Dr Jereth Kok has been severely penalised for online posts criticising gender ideology, abortion and COVID-19 vaccine mandates and policies.

He was suspended 6 years ago and has now lost his ability to practise medicine.

The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) found that the Australian GP was guilty of professional misconduct for posting his views on social media. He has not been found guilty of harming patients or misconduct in his professional practice.

The Human Rights Law Alliance (HRLA) representing Dr Kok reported:

The Tribunal found 54 of these 85 posts to be misconduct under the National Law, despite their political, religious, and satirical nature – and despite lacking any connection to or impact on patient care.

VCAT found that Dr Kok’s posts, among other things, were “disrespectful” and “derogatory”, not sufficiently balanced or unbiased, and legitimised Covid vaccine hesitancy.

The decision is deeply disappointing for Dr Kok and sets a concerning precedent for freedom of speech in Australia, particularly for professionals who hold Christian or conservative beliefs.

It confirms that regulators like AHPRA and the Medical Board have significant powers to discipline practitioners not only for what they do in their clinical practice, but for holding and expressing unpopular social or moral views – even in a private capacity.

VCAT gave little weight to the nature or facts of the posts and was primarily concerned with how they were “disrespectful and derogatory to LGBTQI+ community” and also labelled gender critical posts as “denigrating, demeaning, disrespectful and derogatory to LGBTQI+ persons”.

Free speech in Victoria is now severely limited, even factual or truth speech that is possibly hurtful to LGBT+ individuals can be penalised. This is despite the fact no human can change sex and many religious teachings are opposed to the lies and deceptions of gender ideology.

Politicians think they can write laws that oppose the laws of nature but for how much longer can these laws prevail when they reject reality and ignore scientific facts? How can the public trust a medical or political system that is so brazenly based on lies and deception and penalises doctors who speak the truth?