(Written for a British readership)
It has a busy Covid week or so in Australia, and the news has been decidedly mixed.
As some of us (probably not many, actually) brace for the hyped “fifth wave”, we have reports of the Australian Government collaborating with social media companies to shut down Covid dissidents. Mr Twitter Files, Matt Taibbi, calls them Australia’s “creepy Covid cops”.
The Australian branch of the Censorship Industrial Complex is well and truly active. As Taibbi notes:
Through a freedom of information request, a conservative Australian senator named Alex Antic revealed that the country’s Department of Home Affairs between 2017 and 2022 made “13,636 referrals to digital platforms to review content against their own terms of service.” Of those, 9000 were terrorism-related, but a full 4,213 were listed as “Covid-19 related” referrals.
Alex Antic is a star. One of not very many in the Australian Parliament. He has been a relentless champion of the vaccine injured, as well as having sound views on a range of issues (like digital identity, the surveillance state, spiking excess deaths post the vaccine rollout, the World Economic Forum and the World Health Organisation Pandemic Treaty) as well as the courage to pursue them. He is one of the few attempting to inject some spine into the Liberal Party of which he is a member.
Racket News has delved deeper:
During the Covid-19 crisis, the Australian government appears to have taken the same approach as its Five Eye cousins, freely mixing concepts of violent extremism and “social cohesion” with legitimate concerns of citizens regarding government panic, lack of expertise, and overreach. From our review, little to none of the content that was flagged came from “extremists.” Rather it was and is from everyday Australians and foreigners who disagreed with government policy. Some of their claims are indeed far-out and/or at least esoteric, but “characters” are part of life, and being unusual doesn’t justify a dragnet approach to censorship.
Racket News’ analysis makes sobering reading. It is pretty scary that the person in charge of all this has the job title “Senior Analyst, Extremism Insights and Communication”. The Aussie deep State is deep indeed. And ever so slightly alarming is that fact that the Minister for Home Affairs during this surveillance regime was one Peter Dutton, now leader of the Liberal Party and His Majesty’s Opposition.
We also have news of Australia’s first class action on behalf of Covid vaccine victims. Welcome news, indeed. And driven by the heroic and indefatigable Dr Melissa McCann, who spoke on the same stage as the great Peter McCullough on his recent Australian tour. She, too, has used Freedom of Information processes to good effect. As Rebekah Barnett (Dystopian Downunder) notes:
The Class Action seeks to hold the TGA to account for alleged, “negligence, breach of statutory duty and misfeasance in public office” in its failure to properly approve and monitor the Covid vaccines, resulting in harms to Australians.
Class Action respondents include, but are not limited to, the Australian Government, the Department of Health and Aged Care Secretary Dr Brendan Murphy, and the Former Deputy Secretary of Health Products Regulation Group Adjunct Professor John Skerritt.
Despite this good news, last week we learned that Australia’s promised Covid inquiry as “nowhere to be seen”. So much for the Prime Minister’s word. This is a setback for truth-seekers, but not unexpected, as so many in the political class have so much to cover up. They are sticking to the tired narrative – we did our best, maybe made some mistakes, but what we did was for the public benefit and based on all the information we had at the time – and they have no intention of ever letting it go.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/05/the-covid-royal-commission-is-nowhere-to-be-seen/
Then, last but not least, we come to the Victorian Budget. Oh dear. The place is going broke, post-Covid. Victoria, of course, is now infamous the world over for Covid “measures” that even made the Chinese blush.
While a hide comparable to that of Jessie the Elephant, the Victorian Premier announced unilaterally, some time back, that the era of what he deftly called “Covid exceptionalism” was over. Not quite, apparently. Now Victorians have to pay the bill. For all that economic locking down, for the house arrests, for shooting protesters in the back with rubber bullets, for head slamming at Flinders Station (in MelDanistan), for attacking grannies, for stopping kids playing in the local park, for awarding hotel quarantine contracts to his mates, for the military police, for the curfews, and for the vaccine mandates.
Hence, we have the Ten Year Covid Levy to pay the “Covid debt”.
At least Andrews is blaming Covid for the huge State debt and for all the new taxes. He also happens to have been spending like a drunken sailor. Victoria’s State debt in 2022-23 is $117 billion. It is projected to rise to $171 billion by 2026-27. Ouch.
But let us stick with the “blame Covid” narrative. According to the Victorian Treasurer (unkindly referred to by many as Uncle Fester):
When the pandemic hit Victoria, we acted quickly and decisively to safeguard the economy – and to prevent economic scarring that would have left a generation out of work.
Acting on the advice of the Reserve Bank of Australia – just like every other state and territory across the country – we borrowed to support our economy. And governments across the world did the same.
We used the state budget to protect household budgets and businesses. We directly invested almost $40.1 billion to keep Victorians safe from the virus, keep workers in jobs and businesses afloat, and support households.
We provided rent relief so Victorians could keep a roof over their heads, helped people test and isolate, added extra mental health services and relieved the stress on businesses with direct financial support.
Out of a total $21.2 billion spent on economic‑related measures, more than $14 billion in support was provided to help businesses and the economy survive and recover. Crucially, these measures ensured the Victorian economy could bounce back once the worst of the pandemic was over.
https://www.budget.vic.gov.au/covid-debt-repayment-plan
What fiscal heroes they were. 40 billion bucks (around 21 billion GBP) hosed up against the wall, for a mild (for most) virus. I wonder what the Vics spent during the (comparable) bad flu season in 2017. Probably not 40 billion.
Yet, as Rebel News reports:
But even with the new taxes and 4000 cuts to public service jobs, ratings agencies have said the budget will do little to improve Victoria’s credit score which is the lowest of any state in the country.
Meanwhile employer groups insisted Victoria was now the worst place in Australia to do business.
Victorians to pay the price for Dan Andrews' Covid-19 debt disaster - Rebel News
For context, by the time of the 2021-22 Commonwealth Budget, the national Government had already spent $291 billion on Covid economic measures and $311 billion in total.
And, as mentioned, not an inquiry into the Covid response in sight.
So, Victorians are paying twice for the Covid dictatorship they clearly so enjoyed. And, inevitably, it will be business and all those rich people who own a second home that will be slugged the most. I wonder what coming after landlords will do to the already tight rental market in Australia. In its wisdom, the Commonwealth Government has announced over a million new migrant arrivals over the next two years. With rents already at exorbitant levels, largely paid by those that the Australian Labor Party (of which Andrews is a member) once represented, and with building companies going bust every week, God knows how everyone will be housed. Brilliant!
Perhaps Victorians, who rewarded Andrews with a thumping majority at the election last November after nearly three years of needless misery and worse, might now be having a few lightbulb moments. We can always hope. Though it is said, uncharitably, that Victorians are proof that Tasmanians can swim (Australian in-joke). They are certainly a woke, green, progressive lot. And there is literally no conservative opposition there. No opposition, and no conservatives in the opposition. Making Victoria a one party State.
And shortly Andrews will have a statue erected in his honour. For achieving three thousand days in office (in February 2023). The Guardian, in marking the occasion, noted Andrews’ “social reforms”:
… including the introduction of voluntary assisted dying laws, safe access zones for abortion clinics, a ban on gay conversion practices, landmark royal commissions into family violence and mental health, and the nation’s first process of negotiating a treaty with First Nations people.
You get the picture. Locking up his people for months on end for a virus and then sending them the bill is merely the icing on the Andrews cake.
All in all, at least some of Australia’s Covid chickens are roosting. Who knows what will become of the class action or of Senator Antic’s revelations? But at least the costs of the Covid policy disaster down under, not to mention some of its more sinister elements, like the silencing of dissent by the unelected who inhabit some of the darker corners of the administrative state and who do sleazy deals with corporate mates in Big Tech, might just be beginning to ease into the public consciousness. But with the political class still looking the other way and continuing their lies, there is still quite a ways to go.
Paul Collits
24 May 2023
Paul your article suggests that all Victorian people voted for Dan Andrews at the last election, this is not the case, many of us did not and are very unhappy with the 'state' of things here in Victoria. The common denominator is Dan Andrews and the Labor Party, which has managed to remain in power for way too long. People are charmed by him, and follow him as people in a cult follow their leader. People have had their heads in the sand and social media and other distractions for too long, have not thought about and made an educated decision, and have allowed this to happen, and we are now all going to pay for it for a long time. But Dan won't worry as he is calling the shots now and even when he no longer leads the state he will be on a high salary so won't be affected like so many other Victorians by the rising costs of living and taxes. He will never be brought to account for anything (has not happened to date!), and until we get a strong competing political party to oust the Labor party we are stuck in this never ending story. Your article is offensive in that there are so many non woke Victorians and you lump us all together. Many of us tried to get rid of Dan last election but were out-numbered. We are the most unhappy about this situation, and are going to have to pay for everything with everyone else. If the arriving immigrants are smart they will not come to live here as conditions will be bad for a very long time. Please show some respect to non-woke, rational, thinking Victorians who think as you do about issues. Thank you.
I don't know about Tasmanians swimming Bass Strait. I do know that I have lived and worked in various states and I have found that, while there are minor differences in attitudes and culture, the Australian culture is paramount. Leaving aside recent immigrants - an increasing problem. This , and parochialism, have no place in Australia off the sports field.
It seems that our governing class, in particular, is very good at importing, willy nilly, the latest silly to insane fads from the USA and Europe. Originality is definitely not their thing.
I wonder how long it will be before they start importing Chinese and Russian cultural traits? Not long, by present indications.