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The 155-page report provides an extensive list of human rights abuses inflicted by Australian governments, many of which were originally dismissed as the concerns of “right-wing extremists” and “disinformation superspreaders”.

A major report has criticised Australian governments at all levels for failing to uphold human rights during the Covid era.

Titled ‘Collateral Damage’, the report was published on Tuesday by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), and substantially vindicates Australians who opposed lockdowns, border closures, vaccine mandates and a single-minded focus on infection risk.

“From engaging with thousands of Australians about their experience of the pandemic, it is clear that many felt they became collateral damage to the nation’s immediate objective of saving lives and preventing the spread of COVID-19,” the authors of the report reveal.

“For many Australians, the harms they experienced during this time have not faded, nor been addressed.”

While authorities sought to mitigate health risks, they “did so by restricting other human rights such as freedom of movement, the right to enter your own country and rights to peaceful assembly,” the Commission’s report adds.

“The risk of failing to consider human rights in an emergency response is to compound existing suffering and cause even greater harm than the initial crisis itself.”

Compiling survey data from more than 3,000 Australians from every state and territory, along with 2,300 first-hand accounts, the report called for a “human rights-centred approach” for future emergencies “in order to prevent the same failures happening again in the future”.

Among the Commission’s seven major recommendations were avoiding one-size-fits-all solutions, responding to emergencies proportionately, balancing risk with compassion, and embedding human rights from the outset in future emergency responses.

Human Rights Violations by Australian Authorities

The 155-page report provides an extensive list of harms inflicted by Australian governments, many of which were once dismissed as the concerns of “right-wing extremists” and “disinformation superspreaders”.

Among the most concerning human rights abuses noted in the report were dying patients being denied visitation from loved ones, vulnerable women enduring “escalating” domestic violence as a result of lockdowns, disadvantaged students falling further behind due to school closures, and “extreme stress and financial hardship” for Australian citizens stranded overseas.

The 2021 Melbourne tower lockdowns were singled out as “a severe response that violated Victorian human rights laws”, while the Commission found that the 2021 India travel ban “violated the right to freedom of movement”.

According to the report, “conditions in quarantine facilities posed significant challenges for people with disabilities, mental health conditions, families with children, and survivors of trauma”, while “prolonged visitation restrictions caused loneliness and distress, particularly during end-of-life care”.

The report also noted the disparate impact on rich and poor Australians. “Those in secure jobs with access to remote work often thrived, while casual workers, renters, and at-risk groups… bore the brunt” of the government’s response to Covid-19.

Despite these findings, 74% of survey participants nevertheless stated that “the greater good of the community” should always be prioritised over individual rights, while only 10% disagreed.

On Injections and Mandates

Injection mandates were also criticised by many of the report’s participants.

“Being forced to take a vaccine under the threat of losing your job does not constitute consent,” wrote one female respondent.

A man who was dismissed from his job after refusing to comply with a mandatory injection reported that “the stress of not being able to feed my kids or pay my mortgage was overwhelming.”

Another woman testified that she felt “vilified for my opinions, ostracised from society, including family and friends, and had my basic human rights to make decisions around my own body, removed.”

In one particularly tragic account, a young woman explained, “I was in my first trimester of pregnancy and was told if I did not have the vaccine I would lose my job. Under threat of termination and the flow on effect of that on my family, I relented and had the vaccine”.

She subsequently suffered a stillbirth at 17 weeks and had to deliver her baby without her husband by her side, as he was denied entry after testing positive for Covid-19.

“My husband was refused entry and was not allowed to be at the birth of his son, was denied the only chance he had to hold his son,” she added.

While acknowledging these and other accounts, along with almost 140,000 adverse events reported to the TGA’s safety database, the Commission’s report nevertheless concluded that “the protective benefits of vaccination far outweigh the potential risks”.

Canaries in the Coal Mine

The AHRC’s report, published five years after Australia’s Covid-19 response began, echoes views long derided as paranoia by mainstream commentators.

From early 2021, a small group of federal MPs began speaking out against the human rights abuses taking place in Australia.

Queensland MP George Christensen was one of the first to break ranks with the government, offering extensive commentary on social media that culminated in his August 2021 parliamentary speech, which invited blanket condemnation from Canberra and the press gallery.

“COVID-19 is going to be with us forever,” he conceded in that speech. “We will have to live with it, not in constant fear of it.”

“Open society back up, restore our freedoms, end this madness.”

Three and a half years ago, when I was a Federal Member of Parliament in Australia, I stood up in the Federal Parliament and dropped some COVID truth bombs. I was heckled, attacked, condemned and censored. Turned out on every count I was RIGHT! pic.twitter.com/MQAlHJQ2aw

— George Christensen (@NationFirstAust) March 10, 2025

Soon after, Queensland Senator Matt Canavan faced a media firestorm for disagreeing with Covid lockdowns on an August 2021 episode of Q&A.

Meanwhile, Gerard Rennick, another Queensland MP, became the biggest social media personality in Canberra as he began publishing accounts of vaccine-injured Australians on his Facebook account. For his troubles, Rennick was condemned by health authorities and dumped from parliament by his own party.

South Australian Senator Alex Antic also began speaking up against his government’s response to Covid-19, ultimately issuing an ultimatum to Prime Minister Scott Morrison to scrap coercive vaccine mandates or lose his Senate vote.

Though branded as “fringe” and “conspiracy theorists” by the media, this small contingent in Canberra — which also included Craig Kelly, Malcolm Roberts, and Pauline Hanson — correctly anticipated the findings of the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Throughout the Covid era, The Daily Declaration also provided almost 1,000 news and commentary articles which challenged the prevailing narrative and reported on the rights violations now confirmed in the AHRC report.

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Image courtesy of Unsplash.