IN 2023, William Bay, the Queensland doctor suspended by the AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency) during the Covid plandemic for publicly criticising government coercion to take mRNA injections, managed to get his case referred to the High Court of Australia.
Dr Bay had challenged not only the actions of AHPRA, but its actual legal standing. AHPRA was formed in 2010 under Queensland law after an intergovernmental (and unconstitutional) COAG agreement.
Dr Bay, self-represented, submitted to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in Queensland that AHPRA was not a legal body under Australian law, only (possibly) under Queensland law, and the authority of AHPRA and the Medical Board of Australia to regulate doctors’ free political speech needed to be tested in the High Court.
Dylan Oakley, who has been closely following the case, wrote in Substack in 2023 that Australians have an implied right to freedom of political communication according to several High Court cases. We also have the freedom to choose our own leaders, and this is not possible without the ability to speak freely about political matters.
“Bay’s right to freedom of political communication is what is issue in this case. He says he has a a right to communicate about government Covid policy,” Oakley said.
AHPRA found itself in a corner and, with the support of the Queensland government, tried to tell the Supreme Court that Dr Bay was wasting the the court’s time and money and sought for his two-day case to be thrown out.
Instead the chief justice took the case herself and called an emergency court hearing. Dr Bay self-represented while both AHPRA and the Queensland government had four lawyers each.
Dr Bay went on to show the Chief Justice that there is no Health Practitioner Regulations National Law, only The Health Practitioner Regulations National Law Regulation 2018 – a subtle but legal difference. The Chief Justice granted his request to move his case to the High Court.
In Brisbane on Wednesday (Sept. 25th), Dr Bay was back in court for the pre-trial hearing, self-represented and facing AHPRA’s legal counsel team of seven. The legal team had earlier objected to Dr Bay’s witness documents as evidence but then withdrew all opposition to them. The three-day trial will take place on October 21st.
Dr Bay was originally suspended due to what media called his “bizzare rant” at doctors meeting for a medical conference in July 2022. Dr Anne Tonkin, the head of the panel that suspended Dr Bay, was also one of the alleged ‘victims’ of his ‘crime’, who ran away when Dr Bray shouted: “I’m here today to ask you to join with the people of Australia and stop forcing these vaccines on people who are getting killed by them.”
AHPRA’s suspension notice said Dr Bay’s conduct posed “a serious risk to persons” and required “immediate action” to protect public health. “The statements by you, as recently as June 2022, have the potential to undermine public health directives and positions in relation to the Covid-19 vaccine,” it stated.
