A paramedic seeking relief to continue working unvaccinated has not been swayed by a recent NSW Supreme Court ruling in favour of mandatory health orders.
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John Larter is seeking declaratory relief to allow him to work unvaccinated following the September 30 cut-off date as long as he is wearing appropriate personal protective equipment.
The Tumut veteran paramedic's case against what he calls "medical apartheid" follows a recent decision that laws requiring mandatory vaccinations for certain workers are valid.
Sydney construction worker Al-Munir Kassam, Byron Bay aged care worker Natasha Henry and eight others, had argued their rights to bodily integrity and freedom of movement were being impinged.
But Justice Robert Beech-Jones dismissed the case saying the public health orders did not authorise the involuntary vaccination of anyone.
On Thursday Shane Prince SC said that Mr Larter, who is also deputy mayor of the Snowy Valleys region, would be presenting a more conservative case.
"We say the Kassam decision is quite different ... the way that the case was run was more ambitious than the way we propose to run our case," he said.
He noted that Kassam challenged the "premise of the utility" of vaccinations, while Mr Larter's would focus on the "proportionality" of the public health orders.
"The health directive is only directed to a relatively small cohort of the community, that small cohort will be effectively coerced into vaccination," he said.
"Let's say for example, 90 per cent of people who aren't mandated to get vaccines, get vaccines, you're really talking about directing a health order to maybe 10 per cent of a cohort of about 140,000 people."
He argued that if the objective was to increase community vaccination rates in line with the Doherty Institute's modelling, the public health order was "disproportionate" to that goal.
Mr Prince said there would be no need to question Justice Beech-Jones' reasoning in Kassam.
After Mr Larter filed his lawsuit NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said it was challenging enough already defending two sets of challenges to the vaccine laws.
Mr Larter, a father of six, has received support from Berejiklian government backbencher Tanya Davies and One Nation MP Mark Latham, with Ms Davies saying vaccine mandates were a "serious, critical issue of our community".
The matter is due to return to court in November.
Australian Associated Press
