West Australian police officer Ben Falconer has lost his court case challenging mandatory vaccination for police on the front line.
The Senior Constable has been a member of the state police force since 2008 and made the decision not to get the COVID-19 vaccine, due to being ‘pro-choice’ when it was mandated during the height of the pandemic.
Police constable Ben Falconer took the vaccination mandate to the Supreme Court. Credit:Channel Nine Perth
Falconer challenged the validity of a direction he could not go to work if he was not vaccinated.
The police officer had called for the State of Western Australia and the Police Commissioner to be stopped from enforcing the mandate on five separate grounds including that the direction is “legally irrational”.
But Justice Jeremy Allanson dismissed both his challenges of the Chief Health Officer Dr Andy Robertson and then Police Commissioner Chris Dawson on Tuesday morning.
“I am not satisfied that the applicant has established the factual basis for his contentions,” he wrote in his decision regarding the case against Dr Robertson.
“All of the evidence establishes that the COVID-19 pandemic was, and remains, an extraordinary emergency.
“It was not, in the words of counsel for the applicant, a maelstrom in a petri dish. The measures that were taken are undoubtedly extraordinary, but that does not establish that they lacked rationality so as, for that reason, to be beyond power.”
Falconer’s lawyer Ben Tomasi sought time to make applications regarding the costs from the challenge given the police officer could be facing thousands of dollars in legal fees if he had to pay for the state’s case.
More to come.
Most Viewed in National
Source: Read Full Article
