The galloping COVID authoritarianism in Australia

 

 

The phrase ‘creeping authoritarianism’ is misleading, because authoritarianism can dash onto the world stage, as demonstrated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

For much of the supposedly liberal world, the 18 months of the pandemic has seen suspension of liberties at remarkable speed. Australia being a prime example.

 

In Australia, few would have expected in early 2019 that ‘2 weeks to flatten the curve’ would have evolved into mass-locked downs—for over 260 days in the case of Melbourne. Nor would many have expected that responsible and reasonable care, advised by the authorities, would morph into mandated vaccinations, backed not by laws judicially debated in Parliament, but emergency directives, enforced at the cost of people’s basic rights, such as that of earning a living and free association. 

 

The mantra of ‘we are all in this together’ has mutated into a tiered class system, segregated by vaccination status. And this is despite data clearly showing that vaccinations do not prevent catching or transmitting COVID. Natural immunity developed through catching the virus, which is both stronger and longer lasting than vaccination-induced immunity, is not even discussed, let along taken into consideration.

 

Even people with clear medical conditions, like Ms Betty Pezzimenti from Melbourne, who has serious allergies to components of the vaccines, cannot get an exemption. One reason is that doctors are frightened of legal ramifications of doing so in a climate of vaccine authoritarianism. For example, in November, Dr Mark Hobart’s surgery in Melbourne was raided by officers from the state Department of Health, without warrants, who seized confidential patient files, on the suspicion of him falsifying vaccine exemptions. He has been banned from practising until the investigation is completed, leaving his patients in the lurch.

 

There are numerous other ways by which liberties have been taken away, haphazardly and against compassion and evidence – closing schools despite data showing that children are extremely safe and that teachers are at no heightened risk; mask mandates despite latest research as well as CDC and WHO guidelines stating that masks do not prevent viral spread but may do some harm; banning playgrounds despite there being no evidence of outdoor transmission.

 

But most fundamental of all is the new pandemic bill that has passed through Victorian Parliament, and has just become law. This means that Victoria will be the first state in Australia to have pandemic-specific legislation, giving the government the legal framework to implement what it sees as necessary mandates, such as for vaccinations, masks, and more lockdowns.

 

This is the same government that presided over the state with the highest number of COVID cases and deaths in Australia, despite enforcing the longest lockdown in the world. This government has also shown that it can often bend the rules when it suits them. And the Premier of this government recently said its handling of the pandemic was a ‘triumph’.

 

Some triumph—on the same day as the bill comes into law, the government’s border permit system has been described by Victoria’s Ombudsman as ‘inhumane’. Of the 33,252 exemption applications received between July 9 and September 14, many to attend funerals or for end of life reasons, only 8% were granted, with the majority not even declined, but lost to the incompetent bureaucratic maze. The Ombudsman, Ms Deborah Glass, has claimed that despite the pandemic, “[…] the result was some of the most questionable decisions I have seen in my over seven years as Ombudsman.” This government, proven to be inept and willing to be authoritarian, now has more powers to wield.

 

Victor Klemperer’s imperishable I Will Bear Witness is an almost daily document of the collapse of German civilization under the Nazi Reich. One element is his detailing of how, even as his rights as a Jewish German citizen was stripped away one by one, including his right to keep a cat, which he had to put down, he is cheered up whenever a fellow Dresdener told him that those bastards (the Nazis) won’t be here for long. Except they were, and he was only saved from being taken to the concentration camp when the Allies bombed Dresden.

 

This is not to make the lazy comparison between COVID authoritarianism and the Third Reich, but it is to underline the fact that the creep of authoritarianism can be swifter than you imagine and appear more benign than is the case—the antecedents to the nightmare of the 20^th century began with certain people not able to use certain park benches. And while it took years for Mr Klemperer to lose his job and not be able to use the tram, all this was achieved in less than 18 months in Melbourne.