Under NSW’s public health orders teachers, healthcare workers, emergency services and other essential workers have been made to get the jab or risk losing their job.But no orders exist for state parliament members to do the same. But on Thursday the Premier refused calls at a press conference to make the jab mandatory for politicians.Mr Perrottet said he didn‘t know if any members weren’t vaccinated and shut down questions about whether he was protecting vaccine-opposed MPs by not making it mandatory“Not that I’m aware … we strongly encourage it, we aren’t mandating it for members of parliament,” Mr Perrottet said. “I don’t know the personal medical issues and decisions in the Liberal party.”“We haven’t obviously mandated vaccination across all industries, we haven’t mandated vaccination across the board but ultimately we strongly encouraged people to get vaccinated and boosted.”He fired back again when pressed: “My expectation is that members of parliament are vaccinated, there is no information to suggest otherwise … unless the media knows something that I don’t know.” Daily Telegraph – News Feed latest episodeIt comes as MPs including Member for Mulgoa Tanya Davies and government whip and Wollondilly MP Nathaniel Smith have not publicly revealed whether they have been jabbed.NSW Labor took aim at the difference under parliamentary privilege on Wednesday, with MLC Walt Secord accusing the Premier of protecting “a cabal of anti vaxxers” in a private member’s statement.“We support vaccinations for essential workers but we also support consistency,” Mr Secord said under parliamentary privilege.“(The NSW government) forces unvaccinated workers out of the workplace, but they refuse to take action against their own.”Mr Perrottet said he hadn’t caught Mr Secord’s speech and responded with “no” when asked if he was supportive of MPs who were against vaccination.But he said he would “look into” whether any were unjabbed.“I would expect and strongly encourage any members of parliament to be vaccinated if they are not,” he said.The pressure on the Premier prompted questions to other MPs at the press conference on Thursday to make their vaccination status public.Deputy Liberal leader Stuart Ayres clarified he was “definitely” vaccinated and had received his booster but also backed the Premier against mandating the jab for MPs.“We make the rules for people who work for the NSW government, the NSW parliament is not something under our jurisdiction … it’s not something we have legislative or legal control over,” Mr Ayres said.Treasurer Matt Kean and Minister for Local Government Wendy Tuckerman also shared they were both fully vaccinated when asked. NED-5192-DT-App-Banner
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