Supporters have clapped and cheered in court after a doctor who clashed with regulators over COVID-19 vaccines had a medical ban lifted.
Dr William Anicha Bay had his registration as a medical practitioner suspended by the Medical Board of Australia on August 17, 2022 in response to five complaints involving his anti-vaccine activities.
Brisbane Supreme Court Justice Thomas Bradley overturned that suspension on Friday after finding Dr Bay had been subject to "bias and failure to afford fair process" over complaints unrelated to his clinical practice.
Justice Bradley said he was not entering the debate about COVID-19 vaccines.
"The court is concerned only with whether the decision or the conduct (of the medical board) was free from an error," Justice Bradley stated.
One of the complaints was that Dr Bay had posted a social media video claiming COVID-19 vaccines had killed his patient and harmed others.
Another complaint stated Dr Bay had attended an anti-vaccination protest outside the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) office in Brisbane in July 2022.
A health professional filed a mandatory complaint that Dr Bay had interrupted an Australian Medical Association conference while live streaming video to the internet, yelling "stop forcing these vaccines on the people of Australia who are getting killed by them".
The medical board found Dr Bay's public statements undermined medical regulators' "position on COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccination".
It said his statements also "further contravenes the position of local, state and federal government and health authorities, which are in place to protect public health and safety".
Justice Bradley said the COVID-19 pandemic was an "extraordinary period of history" in which governments encouraged widespread vaccine use.
However he said that did not allow the medical board to deny Dr Bay information about the complaints or disregard potential bias at hearings.
"None of these measures extended the board’s regulatory role to include protection of government and regulatory agencies from political criticism," Justice Bradley said.
He ordered the medical board and AHPRA to cover Dr Bay's reasonable legal costs as the regulators had extended the proceedings and made partial admissions at a late stage.
