Andrew L. Urban
Thank you Premier Daniel Andrews for shaking Victorians – and Australians everywhere – out of the tolerance, complacency and stupor of comfortable democracy, crowning your previous undemocratic actions with your anti-democratic Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment Act 2021. It finally woke up even the woke, those who once chose to Stand with Dan are now marching against Dan.
You, Mr Dan-gerous Andrews, have inadvertently done more for the cause of personal freedoms than you intended. First, you allowed your police to brutalise protesters, taking extreme measures that could never be described as proportionate with the alleged transgressions. It was all seen on TV.
Daniel Andrews
You simply ignored the criticisms of all those nasty encounters – but none of the criticisms came from senior political leadership (COP got your tongue, PM?), so perhaps you took that as a green light.
But this new legislation flashed the spotlight of oppressive government right into everyone’s eyes. When a political leader wants to impose a state of emergency to take unprecedent powers, all on his own whim and without supporting evidence or parliamentary approval, even the politically unengaged see the danger. Sadly, the Victorian cross bench appears to have been not enlightened but blinded by that spotlight.
The list of groups and experts who have made reasonable, apolitical criticisms of the bill is long, and includes Ombudsman Deborah Glass, the Victorian Bar, the Law Institute of Victoria, the Centre for Public Integrity, the Human Rights Law Centre, and more than 60 QCs including a former chief crown prosecutor and deputy IBAC commissioner. No wonder: the bill allows people to be detained indefinitely without charge, with no right of appeal to a court.
Sadly though, Daniel Andrews is not the only one trashing democracy. One virus pandemic, three mainland State premiers, three trainee dictators: Daniel Andrews, Mark McGowan and Anastasia Palaszczuk (and one lagging behind in Tasmania, Peter Gutwein). It is astonishing to me how quickly Australia has lurched from one of the world’s havens of freedom and democracy toward authoritarianism. All thanks to the dictator training provided by the powers conferred on them for managing the virus.
Not surprisingly, Labor MPs fell in line with their Premier. But without upper house crossbench support, the Bill would not pass.
The MPs who made it possible: Greens Leader Samantha Ratnam, Animal Justice Party MP Andy Meddick, Reason Party MP Fiona Patten.
Greens Leader Samantha Ratnam.
Animal Justice Party MP Andy Meddick
Remember them. Carve their names on the headstone of Victorian democracy.
Reason Party MP Fiona Patten
Any arm of Government which ignores basic law precedent , whether it is police , DPP, the attorney general or his staff or the legislature , is not representing the people. You have seen so many instances of abuse of power , and intentional distortion of laws and procedure Andrew . The lucky few to me are George Pell , Lindy Chamberlain , Gordon Woods , Keogh in south Australia. And a small etc. The fraud and errors which convicted them was found out. But for so many others it has not. When Government of any branch or persuasion decides to use or make rules which achieves injustice or an outcome which cannot remain unchallenged . We The People …. Are in great danger. The most honest way and admirable way to rectify an injustice , is to hurry at lightning speed to correct it . Not spend years trying to cover it up or to try and bury the error or intentional repression of truth and justice. All politicians should be independent when it comes to righting wrongs! There is no party line when it comes to truth …. There is only truth. Not ‘my truth’ as I’ve said before . It seems impossible that the party is more influential on a politician , than the people who put him in office in the first place. For the next election remember the behavior of Daniel Andrew’s… Lest we Forget. ! PV
These people, wicked as they are, are all puppets!!! In our sham democracies people are selected not elected and the media and corrupted funding play the greatest part in the mind control indoctrination and propaganda that is needed to get a seat in the power structure and system owned and controlled by the mega wealthy and titled of the world. This is where we need to direct our attention because obviously these politicians are not at all concerned for their future in an electorate that has lost all belief and trust in them. The system has always taken care of its own until the real rulers install a dictator or totalitarian regime which, as past history has shown, will eliminate in the first instance those who have supported their rise because these are the greatest threat to their hegemony because they have proven, no matter what their station, that they are ruthless enough to over ride all dissenting and democratic voices to inflict upon others incarceration and loss of freedom. Stalin executed over 50% of his party in very short time. So to all parliamentarians be careful of who you work for to the detriment of your fellow Australians. You are no safer than we are. “Those who choose safety over freedom serve neither”.