

In the Court of Appeal the four members did not challenge an earlier finding that limiting rights to refuse medical treatment and manifest religion was justified for the armed forces to do their work.

The court said a review of the vaccination order was timely anyway since circumstances had changed materially in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic since the order was issued in May 2022.

And in August 2023 the Government removed all remaining Covid-19 restrictions.

In an earlier court decision the same grounds of having a right to refuse medical treatment and manifest religion were used to argue against a public health-dictated form of vaccination order.

The judge had noted in that case that both the defence force and police had internal vaccination policies that were more flexible and could take into account individuals’ circumstances.