Liberal MP Russell Broadbent, who is unvaccinated to COVID-19, has declared he took the banned horse de-wormer ivermectin when he contracted the coronavirus last month.
Mr Broadbent, from the southeast Victorian seat of Monash, made the disclosure on the floor of Parliament this afternoon to emphasise his support for the anti-vaccine mandate protesters who met in Canberra over the weekend.
Russell Broadbent is pictured at Parliament House in November last year.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
“All those demonstrators were talking about choice, freedom,” Mr Broadbent said.
Mr Broadbent said he wasn’t worried about his COVID-19 diagnosis on January 21, due to the various vitamins and supplements he was on. He said he also took the horse de-wormer ivermectin for five days.
Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has banned the off-label prescribing of ivermectin, citing the public health risk and national shortages created by an increase in prescriptions. Ivermectin is not among the treatments, listed here, approved by the TGA to treat the coronavirus.
Mr Broadbent is one of a growing number of conservative parliamentarians to criticise vaccine mandates, including United Australia Party leader Craig Kelly and Queensland Liberal National George Christensen.
“I am not vaccinated, and I won’t be vaccinated because my view was to be vaccinated was just as high as the risk that I was taking to get the virus itself,” Mr Broadbent said.
“I had to make a decision, I made a decision on my behalf.”
COVID-19 vaccinations greatly reduce the risk of hospitalisation and death and health risks associated with vaccinations are extremely rare.
With Rachel Eddie
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