Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for her question and indeed acknowledge the interview that she was referring to. I think it's important that it's understood that, if you go up the page in the transcript of that interview, the Prime Minister was asked whether he had an appetite for mandatory vaccinations and the answer he gave in that interview was: no, he did not have an appetite for mandatory vaccinations.

Now, of course, I qualify that with the statements I've already made in question time: that the government did indeed lead in relation to mandatory vaccinations to protect those most at risk from COVID-19—to protect those in aged-care facilities, to protect those where they are engaging with disability care workers, to protect those in our health systems generally who are at greatest risk and to ensure that we supported mandatory activities in that regard.

In relation to businesses, as I've already touched on in this question time, the government has also been consistent that the legal advice from the pre-existing legal arrangements is that Australian businesses, be they a coffee shop or any other business, have the power and the choice themselves to make rules and decisions about accessing their business, including to determine whether or not vaccinated individuals can be the only ones to access those businesses as customers. They're the laws of the land that we have supported. We've not sought to change them in ways to force businesses to make greater mandates; nor have we sought to remove the choice from businesses in relation to their choice to make those decisions themselves, regardless of which state they are in.