Mirani Southern Region Volunteer Award

State Member for Mirani, Stephen Andrew, is calling for nominations for the Mirani Southern Region Volunteer Award. The prize is a Cruise Whitsundays Travel Voucher for the Whitehaven Beach Cruise (2 Adults + 2 Children) plus $500 towards accommodation at the Big 4 Adventure Whitsunday Resort. To nominate someone making a difference in the community, use the nomination form below.

Selection criteria

For the Mirani Volunteer Award: Local Hero award, the nominee must be an Australian citizen who volunteers in one of the towns or regional localities from the southern end of the Mirani Electorate between Ogmore South and Raglan Creek.

For the Volunteer Award, the person must:

 Be a volunteer

 Be based in the southern end of the Mirani electorate (as above)

 Benefit those who live, work and study in the southern end of the Mirani electorate

Volunteer Nomination

Nominate a volunteer for their achievements with a local community organisation. In your nomination, please include the:

 Benefit and impact of the nominee’s volunteering to the community, as well as their achievements

 Attributes, skills and experience of the nominee

 History and range of volunteering activities undertaken by the nominee

 Extent to which the nominee has balanced their volunteering activity in addition to family, work and other commitments

 Challenges and complexities associated with their volunteering activities

The winner will be chosen from the nominees and announced at the Mount Morgan Wattle Day Festival on Sunday 12 September 2021.

Nominations close COB Wednesday 8 September 2021

More information

For more information on the Volunteer Award, contact the Mirani Electorate Office at Mirani@parliament.qld.gov.au or call 07 4806 0700.

NOMINATION FORM

Stephen Andrew statement on vaccine profits

Vaccine profits are starting to mount as the COVID-19 vaccine is on track to become to the most profitable drug in world history. Giant pharmaceutical corporations, like Pfizer, Moderna, China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd and Sinopharm Group Co, are making obscene levels of profit from the monopoly they hold on the Covid-19 vaccine market.

According to People’s Vaccine Alliance, a group of non-profit, non-governmental organisations including Oxfam and UNAIDS, more than a dozen executives and investors became billionaires overnight last year, thanks to their ownership of Covid-19 patents. The new billionaires include many CEOs of firms like Moderna, the CanSino Biologics and German firm BioNTech, which helped develop the technology behind the Pfizer vaccine.

BioNTech increased its production capacity to 3 billion doses in 2021 and is working with 15 partners, including Merck, Novartis Sanofi and Baxter to form licensing and manufacturing agreements and establish a global vaccine manufacturing network worth trillions.

US Drug company, Pfizer, told investors last week that thanks to Covid-19 vaccine sales, the company had nearly doubled its second-quarter revenue and boosted profits by a staggering 60%. The pharmaceutical giant’s CEO, Albert Bourla, celebrated by announcing an increase in price of the Pfizer vaccine, raising it from $USD19.50 to $USD24 per dose.

Bourla is also now pushing for people to get a third “booster” shot of the vaccine, saying boosters will be needed within 6 to 12 months of people getting the second shot. During a February earnings call, Bourla told analysts the company could make significant profits by charging higher prices and implementing routine booster doses for new variants of the virus, assuring investors the company didn’t see this as a one-time event, but “as something that’s going to continue for the foreseeable future”.

Australian biotechnology giant CSL notched up its fastest profit and revenue growth in years, after its flu vaccine was bought by the tonne by the federal government. Net profit surged a massive 45 per cent to $US1.8 billion ($2.32 billion) in the six months to December 31, while revenue leapt 16.9 per cent to $US5.7 billion.

All told, governments and non-profits around the world invested billions in developing these vaccines. Add to this the cost of advance purchase deals, and public investment in Covid vaccines climbs even higher. Big Pharma has been the big winner without a doubt, and it has all been handed to them 100% risk free, with blanket immunity for any injuries or deaths caused by their fast-tracked product. The only industry in the world to be handed such a gold-plated pass. It begs the question, though – if a company is not prepared to stand behind the product it sells, then why should the Public trust either them or their product?

No liability. No trust.

Nominate a volunteer for award