One Nation leader Senator Pauline Hanson has introduced a bill to make it unlawful to discriminate against Australians who choose not to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Senator Hanson said in a press release on Thursday that she can see “no other alternative for halting the pandemic of discrimination that has been unleashed on Australia” against the unvaccinated.

“These individuals are Australians just like the rest of us but they’re demonised by governments and scorned at by compliant media,” the Senator said.

“They face a bleak future in which they are treated as second-class citizens, not allowed to earn a living or cross a state border to be reunited with their families. Many have already had their livelihoods taken from them for standing for the right to choose.

“There’s no protection even for those who can’t get vaccinated for medical reasons. They face unacceptable discrimination too.”

Senator Hanson noted, as an example, the Northern Territory’s recent move to mandate all workers who interact with the public to receive a COVID vaccine within a month or receive a $5000 fine.

“It’s pure discrimination and naked coercion in a jurisdiction which has just over 200 cases and not one single death from COVID-19,” she said.

The Senator went on to say: “All of this discrimination sends a clear message: the rights of the individual will be protected only so long as they do not conflict with the state. There is nothing – not even a global pandemic – more dangerous to a free society.

“Australia is a democracy, not a totalitarian state or communist dictatorship.”

Senator Hanson said the legislation was also a necessary response to Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s profound lack of leadership during the pandemic.

“State premiers are walking all over the Prime Minister and his so-called national plan, locking down communities at a whiff of a new case and refusing to commit to the open borders that are the constitutional right of every Australian citizen,” she said.

“Scott Morrison is impotent in preventing it. He’s too gutless to admit the Constitution forbids the Commonwealth from authorising civil conscription with respect to medical services, so he lets the states and territories trample all over our right to choose, take away our jobs, separate our families and isolate our communities.

Senator Hanson said if Scott Morrison won’t stand up for Australians’ right to choose, he is “clearly not fit to lead this country.”