Independent senator John Madigan has lashed out at the medical profession's bullying of doctors treating patients with suspected Lyme disease.
Health authorities and medical experts insist the tick-borne disease can't be contracted in Australia.
But many Australians who have never left the country believe they are suffering from Lyme disease.
Senator Madigan says doctors treating patients with Lyme-like illness are being bullied and harassed out of their profession.
He's called on the government to insist the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency immediately stop targeting doctors treating Lyme.
"I call on Health Minister Sussan Ley to reign in her AHPRA attack dog," he told parliament on Wednesday.
"This campaign of harassment and bullying is creating medical refugees out of thousands of sick Australians who now can't obtain treatment or who must go overseas to do so."
Two Senate inquiries, referred by Senator Madigan, are investigating the prevalence of Lyme-like illness in Australia and bullying in the medical profession.
Senator Madigan said Australia's Chief Medical Officer Chris Baggoley had previously told a Senate hearing that the Health Department and Medical Board did not support a policy of warning doctors from treating Lyme, insisting AHPRA had no official position on Lyme disease in Australia.
"This is not true," he said.
He said Geoffrey Kemp, a Camberwell GP with more than 40 years experience, had treated more than 350 patients for Lyme-like symptoms but was unable to continue because of "outrageous" restrictions on his practice, including that he not practise without a workplace supervisor.
