Qantas passengers travelling internationally will have to prove they have had a COVID-19 jab to fly on the airline, CEO Alan Joyce has confirmed.
Qantas is one of the first major corporations to introduce the mandate.
Despite some alarm over the announcement, vaccine requirements are absolutely legal in Australia and the norm in many industries. But how likely is it that other organisations will follow suit?
You’ve forgotten how normal this is
University of Sydney medico-legal expert Professor Cameron Stewart told Crikey the legislation allowing Qantas to introduce the vaccine mandate was not new.
“The contract between Qantas and its customers, and the terms of service of the airline, can determine things like a dress code and the way people behave,” he said.
“There are individual freedoms mandating these things. If I own the place or the plane, I get to decide who gets into or onto it.”
Sporting events, racecourses and ticketed events can all refuse entry and set requirements for customers.
Vaccines are also a requirement to work in many professions. Health workers need to be protected from most diseases, and plumbers have to be up to date on their Hepatitis B vaccinations, Stewart said.
Companies will have to allow exemptions for people with conditions preventing them from being vaccinated, lest they run afoul of anti-discrimination laws.
“We need to be wary of pandemic exemptionalism,” Stewart said. “This stuff isn’t new … the laws that are there have been there for a while and are operating very well.”
What about public spaces?
If private companies can introduce vaccine requirements, can governments do the same? According to Stewart, the answer is yes.
Local councils could implement a vaccine mandate for anyone entering a library, for example, because they own the space. State governments could likewise implement one for entry to public spaces — though this could get controversial.
“There might be stronger arguments against public spaces, though these are likely to be more political than legal,” Stewart said.
Will other airlines follow suit?
Airlines might not have to introduce mandates themselves, with the Australian government flagging vaccination as a possible condition of re-entry into the country.
Shortly after Joyce made the comments in an interview with A Current Affair last night, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced it was developing a digital health pass to help governments verify health and vaccine information for passengers.
University of Technology Sydney behavioural economics Professor Lionel Page told Crikey some airlines may use the requirements as a way to target customers.
“Those who are risk-averse might want to fly on Qantas, where they feel safe, while non-risk adverse passengers might take other airlines,” he said.
“You may have a sorting of passengers.”
Whether customers turn away from the airline or support it comes down to a perception of fairness, he said.
“If you think it targets you and feels unfair, you may react negatively.”
It’s not as though this is a new phenomenon. I’m old enough to flown as a university student in the late 1970s and for the first time I remember we had a yellow vaccination card. This was stamped to indicate that we were travelling with our vaccinations up-to-date including smallpox and various other vaccinations depending upon which country you may be travelling for example yellow fever, rabies.
Sure, but back then it was an honest attempt at health service. Today it’s almost a private industry with links to population control. Are people really that deaf, d-mb and bl-nd?
Can you be specific. What links to population control?
Hey, he’s on a roll, don’t throw details in his path.
Is it Indunnce for short?
So, as well as being unable to think you also cannot count.
It must be snowing outside.
I still have copies of mine. Stop picking on the old buggers with experience. LOL
In the 60s & 70s it was more important than ones passport in some areas.
A favourite fortnight’s sojourn was to be had when returning to Iran from the East by throwing it away.
This meant getting all the shots, for free at the well funded facility at Taybad on the Afghan border.
It was a joy – good food, hot & cold showers and a pleasant walled garden in which to gird ones loin for the next stage back to Europe.
Happy daze.
Beautiful, just beautiful.
Don’t think that I would want to travel for hours, in air conditioning, with an unvaccinated passenger on either side of me. Years ago vaccinations were a normal part of travel, depending on one’s destination. With covid rampant around the world it seems to make perfect sense to take precautions. All the most recent cases of covid-19 in this country have been found in hotel quarantine i..e. incoming passengers.
If Qantas wants to introduce this mandate, that is its right. Leo, knowing fellow travellers have a compulsory negative rapid Covid test before boarding may be another precaution that would appeal to a large number of passengers. Other airlines may choose to allow non-immunised and untested passengers aboard, but I suspect that the a Qantas approach will give it such an enormous marketplace advantage with a jittery populace, that it would rapidly become a commercial necessity. Qantas has an enviable safety record which is part of its appeal. Other measures to ensure the well being of all its customers will only add to that reputation. Go Qantas!
“If Qantas wants to introduce this mandate, that is its right.”
Nobody said it was n’t.. It’s accepted now that one third of people will not allow themselves to be vaccinated.So they certainly won’t be flying. That leaves two thirds here in Australia of the flying market of which half can’t afford to fly internationally equating to slim “pickens” of a competing market share.
I know of one Qantas investor already who this morning put an immediate sell order on Qantas bonds.They went cheap.This generally has a snow-ball effect not to mention the share price. Alan Joyce might live to regret getting out of bed.
“Alan Joyce might live to regret getting out of bed.”
Maybe, but probably not.
And travel envy will overcome the paranoia for the nervous 30%.
I grew up in Singapore. Whenever the family flew back to visit family in the UK and Holland, our smallpox vaccinations had to be up to date or we couldn’t fly or enter the UK or re-enter Singapore. Wouldn’t these sort of conditions apply again?
Why are some people so hysterical about this? If an effective vaccine is available, it’s perfectly reasonable for an airline or government to require vaccination before travel. No one wants to see the virus further spread in the close confines of an aircraft – including would-be passengers, who’ll be reassured by the vaccination requirement.
Agree 100%. The usual hysterics are from those that only consider “their Rights” as opposed to “their responsibilities”.