Meryl Dorey of the Australian anti-vaxx group (although they hate being called that)
Australian Vaccination Network or AVN has lost her bid to silence some of her critics via Apprehended Violence Orders (AVO). Ms. Dorey sought AVOs against
Peter Bowditch, founder of the Millenium Project,
Daniel Raffaele, founder of the Stop the AVN Facebook page and
Daniel Buzzard, a sceptical blogger and outspoken opponent of Meryl Dorey and the AVN.
Ms. Dorey's AVO petition against Mr. Bowditch was thrown out and apparently
she cried about it.
But she suffered a setback last month when her AVO was thrown out
against one critic, Peter Bowditch, who she claimed posted harassing and
abusive messages online.
Unfortunately, Dan Raffaele agreed to the order for lack of will to fight it:
Mr Raffaele, who denied making any threatening calls, said he
eventually agreed to the order because he was "sick of dealing with it",
although he made sure her "gag order" was struck out.
"The only thing I was never going to agree to was being silenced on
the internet," Mr Raffaele said. "The information (the AVN) spread is
dangerous and it's not based on anything other than lies - and it costs
lives."
All Ms. Dorey succeeded in doing was ensuring that Mr. Raffaele wasn't doing to begin with, which was personally harassing her. She couldn't silence him though.
Mr. Buzzard is defending his complaint:
Western Australia-based Dan Buzzard, another AVN opponent, said Ms
Dorey probably saw taking out the AVOs as a "quick and easy" way to
silence her critics.
He will defend the application today.
We wish Mr. Buzzard defeat over Ms. Dorey's frivolous complaint and hopes she cries again.
Labor leader John Robertson will introduce amendments to the public
health act which would give early childhood centres the right to refuse
kids who haven't had their shots.
The move comes amid concern
about high rates of unvaccinated children in some parts of
NSW as well
as the emergence of so-called "anti-vaxxers" who refuse vaccination.
Some parts of NSW had lower vaccination rates than Rwanda, Mr Robertson said.