Informed Medical Options Party

Summary

Policies & Commentary

Cate’s already discoursed at length on the central ideology of this party (hereafter referred to by the pleasing acronym of IMOP) and just how wrong and selfish it is, so if you’re interested, I refer you to her excellent review. I’ll just sum it up here as briefly as possible: Vaccines are bad, ‘mkay?

Despite their claims to a large membership base, IMOP is right out there on the fringe. It made exactly no impact on the 2019 federal election, and was in danger of disappearing entirely into the fields of irrelevance. But then, Covid-19 appeared, and for IMOP it must have seemed like a gift. Cometh the hour, cometh the party, and all that. So it’s back, rebadged and reinvigorated, presenting itself as a sober and sensible party presenting the views of a large, unheard section of the population.

Spoiler alert: it’s nothing of the kind.

IMOP would still have you believe that voting for them is your only hope to save yourself and your kids from hordes of mad scientists roaming the streets, leaping upon the unwary and jabbing them with untested, experimental vaccines full of all sorts of terrible ingredients. Nanotech! AIDS! Foetal organs! 5G! But fear not! IMOP will valiantly stand against this evil, moustache-twirling foe. It will confront the enemy in their lairs (the labs where these dreadful concoctions are mixed up, no doubt over bubbling cauldrons). It will stand shoulder to shoulder with parents to beat back the vaccination vans from the schools. It will throw open the doors of kindergartens to let in the hordes of children discriminated against by No Jab, No Play legislation.

While it’s on the subject, IMOP also wants you to know that all vaccine mandates and Covid restrictions will be swept away in the wake of their resounding victory. Throw away your masks! Hug strangers in the street! Cough in the faces of everyone you meet! IMOP will champion your right to do so.

Oh, and while they’re at it, let’s get rid of that pesky fluoride in the water.

Like their vaccination – I’m sorry, anti-vaccination policies, this idea of everyone celebrating their freedom in the streets is just plain selfish. So what if vulnerable people are struck down by disease? So what if people who would dearly love to be protected by vaccines, but can’t because of genuine medical issues, die? So what if kids’ teeth suffer to the point of needing thousands of dollars of dental care? Community means nothing to IMOP. Really, its slogan could probably be “I’m all right, Jack”.

Incidentally IMOP has no dental policy, but it will go to the mat for you on your right to see a government-funded iridologist or Reiki healer. I’m sure that’ll be a great comfort.

It gets progressively more ridiculous and deeper into the land of the truly divorced from reality, the further you go. IMOP embraces the fiction of foetal organ harvesting and the “born alive” myth. I’ve already dealt with both of those, so if you’re interested, I refer you to the entry on One Nation. It wants Australia out of the World Health Organisation. Presumably, this is because WHO is an enthusiastic supporter of vaccines – although, given some of the speeches given by IMOP candidates at anti-vax/anti-mandate/anti-government rallies this year, it might also be because IMOP believes WHO is part of an evil globalist conspiracy with a depopulation agenda.

And then there’s this.

Halt 5G rollout until independent studies and safety levels are assessed on human and animal health, and the environment.

Whooooo, where do I start? No, you know what, it’s not worth spending a great deal of words on this absurd fiction. I’ll let Brendan Murphy, Australia’s Chief Medical Officer, answer that.

For all that IMOP wants to assure us that ”we are not just about medical freedoms” (their word, not mine), it’s hard to find something that doesn’t touch on their favourite bugbear. Their Human Rights policy, for example, wants anti-vaccine talk to be protected and not “censored” – not that there’s any evidence that such censorship is going on. For every Misinformation Notice appended to an anti-vax tweet, there are a dozen websites willing to expound at length on the subject. Under Parental policy, there’s also the idea that parents should be able to refuse life-saving medical care, including chemotherapy and radiotherapy (and, of course, vaccines), without running the risk of having that child taken from them.

Medical freedom for “all”, indeed.

Even in those policies that don’t explicitly mention vaccines, it’s hard not to draw the inference that IMOP’s distrust of science and its embrace of pseudo-science aren’t influential. Take its commitment to making ”traditional and natural therapies” government funded, and its promotion of ”complementary options” in psychiatric care. I don’t mind telling you that these ideas – especially the latter – send chills down my spine, and not because I think that all such therapies are rubbish. It’s because the idea of accreditation, regulation, and accountability appear nowhere in IMOP’s policies – except when it comes to vaccination. Under IMOP, properly-tested, rigorously accredited and regulated science would be suppressed, and anyone who takes an online course in Flower Therapy would be able to hang out a shingle and receive government funding.

It would be easy to see this party as a joke. IMOP is all but promising free tinfoil hats for every Australian to protect them from Evil Microwaves of Doom. Sadly, IMOP doesn’t think it’s joking. It’s absolutely committed to science so pseudo it’s practically witchcraft, coupled with fervent, groundless belief that it needs to combat things that simply … aren’t … happening. Add in an unhealthy dose of “I got mine, screw you”, and everything IMOP proposes becomes yet another recipe for disaster.

Cate recommended that people not vote for IMOP. I’ll go one step further: don’t even give their nonsense space in your head. You’ve got better things to do with your time this election season.

Just a reminder that Loki and I lack the necessary Eurovision knowledge to choose the songs that Catherine liked to include, but we’d love to see what you suggest in the comments below 🙂