A NSW Liberal MP has given a speech attacking COVID-19 vaccination mandates, saying she thinks her own government has gone too far.
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Tanya Davies addressed the anti-vaccination rally outside NSW parliament on Tuesday, congratulating protesters for calling "on this government for fairness and for freedom".
The member for Mulgoa in Sydney said she had been "dismayed" that a Liberal government made the decision to mandate vaccinations for construction workers during the Delta outbreak in Sydney last year.
The move, made by former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, was met with opposition from Ms Davies at the time, who called it an "assault on an individuals' freedoms and civil liberties" in a statement.
"I can't quite tell you exactly how I felt when I read those words in that media release," she told protesters.
"As Liberals, we believe in individual freedom and individual responsibility the two are intertwined."
Ms Davies said she stopped posting live videos on Facebook after NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet was sworn in last October, saying she "wanted to give the new premier ... the opportunity to turn the Titanic around".
She said she'd been working with Mr Perrottet to show him COVID-19 was not a "deadly disease that is going to eradicate millions of people".
The global death toll for COVID-19 stands at at least 6.09 million, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University of Medicine Coronavirus Resarch Centre.
"You've had six months, now is the time to take the stand and lead this NSW community out of this COVID fear panic," she said in comments pointed at the premier.
"Give us back our freedoms to go and earn an income."
Ms Davies has offered her support to members of the community who have refused vaccination in recent months, previously calling mandates a "serious, critical issue of our community".
NSW Opposition Leader Chris Minns said Ms Davies' job as a government executive who drew an additional salary as a parliamentary secretary was no longer justifiable.
The salary for a NSW parliamentary secretary is $203,030.
"(The member for Mulgoa's) position is completely untenable in the senior levels of the NSW government," Mr Minns said, adding her speech "fundamentally undermines the important public health message that it's everybody's obligation in this building to push out".
"It's not tenable for the member for Mulgoa to pick and choose to pick and choose what parts of the anti-vaccine movement she supports," NSW Labor deputy Prue Carr said.
Ms Carr said the message being spread by Ms Davies was "dangerous" and was "directly undermining the public health message of her own government".
Australian Associated Press
