The Australian government ruled out a "no jab, no job" policy, so leaving the decision to employers on whether they required employees to get vaccinated. Few employees were keen to get into this mess.
Now the Victorian government stepped in. Melbourne, Victoria, has earned a dubious distinction of being the most locked-down city under COVID in the world. Compared to the rest of Australia, we have low vaccination rates (49.9% vs 53.8% Australia-wide) and low testing rates with many blaming bad public policy choices e.g. a history of mucked up quarantines, weather or bad luck.
That motivated the Victorian Government in a surprise move. It announced mandatory vaccination for workers who are not working from home with few exceptions. They must have their first COVID-19 vaccine dose by Friday, 15 October. From 26 November 2021, this will increase to having the two doses or a medical exception. Currently, all Victorian businesses will need the employees to show proof of vaccinations by these dates.
Putting aside the legality of this, which will be decided here in the Supreme Court, I really don't know how everyone will be completely vaccinated by the 26 November target, even for those who want to get vaccinated. We are doing 70% more vaccinations than NSW now so the vaccination hubs often need a month before people can get their spot. Between the shots, many will want the recommended six-week gap between shots.
So how can the Victorian government make its deadline?
Where does it leave us when the deadline comes up?
I would make plans now, even if I was *NOT* in Victoria!
The big problem is that many are refusing to get vaccinated. What happens if they demand to come to work? Few employees want to be involved in a test case. There are plenty of demonstrations about this in Victoria. Although they all claim they will be non-violent demonstrations at the start, they all get violent.
So it should be an exciting couple of months on how this goes down, this will keep us busy during the boredom of lock-down here.
