The following information describes very clearly what the government of South Australia is intending to do come February - imprison and fine those who refuse drugs, vaccines and forced testing and take their children away from them as well. We were under the impression that, given the non-event which swine flu appears to have turned out to be, these moves would be put on the back burner. Evidently, we were wrong.

Now, it is obvious that we will need to fight back against these moves, and if you care about your right to freedom of health choice and even freedom to raise your children rather than having them made into wards of the state and vaccinated and medicated against your will, you will need to fight too.

Please read the information below. If you are not yet a member of the AVN - join us now. If you have not yet made a donation - please do so now (it will cost us thousands of dollars to lobby both the Federal and the South Australian governments and goodness only knows how many other states have similar legislation pending!). Your donation of $10, $50, $100 or any other amount you can afford will go a long way towards ensuring our lobbying efforts succeed. We will all benefit from that success!

Also, please forward this to message to others and urge them to do the same.

Below these articles is a list of preliminary actions you can take to get the ball rolling. Even if you don’t live in SA, your letters can help head this action off at the pass so to speak. Even if you don’t live in Australia, letting parliamentarians know that they are b

eing watched from around the world will accomplish a lot.

Legislation now in Parliament for debate in early 2010 - we MUST be strong in our efforts

Government wants right to detain sick people

HEALTH authorities want the power to detain people for up to three months if they refuse testing or treatment for infectious diseases.

Under draft legislation proposed by the State Government, someone with swine flu, measles or meningococcal disease could be forcibly held, examined and treated.

It is one of several wide-ranging powers sought to protect the public.

The Public Health Bill also would, for the first time, give authorities the power to override parents who refused treatment for their children with infectious conditions.

Other diseases that could be controlled include AIDS, polio, rabies, salmonella and cholera.

The tougher enforcement powers would come with a substantial increase in fines - up from $60,000 to $1 million and 10 years’ jail - and relate to any serious risk caused to public health. SA Health public health director Kevin Buckett said the new legislation would give authorities wider powers to act more quickly.

“There’s nowhere on Earth that is more than 36 hours from anywhere else and where people go, bugs can go,” he said yesterday.

“We have to have legislation that can respond in that sort of time.

“The idea would be that we get them out of circulation, where they can’t infect other people.” Dr Buckett said there were many reasons people refused treatment, including mental health issues, language barriers and even malicious behaviour.

Non-communicable diseases, such as cancer and diabetes, could also be declared, allowing the Government to introduce codes of practice for certain industries or the community. Opposition health spokesman Duncan McFetridge said he supported powers to protect the public from infectious diseases but feared parts of the Bill - to be debated next year - would allow the Government to control people with chronic conditions.

“It’s bordering on nanny-state legislation,” he said. “It’s understandable but how far do we go?”

Australian Medical Association state president Andrew Lavender said he welcomed most of the changes. as important to protect the public.

The following legislation, which is to be debated in Federal Parliament come February, is also quite ominous. It equates not vaccinating with child neglect or abuse. This is a fairly long article. If you would like to read the entire piece, just click on the title. I have copied the relevant bits below and highlighted the most important part in red.

New Law to Quarantine All Welfare Payments

WELFARE recipients across Australia face compulsory income-management under a Rudd government move to ensure their payments are not being wasted on alcohol, drugs or gambling.

Under legislation to be introduced into the House of Representatives today, the government will have the power to require that 50 per cent of a welfare recipient’s payments be quarantined for spending on food and the essentials of life.

The significant welfare reform, in part an extension of elements of the government’s controversial intervention into indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, is designed to protect children from neglect and reduce family violence.

Families Minister Jenny Macklin’s legislation will embrace income-management as a central element of the welfare system in perpetuity.

When activated, the restrictions would apply to people aged 15 to 24 years in receipt of specified welfare payments for more than three of the previous six months, people aged over 25 on payments such as Newstart Allowance and Parenting Payment for more than one year in the previous two years and people assessed by Centrelink social workers as requiring income management because of vulnerability to financial crisis, domestic violence or economic abuse.

Exemptions will be available for some welfare recipients if they can demonstrate responsible behaviour. For example, young people will be able to apply for exemptions if they are in full-time study or training or are engaging in paid work, as will parents who can demonstrate they are ensuring their children attend school or, for non-school-age children, are up to date with childhood immunisations.

Letters to the South Australian Parliament

If you live in SA, please direct your letter to the people listed below as well as to your local State member of Parliament If you are not sure who your local representative is, please visit the Electorates page at the SA Parliament Web site linked here.

For everyone else, please direct your letters to the following Parliamentarians:

The Hon. Mike Rann, Premier of SA - ramsay@parliament.sa.gov.au
The Hon. John Hill - Minister for Health - kaurna@parliament.sa.gov.au
The Hon. Jennifer Rankine - Minister for Families and Communities - wright@parliament.sa.gov.au
Dr Duncan McFetridge - Shadow Minister for Health - morphett@parliament.sa.gov.au
Ms Vickie Chapman - Attorney General and Deputy Leader of the Opposition - bragg@parliament.sa.gov.au
Mrs Isobel Redmond - Leader of the Opposition - heysen@parliament.sa.gov.au

If you would prefer to write to every SA Parliamentarian, you can find all of their contact details by clicking here.

Below is a facsimile letter. Please feel free to take these ideas and write your own letter or else, use this letter and just put your name and contact details onto it. Please be sure to include your name, address and telephone number, even if you live outside of Australia. Please be sure to use the terms “my will” in your letter since that will ensure that it will be answered and hopefully, taken seriously.

Dear (put name here or say elected representative)

It is my will that you immediately respond as to your position regarding the South Australian Public Health Bill 2009, due for debate in Parliament in February, 2010.

This bill will expand public health powers, allowing for mandatory testing, incarceration, quarantine and medication or vaccination of SA residents and Australian citizens against their own wishes and without their permission.

It will also allow for the removal of children from their custodial guardians or parents should they choose not to vaccinate them against certain infectious diseases or to provide them with medical treatments which the parents’ own research has shown them is not in their child’s best interest.

Even within the medical community, the benefits and risks of vaccination are a matter for conjecture and debate. Many of those who are mainstream medical professionals do not believe that vaccination will necessarily be in everyone’s best interest as evidenced by the recent polls showing that only between 30 and 50% of doctors will accept vaccination against AH1N1 (2009), the swine flu, for their families or theirselves.

Therefore, requiring vaccination, medication or any medical procedure is inimical under the laws of any free society.

As an elected representative of the people of the State of SA in the Commonwealth of Australia, it is my will that you inform me of your position on this legislation.

Kind regards,

Letters to Federal Parliament

As with the SA letters, please write to the list of representatives below and also send a copy to your local Federal Member of Parliament.  If you are not sure who your local representative is, you can download the list of current sitting Members by clicking here.

For everyone else, please direct your letters to the following Parliamentarians:

The Hon. Kevin Rudd - Prime Minister of Australia - Mr Rudd does not have his email address listed but you can email him via a web page by clicking here.
The Hon. Jenny Macklin - Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (Jenny Macklin is the person who has introduced this Bill) - contact her by clicking here.
The Hon. Nicola Roxon - Minister for Health and Aging - Nicola.Roxon.MP@aph.gov.au
The Hon. Malcolm Turnbull - Leader of the Opposition - Malcolm.Turnbull.MP@aph.gov.au
The Hon. Nigel Scullion - Shadow Minister for Human Services - senator.scullion@aph.gov.au
The Hon. Tony Abbott - Shadow Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs - Tony.Abbott.MP@aph.gov.au
The Hon. Peter Dutton - Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing - Peter.Dutton.MP@aph.gov.au

If you would prefer to write to every Parliamentarian, you can find the contact details for every Member of Parliament here; and for every Senator here.

Below is a facsimile letter. Please feel free to take these ideas and write your own letter or else, use this letter and just put your name and contact details onto it. Please be sure to include your name, address and telephone number, even if you live outside of Australia. Please be sure to use the terms “my will” in your letter since that will ensure that it will be answered and hopefully, taken seriously.

Dear (put name here or say elected representative)

It is my will that you immediately respond as to your position regarding the SOCIAL SECURITY AND OTHER LEGISLATION AMENDMENT ( WELFARE » « REFORM » AND REINSTATEMENT OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION ACT) « BILL » 2009, due for debate shortly.

According to reports, this bill will quarantine welfare payments to families with children if the children cannot be shown to be fully vaccinated. Since every study that the Australian Government has ever performed on the vaccination of children (Rogers and Pilgrim, 1992 is one example) shows quite clearly that families who choose not to vaccinate are more highly educated and of a higher socio-economic status than the average family that vaccinates, such a move is both discriminatory and counter-productive.

Since no vaccination can guarantee protection from infectious diseases nor can they prevent the spread of the disease through the community since fully-vaccinated individuals can still carry and transmit infection to those around them, it is hard to comprehend why such a clause would have been inserted into this pending legislation.

Even within the medical community, the benefits and risks of vaccination are a matter for conjecture and debate. Many of those who are mainstream medical professionals do not believe that vaccination will necessarily be in everyone’s best interest as evidenced by the recent polls showing that only between 30 and 50% of doctors will accept vaccination against AH1N1 (2009), the swine flu, for their families or theirselves.

Therefore, requiring proof of vaccination, medication or any medical procedure is inimical under the laws of any free society.

As an elected representative of the Commonwealth Government of Australia, it is my will that you inform me of your position on this legislation.

Kind regards,