COVID concern becomes a crusade for Broadbent MP

THE Federal Member for Monash, Russell Broadbent, made three contributions on the floor of Parliament in Canberra in the past week, the first sitting week for 2023.

On Tuesday, February 7 he was on his feet, during Statements by Members, highlighting some “horrific stories” about people who’ve suffered adverse health outcomes from COVID vaccination and later the same day, he addressed “the Government's continued failure to tackle the cost of living crisis facing Australian families”.

On Thursday, February 9, he followed up saying “tens of thousands of Australians across Australia have been damaged” in an unfolding COVID vaccination “disaster”, urging those who suffered to speak out.

“I've had some shocking days in my office in my time here since 1990. But yesterday, I spent an hour with three vaccine-injured people and heard the worst, most horrific stories I have heard in this place as a federal member for all of this time,” he said, naming the three victims of what he said was basically a mandatory program.

Mr Broadbent said he had written to the health minister Mark Butler, so far without success, and had also asked the MPs representing the victims to get involved.

“Who are these voices crying in the wilderness? Who are these voices that are not being heard, and who put them in the wilderness?

“They are those that are vaccine injured or unvaccinated and unable to work. Tens of thousands of Australians across Australia have been damaged. Even members in this house have quietly said to me on the side how they've been damaged. I pray that they speak out.”

Mr Broadbent said he believed a disproportionate number of women had been affected.

“Why so many women? Because they're the ones who worked in the mandated workforce. Why so many young men? Young, fit, men, like Jacob, who I spoke to yesterday — disabled for the rest of his days is how it feels for him at the moment.

“Many of the women are self-employed, so no income means no compensation and no justice. Then, at the other end of the spectrum, there are people like Ben and Hayden in Perth. They're both tradies and semi-professional sportsmen whose lives have been utterly ruined.

“Ben is about to lose his house because he can no longer afford to pay the mortgage. People are losing their jobs and homes; they're unemployed.”

In a subsequent interview with Sky News, he described former fencing contractor Jacob as “tough as nails” who had been forced into truck-driving after a debilitating vaccine injury.

But in an article on skynews.com it was reported that Mr Broadbent’s concerns had received corroboration from unlikely quarters, including former AMA President and MP Dr Kerryn Phelps.

It said that despite being a strong supporter of vaccination and a high vaccine uptake, she had revealed in a submission to a parliamentary inquiry into long Covid last year that she and her partner had both suffered bad health outcomes from a COVID jab.

“Without acknowledgment and recognition of post-vaccination syndrome or vaccine ­injury, there can be no progress in developing protocols for diagnosis and treatment and it is difficult to be included in research projects or treatment programs," Dr Phelps is quoted as saying.

She went on to say that doctors had been discouraged from speaking out at threat of being deregistered but the lack of a proper discourse had cruelled the response.

But Mr Broadbent isn’t leaving it there.

“The National Cabinet made these decisions,” he said, “and we are responsible because we are their elected members. The buck stops with us. We put these voices into the wilderness and it's up to us to call them back.”