THE Wuhan virus could never be sufficient reason to justify the evasion of much of the separation of powers and of checks and balances that make up the very basis, the signature, of Anglo-American constitutionalism.
It is an outrage that so much power be exercised secretly and unaccountably by small cabals of politicians and bureaucrats.
Most have neither the experience, accrued wisdom or indeed competence of Australia’s salt of the earth, our real achievers, the men and women on the farms, in small businesses, the trades, professions and in the services who are richly endowed with common sense and traditional values.
Authoritarians refusing to reveal facts & advice is the badge of communist regimes, not a parliamentary democracy…
David Flint
Contrast that with the Machiavellian apprenticeships in the shady and corrupt world of the political operators, lobbyists and powerbrokers which is too often the narrow education for most politicians today.
IMPRISONING
We now have ministers making laws in secret with the stroke of a pen, even to hide their mistakes, without parliamentary or judicial control, imposing massive fines, closing down businesses, imprisoning people in their homes or small localities and encouraging the police to recruit armies of informers.
The latest outrage is the closing of the NSW construction industry which is as sensible as the shrew with a loudspeaker on a Bondi cliff top ordering the only boy on a surfboard well out to sea to return to shore.
And how many in the media joined in rejoicing over the closure of the beach based on deceivingly compressed photographs?
Yet there is not a whittle of evidence of the virus flourishing under those quintessential Australian elements, surf, sun and sea.
The fact is the Australian people never agreed to surrender the rights with which they are endowed by their Creator, rights which their predecessors intended to be reserved to the people forever.
It was always sensible to take advantage of our remoteness and island status to close our international borders until we assessed the virulence of this virus. But there never ever was any justification for a national, State or city-wide lockdown.
Elimination is predictably proving impossible. The aim should always be threefold, to protect the vulnerable, encourage the majority to act responsibly and make available, subject to the principle of informed consent, both a full range of vaccines as well as proven medicines.
One appalling feature of the increasingly authoritarian system is the refusal to reveal facts and advice.
This is the badge of communist regimes, not a parliamentary democracy.
Take the cause of the current lockdowns, the Bondi Cluster, which, given their failure to regulate aircrew drivers could well be called the Berejiklian-Hazzard Cluster.
Asking in The Australian newspaper, why aren’t we told whether the crew were masked, vaccinated or tested, Chris Woodley says “I think the limo driver has been taken for a ride”.
And why do governments always hide from us “the medical advice”? Is it because it is so shallow it would not stand scrutiny?
EXAGGERATED
As we noted here, the first modelling for the National Cabinet was based on Imperial College modelling which produced exaggerated results together with a major transposition error which nobody in the National Cabinet or the armies of advisers noticed.
This authoritarianism is creeping into everything, even the letting of taxpayer-funded venues.
The WA authorities refuse to let them to the victims of the genocidal Beijing dictatorship, cravenly apologising over one slipping through.
It was only when Australian Christians were being banned that the mainstream media took much notice.
This was almost as big a story as those wrung from the shocking fact that there is a men’s club in Sydney, a city which has more than twice as many for women.
Incidentally, while allowed to hold its early rallies in the historic Sydney Town Hall, when it came to the night of the referendum, Australians for Constitutional Monarchy were banned from using an empty Town Hall by a City Council which had festooned the city with Vote Yes flags. What turned out to be a landslide was celebrated in the Convention Centre.
LEFT-WING
Meanwhile, the news that John Ruddick will lead a team of prominent Liberal Democrat candidates in the next federal election raises the question why Coalition governments rule like Labor governments and why so many Coalition politicians embrace Left-wing policies.
Take for example the obsession with abortion and doctor-assisted dying. While this column argued that all polling for the last election was wrong, polling and indeed modelling can be useful tools.
The latest Newspoll re-analysis shows Christians favour the Coalition 58:42 while the irreligious favour Labor 58:42.
So why this push, and why did the NSW Premier prioritise the surprise abortion bill which originally had a touch of infanticide?
On that, if only for expedience if not basic morality, the Coalition should support George Christensen’s Human Rights (Children Born Alive Protection) Bill, 2021.
As for those keen on both doctor-assisted dying and an indigenous voice, they should note that Senator Pat Dodson has called on Aboriginal health providers to boycott planning for this because it will destroy the trust of remote communities. They are justified.
The experience too often in other countries is of an increasing number of cases of killing without consent or by improper persuasion and of people neither near death nor experiencing unacceptable physical suffering.
Another issue which shows Coalition governments shooting themselves in the foot is that they listen too easily to Treasury advice for high immigration bringing in over one million into the Eastern capitals every four years with, incidentally, only a minority skilled.
Newspoll reveals that homes where English is spoken favour the Coalition 51:49, but where a foreign language is spoken, they favour Labor by a high 58:42.
Endorsing the mindless mantra of a Big Australia involves approving a poorly designed policy unpopular with Coalition voters who have to live with its flaws, as well as bringing in more Labor voters.