Australian medical professionals who were cancelled haven’t given up; they’re still fighting for medical freedom

During an Australian Senate hearing on the terms of reference for a Royal Commission into covid, a doctor described healthcare practitioners around Australia being suspended and silenced for questioning the “pandemic” response and covid injections.

Three such health professionals, who were targeted by their regulators, have launched a declaration for anyone around the world “who understands the critical importance of free speech in formulating rational evidence-based and compassionate policy” to sign.

The Royal Commission Australians Deserve

When the Senate Select Committee on Covid handed down its final report in April 2022, several failures in Australia’s pandemic response were identified. In total, 19 recommendations were made.  One of the recommendations was “that a Royal Commission be established to examine Australia’s response to the Covid pandemic to inform preparedness for future Covid waves and future pandemics.”

The Chair of the Committee, Senator Katy Gallagher, said a Royal Commission was required because the government’s response had led to more cases and more deaths, stating: “We think the government’s response has been characterise by a failure to be prepared, a failure to take responsibility, and then a failure to get it right.”

At the time, Anthony Albanese gave support to the idea of a Royal Commission but stopped short of a full commitment suggesting that “some form of inquiry” would be held.

Following his successful election in May 2022, it took a full 18 months – and relentless lobbying – for Prime Minister Albanese to make good on the promise and, it appears, “some form of inquiry” is exactly what Australians are getting.

Gone is any mention of the Senate Committee’s recommendation to hold a Royal Commission. Instead, the Prime Minister’s proposed Covid Inquiry is shaping up to be what can only be described as the most watered-down version of pseudo-investigation in the nation’s history.

Headed by an “independent” panel of vaccine, lockdown, and masking advocates, the “deep inquiry” might struggle to plunge the depth of conspiratorial questions like: Did mandating vaccines have a net positive or negative effect? And: What is the cause of the excess deaths which began in 2021 and persist through 2023?

Fortunately, though not for the Australian public, that panel has been gifted carefully curated terms of reference which make clear that “actions taken by state and territory governments will not be in the scope of the inquiry.”

Australia’s Covid Inquiry is fast heading down the path of the UK’s own “non-inquiry” which is striding toward a set of pre-determined conclusions.

In October 2023, the House of Review and ‘team sanity’ came to the rescue with Senator Malcolm Roberts successfully moving: “That, noting that a fully empowered Royal Commission with appropriate terms of reference is necessary to learn from the unprecedented government response to Covid, the following matter be referred to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee for inquiry and report by 31 March 2024.” And also, “The appropriate terms of reference for a Covid Royal Commission that would allow all affected stakeholders to be heard.”

Up until 12 January 2024, the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee was receiving submissions for this inquiry and the call was answered. Over the Christmas and New Year period, a dedicated team of lawyers, scientists, medical professionals, community groups, and everyday Australians worked around the clock to deliver the most comprehensive Covid Royal Commission terms of reference document Australia has seen so far – the ‘People’s Terms of Reference’.

Compiled by legal team Julian Gillespie, Katie Ashby-Koppens, and Peter Fam, the 107-page document encompasses more than 50 terms of reference and calls over 80 expert witnesses.

At the end of last month, a hearing was held by the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs about the terms of reference for a Royal Commission into covid. 

The Committee heard from 22 medical professionals, lawyers, human rights advocates, Royal Commission experts and vaccine-injured Australians, some of them representing firms, unions or non-profits, and others speaking in their own capacity.

Presenting on behalf of the People’s Terms of Reference, Dr. Julie Sladden, a medical doctor and a local government councillor for West Tamar in Tasmania, told the Senate panel: “There has been a catastrophic failure of medical ethics, human rights and free speech in this country.”

“Around Australia, healthcare practitioners were suspended and silenced, and many remain so, for speaking out against the vaccines and the pandemic response. Those remaining were too afraid to voice their concerns, preventing one of the most important safety aspects in healthcare, open discourse and questioning of the science,” she said.

Read more:

The Cape Byron Lighthouse Declaration

Last year, Dr. Sladden wrote of The Cape Byron Lighthouse Declaration:

Three years ago, I could not have conceived we would need such a declaration. But the Covid years have revealed the diseased underbelly of healthcare and its powerful influences. Healthcare, nor the people it serves, cannot thrive in the presence of censorship, coercion, and unethical behaviour. So, the time has come to remind ourselves, our governments, and our leaders of the core foundations.

The Cape Byron Lighthouse Declaration: a ‘suspended’ guide to making healthcare great again, Dr. Julie Sladden, Spectator Australia, 1 June 2023

In the early days of the covid-19 “pandemic,” three “everyday” Australian health professionals in differing fields, questioned the potential dangers of their government’s responses and highlighted the potential harms of such measures. All three were immediately targeted by their professional regulators – and their licenses to practice were suspended under immediate action powers created for “public protection.”

Previously unknown to each other, psychologist Ros Nealon-Cook, anaesthesia and critical care specialist Dr. Paul Oosterhuis and mental health care specialist Dr. Robert Brennan connected as a result of being subject to a targeted campaign of extreme over-reach in the form of cancellation, threats and harassment.

In January 2023, they were inspired to launch The Cape Byron Lighthouse Declaration.

“We are reaching out to the multitude of health practitioners and citizens, around the world who understand the critical importance of free speech in formulating rational evidence-based and compassionate policy. We are speaking directly to those who have been impacted by the government’s intimidation tactics – especially the small handful of practitioners who have taken the brunt of the persecution, the Declaration’s website states, inviting anyone who chooses to do so to sign the Declaration.

In the video below, the three organisers read out the Declaration.  You can read and sign the Declaration HERE.