Australia’s Largest Christian News Site

The COVID Inquiry points to a loss of trust in government, but fails to offer the obvious solutions.

It’s all very well to be angry at Daniel Andrews, but we should be angrier at ourselves!

The former Victorian premier trampled human rights during the pandemic, but only because we allowed him to do so.

Too many of us fell for that tired routine — most loved by totalitarians throughout the world and down through the ages — that our rights were being violated for the greater good.

During the pandemic, Premier Daniel Andrews was questioned about whether his decision to impose a curfew on Victorians was a breach of human rights.

I’ll never forget his response:

“I would indicate to the Human Rights Law Centre that under a state of disaster … those considerations are not the first ones; they’re not the main considerations.”

When a politician says human rights are “not the main consideration” … run!

He went on:

“I think human life, getting case numbers down, having less people become become gravy ill and die from this virus, and then getting to a point where we can open up and stay open that is far more important, far more important.

“Of a magnitude that I can barely describe how much more important that is.”

Ah yes, he was trashing human rights to save human lives! It sounds sensible — if you think with your emotions and reason with your feelings. And so many did.

Too many Christian ministers supported vaccine mandates because it was a way to “love thy neighbour”.

A perverted reading of Scripture if ever there was one.

Moved by soppy emotionalism rather than by principled thought — a common problem in the church — ministers trashed the principle of bodily autonomy in favour of the collective. And then, by implication, slandered anyone who disagreed as being un-Christian.

They were no better than Daniel Andrews, who when again asked ‘but what about human rights’, became exasperated:

“Seriously? One more comment about human rights? Honestly? It’s about human life!”

Sure it was.

We later discovered the 8pm – 5am curfew was not recommended by Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton.

And Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said at “no stage” were police consulted about the curfew.

Andrews, who we now know relied on polling every bit as much — if not more — than he relied on health advice to shape his pandemic response, was making the rules up as he went.

It was all about saving lives. Really? More lives were lost in Victoria than in any other state.

It was all about opening up and staying open. Seriously? Victoria was locked down for longer than almost anywhere on Earth.

Dan Andrews claim that trampling human rights was justified in order to save human lives was not only perverted; it was plain wrong.

And yet a frightening number of good people brought into his sloppy reasoning.

The Government’s Covid-19 Inquiry report found that human rights had been disregarded during the pandemic and that — as a result — trust in institutions had been completely eroded.

That they thought we needed a government inquiry to tell us that, is telling.

As great as the harm to children, to the population’s mental health, and to the economy — perhaps the greatest damage inflicted by the pandemic response was to civil society.

Democracies operate on trust. We voluntarily give power to others, trusting they will do what is right.

But when that trust no longer exists, how does a democratic society function?

Authors of the report rightly worried that when the next crisis comes along, Australians will be disinclined to heed the instructions from government.

Too right.

And the authors were scathing of the way in which State Premiers made contradictory decisions that violated human rights while refusing to even explain those decisions.

Worse, anyone who dared to criticise or question government decisions — like Dan Andrews’ ban on going outside to watch the sunset — was demonised.

The irony is that while pointing out trust in government was at an all-time low as a result of the pandemic response, the report omitted giving two simple ways to restore that trust.

First, hold a Royal Commission in the pandemic response that would allow the then state premiers to be hauled in to account for their behaviour.

Some accountability would help restore trust.

Instead, Daniel Andrews has been awarded an Order of Australia and had a statue commissioned in his honour. And just to rub it in, he has been appointed the chair of an organisation researching young people’s mental health.

You couldn’t make this stuff up.

If we want to restore confidence in the government, strip Andrews of the OA, send a squadron of pigeons toward his statue and sit him down in front of a Royal Commission to explain one more time his disdain for human rights.

Queensland’s Annastacia Palaszczuk and West Australia’s Mark McGowan could join him.

Second, demand the government ditch its misinformation and disinformation bill.

If the Covid-19 Inquiry found the pandemic response was a litany of contradictory, nonsensical laws implemented without explanation and in flagrant violation of citizens’ human rights… then surely the right to call such idiocy out must be protected at all costs.

What else do free citizens have in the face of big government but their voice?

If you silence people from even questioning government, what is there to protect the populace?

And how can you trust a government that actively works to censor you?

So much of what we were lectured were “conspiracy theories” during Covid have turned out to be true that the freedom to promote “conspiracy theories” should be protected as a matter of urgency.

The sad thing is that what the socialists have done once, they will do again.

Fear and a shameless appeals to sloppy sentiment work so well for those with authorisation instincts – you can be sure they will be used again.

Unless our our schools and / or our churches produce principled, independent thinkers, then history will repeat and the consequences will be even worse.

___

Republished with thanks to The James Macpherson Report.

Subscribe to his Substack here for daily witty commentary.