A legal expert has weighed in on the likelihood of a compulsory COVID-19 vaccine as the race to find one approaches the finish line.

Director of the Health Law and Ethics Network at Melbourne Law School Paula O’Brien told Scott Emerson the state and territory governments do have the power to enforce mandatory vaccination, though the Commonwealth government may not.

“But I think a different issue arises from whether they technically have power, and that is whether the governments would want to.

“That’s a very different question.”

She explained how the government could instead incentivise uptake of a COVID-19 vaccine by including it in the ‘no jab, no play’ and ‘no jab, no pay’ laws.

“The government mandating a COVID vaccine for certain workforces … [is] a real possibility … around healthcare workers.

“Hospitals, aged care, [and] maybe childcare is another one. Laboratory workers … may be another category.”

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