The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) has upheld a decision of the Medical Board of Australia to suspend Christian doctor, Jereth Kok’s, from practising as a doctor. The Board’s and now the VCAT’s finding of professional misconduct was with regard to Kok’s social media posts about abortion, same-sex marriage, transgenderism, conversion therapy laws, LGBTQI+ issues, Islam, Covid-19 public health orders and Covid-19 vaccinations. This means that he has now lost his career. The next stage would be to sentence him – that is to deregister him as a doctor.
The ruling makes it clear that Kok’s treatment of patients was not in question, rather his ability to practise was suspended due to his social media posting.
Kok was represented by the Human Rights law Alliance (HRLA), a Christian law firm with a particular concern for free speech. “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,” HRLA wrote
“VCAT found that Dr Kok’s posts, among other things, were “disrespectful” and “derogatory”, not sufficiently balanced or unbiased, and legitimised Covid vaccine hesitancy.
HRLA points to two examples of offending posts.
“The Tribunal considered but gave little weight to constitutional or freedom of speech protections.
“One of the posts found to be misconduct was a satirical Babylon Bee article that made fun of the use of gender pronouns, which VCAT said showed a lack of respect for “gender diversity”.
“According to Tribunal: The post was disrespectful and derogatory to LGBTQI+ community as it was making fun of LGBTQI+ people as members of a group …
“Another offending post was an article written by Dr Kok addressing transgender ideology from a Christian perspective, which the Tribunal found to be ‘denigrating, demeaning, disrespectful and derogatory to LGBTQI+ persons.'”
This refers to an Eternity article, “A medical perspective on Transgender”, which formed part of a series that teased out the balanche between grace and truth on that subject. It started with a piece by Tess Delbridge a former Eternity staffer “Gender bending? Transgender not as black and white as you might think”. In turn, Justine Toh from the Centre for Public Christianity wrote a response in Eternity A little empathy, please, on the issue of transgender. In effect, Kok was taking part in a debate about the Christian view of transgender.
The VCAT decision however did not uphold the Medical’s Board’s depiction of many of Kok’s posts. The Board was only successful in impugning 42 out of the 85 posts that were in dispute – less than 50% of the total Posts. The Tribunal recognised that many of Dr Kok’s posts were satirical and clearly used sarcasm (including in relation to his own ethnic Chinese origin) and did not give the posts a hostile literal meaning as contended by the Medical Board.
A public statement by Kok steps back from some of his posts.
“Just under six years since he was suspended from medical practice, Dr Jereth Kok has received a decision of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in disciplinary proceedings taken by the Medical Board of Australia. Dr Kok is disappointed that he was unsuccessful with his submissions to the Tribunal that free speech principles should be upheld and that Medical Board discipline should relate to clinical conduct and should not police religious and political expression. Dr Kok of course respects the Tribunal’s decision and is taking advice on the decision and will now turn to preparing for the sanction hearing that will follow these findings.
“This was a case about the propriety of Dr Kok’s social media posts over a 12-year period and did not relate to his medical practice, as the Tribunal acknowledged. Dr Kok accepts that some of the language he used in his social media posts was regrettable and on reflection he would not use that language again. He notes that this relates to only a proportion of the posts that were impugned by the Medical Board and that he communicated this acceptance to the Tribunal at his hearing.
“Dr Kok was heartened that the Tribunal found that the Medical Board’s allegations of misconduct were not satisfied for over one third of the social media posts subject to allegations. Many of the posts were found to be purely political or religious commentary and so fell outside the Medical Board’s remit. Dr Kok was also pleased that the worst allegations suggesting that he supported genocide and violence were not made out and that the Tribunal recognised that many comments used satire and sarcasm.”
HRLA believes that the VCAT decision has serious implications for free speach, especially for Christian professionals who belong to a professional body with disciplinary powers.
“The VCAT decision in Medical Board of Australia v Dr Jereth Kok signals a concerning expansion of regulatory power into areas of personal belief, political expression and religious conviction.
“For Christian professionals – and indeed for any professional who holds views outside the progressive mainstream – the implications are serious.
“This decision is disappointing to Dr Kok, who was suspended over six years ago and has lost his career. But the ramifications extend much further to all Australians, particularly those who work in a regulated profession. The decision raises concerns about whether Australia will continue to allow employers, regulators, and government to exercise power over free speech and the expression of personal, political, and religious opinions.”
HRLA is carefully considering an appeal.
Image: Jereth Kok
Correction: the VCAT link in an earlier version was is to their earlier decision. But the principles appear to be the same. WE have clarifiued the decription of Kok’s status. His suspension from practising by the Medical board was upheld, but he has not yet been de-registered as a doctor.
God bless you Dr..Kok. You are a real doctor who lives by his oath. ✝️🙏✝️