Anti-vaxxers are flooding Parliament with petitions about vaccines

The federal government’s online petition system has been taken over by anti-vaccine activists using the platform to pressure politicians and spread their misinformation further.

The House of Representatives has an “e-petition” platform that allows Australians to create and share petitions online.  Anyone can request to start a petition online, applications for which are certified by the Standing Committee on Petitions. Chaired by Queensland LNP MP Chair O’Dowd and comprising nine MPs from both major parties, the committee regularly meets and approves dozens of petitions at a time. Petitions can be rejected for breaking certain rules — including going over a 250 word limit, containing a URL or having inappropriate language — but are for the most part approved by the committee, even if they doesn’t align with their views.

Once approved, the petition runs for four weeks before being presented in the House of Representatives. The relevant minister is asked to provide a response, which is then published online.

Petitions — tracing back to the physical, handwritten petitioning of members — have long been a part of citizens’ engagement with politics, and still play a central role. Former PM Kevin Rudd’s recent call for a media diversity royal commission garnered more than half a million signatures and led to a Senate inquiry.

What makes this different is how anti-vaxxers have begun to dominate the petition platform, spamming it to promote their ideas.

The top three petitions by number of signatures ever are Rudd’s media diversity petition, a request to call a climate emergency (bearing 400,000 signatures), and a plea to stop mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations — a favourite demand of anti-vaccine campaigners.

More than 300,000 people signed the vaccination petition in the four weeks it was open. The reason provided for the petition is that “experimental vaccines being tested for Covid-19 Is [sic] going against the Nuremberg Code if made mandatory”. This refers to a misreading of research ethics forbidding the use of experimental treatments, not vaccines that have been proven safe and effective.

This petition has been heavily promoted on social media. Facebook posts linking to the petition were shared more than 20,000 times and received more than 67,000 likes, reactions and comments. Frequent sharers of misinformation like MP George Christensen, Senator Rod Culleton and commentator Joel Jammal all posted about the petition. 

The e-petition platform has become rife with these kinds of documents. Five out of the top 10 petitions ever regard vaccines and have received more than 600,000 signatures combined. Six of the top 10 petitions currently accepting signatures are about vaccines too. Other petitions allude to different COVID-19 conspiracy theories like impending martial law or reporting the “true” number of COVID-19 deaths.

So why do conspiracy theorists who are sceptical if — or outright hostile to — government institutions choose to use a parliamentary petition rather than another platform? 

Despite their anti-government sentiment, many anti-vaxxers and other fringe groups still cling to the authority of government. Influenced by sovereign citizens who misquote legal documents and concepts to avoid paying taxes or fines, these conspiracy theorists give undue weight to legal mechanisms like the power to present petitions, as if a petition with a certain amount of signatures would force politicians to acquiesce to their desires.

One big Instagram page that Crikey has chosen not to name said as much in a post promoting the petition against mandatory vaccines.

“[Petitions] are intended as a mechanism that the public can send a message directly to the govt of unified support in regards to a particular issue they care about, on the basis of sheer numbers,” the post said.

Similar to how Senate estimates is being used by certain Senators to create content distributed by conspiracy theorists, having a petition spouting misinformation on an official Australian government website gives a veneer of respectability and authority to these theories. 

While ultimately these petitions come to nothing — despite hundreds of thousands of signatures, the Australian government is adamant on the proven benefits of vaccines — they take up resources and steal oxygen from other issues. Ministers’ offices spend time drafting yet another response to anti-vaxxers who are unlikely to be convinced by a polite letter from someone like Greg Hunt. The petition committee has to consider and approve hundreds of petitions which only spread misinformation further and have no impact on governing.

Despite this, anti-vaxxers continue to flood the official platform in a futile attempt to stop the use of our most effective weapon against COVID-19.