Pauline Hanson has ranted against Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s “mandatory” COVID-19 vaccine, saying she “won’t be having it”.
“I tell you what, I’m not happy about this. I’m quite angry because you have no right to say that I have to have this vaccination, because I tell you what, I won’t be having it,” she said in a video posted on social media.
“I don’t have the flu vaccination, that’s my choice, even though I know 1200 Australians died last year, yet you never shut down the country.”
The senator then went on to say, without having any evidence to back up her claims, that the death toll from coronavirus has been exaggerated.
“COVID-19 is a virus, I understand, but when you falsify the deaths of people that say they died of COVID when they actually died of other underlying issues … to put a vaccine into my body that hasn’t been tested is not happening.
“But that is my choice, and I’m just telling you and the PM that I will not have it, and you will not force me to have it. It will be my choice what I do.”
Hanson was talking about comments made by Morrison on making the vaccination as “mandatory as you can possibly make it” for all Australians once it becomes available.
Speaking to 3AW, the PM said on Wednesday morning that the vaccine had to reach 95 per cent of the population for it to work.
“I would expect it to be as mandatory as you can possibly make it,” the PM said. “There are always exemptions for any vaccine on medical grounds but that should be the only basis.
“I mean we’re talking about a pandemic that has destroyed you know, the global economy and taken the lives of hundreds of thousands all around the world and over 450 Australians here.
“We need the most extensive and comprehensive response to this to get Australia back to normal.”
But on Wednesday afternoon, the PM backtracked on the comments.
“There’s been a bit of an over-reaction to any suggestion of this,” Mr Morrison told 2GB’s Jim Wilson. “There will be no compulsory vaccine.
“What we want to achieve is as much vaccination as we possibly can.”
The Morrison Government has confirmed a landmark agreement with drug giant AstraZeneca to manufacture one of the world’s most promising coronavirus vaccines.
