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A Sydney law firm that was admonished by the regulator for urging civil disobedience during Victoria’s winter lockdown has been accused of spreading misinformation on social media with suggestions that COVID-19 vaccination does not work and testing is nonsense.
G&B Lawyers is drumming up donations for a $10 million High Court challenge to mandatory vaccination. The firm is run by Kim Glassborow, who was formerly in-house legal counsel at Dial-a-Dump, the garbage empire founded by rich-lister Ian Malouf, and Nathan Andrew Buckley, who was reprimanded by the NSW Legal Services Commissioner in January last year for sending threatening, abusive or discourteous correspondence.
Sydney lawyer Nathan Buckley of G&B Lawyers has been accused of peddling misinformation about COVID-19.
Its addresses are listed in Wollongong and Martin Place, where it has a serviced workspace.
In the last few days, the firm posted to its Facebook page a description of the anti-lockdown protests as “awesome” and claimed “COVID-19 jabs don’t work”. On Sunday, it linked to an announcement by the US Centre for Disease Control that encouraged doctors to switch to a testing method that detected and differentiated between influenza and COVID-19.
“Is this an admission that the COVID-19 tests used in Australia can’t tell the difference between COVID-19 and influenza?” the law firm commented. “Or that they are the same thing? Or the tests just don’t work at all?”
Medical professionals said this misunderstood that PCR [polymerase chain reaction] testing was only set up to detect the presence of specified viruses. The CDC was calling on US laboratories to start testing swabs for influenza as well as SARS-CoV-2.
“PCR is a closed test,” said University of NSW virologist Bill Rawlinson. “You can ask it as a question: ‘Is this SARS-CoV-2 or not?’ But it doesn’t distinguish: ‘What is this thing?’”
Orthopaedic surgeon and public health advocate John Cunningham said the post on PCR testing demonstrated “a breathtaking lack of idea of medical science”.
“When people like this lawyer misinterpret information, that’s when you see groups like the protesters in Sydney who have been fed this garbage,” he said.
Mr Buckley said he got his information about PCR testing from the announcement on the CDC website. “Do some actual journalism and take a look for yourself,” he said in an email. “I understand it. Clearly you don’t.”
He then posted the Herald’s questions to the firm’s social media page with the caption: “When the mainstream media don’t like facts they resort to harassment.”
Mr Buckley is not associated with Nathan Buckley of Optic Lawyers.
G&B Lawyers has found fertile ground for its mandatory vaccination class action among aged care workers, who will be required to have their first dose by mid-September.
Since the order was announced in late June, the firm has been swamped with calls, Mr Buckley told his followers. More than 2400 people expressed their support in the class action.
A flyer seeking donations to the firm’s High Court challenge said $10 million will need to be raised because an action will need to be brought in every state as well as the Commonwealth. The fine print clarifies that any donation cannot be refunded, but if the challenge does not proceed it will go towards various civil actions undertaken by the firm in relation to mandatory flu vaccination.
Protesters gather in Lonsdale Street, Melbourne last weekend.Credit:Eddie Jim
“What we want to do is stop governments controlling people’s lives, and protect an individual’s right to decide whether to have a vaccination,” the flyer said.
In the United States, less than one per cent of people who have died from COVID-19 were fully vaccinated. None of the people who have died in Sydney’s outbreak were fully vaccinated.
Mr Buckley has been involved in the anti-vaccination movement since at least June last year, when he sought to challenge the South Australian government over its “no jab, no play” policy. He raised $62,066 through a community campaign, but the action was dropped in February because the applicant child started primary school, he told his supporters.
In July last year, he encouraged Victorians to defy their state’s public health order on masks.
“Free legal advice to all Victorians,” he wrote. “Don’t wear a mask … Every single one of you 6.359 Victorians can challenge the fines in court. The Victorian government won’t fight you in court. It is far too expensive for them to do so.”
The Law Society of NSW asked him to remove the post, warning it risked bringing the profession into disrepute.
The Law Society of NSW will not comment on whether complaints have been made against a lawyer unless an adverse finding has been made. But Mr Buckley published a letter sent to him by the society in December that confirmed it had made a detailed complaint about him to the NSW Legal Services Commissioner.
When the Victorian Police dropped the fines it had issued for breaches of coronavirus restrictions in January, Mr Buckley demanded the society drop its complaint and apologise to him. He has lodged an appeal against the society in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
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