Honouring the Covid Tsars

Flat White I 11 June 2024 I The Spectator Australia

To mark the King’s Birthday weekend, the government has decided to kiss its own arse by honouring the Covid Tsars who are famous for their cruel and unnecessary health directives during Covid.

Riding the same vibe as the United Nations putting China on the Human Rights Council, former Premiers Mark McGowan and Daniel Andrews were appointed to the Order of Australia as Companions in a stripped-down King’s Birthday honours list.

Dan Andrews ‘earned’ his award for ‘eminent service to the people and Parliament of Victoria, to public health, to policy and regulatory reform, and to infrastructure development’.

The people of Victoria remember things a little differently.

They stand at the bottom of a projected $118 billion black hole of debt thanks to delayed, over-priced, and unfinished infrastructure. The interest alone is costing each citizen $15 million per day. With the streets and road dug-up and people navigating permanent ‘re-directions’, they are beginning to wonder if Labor’s promises will manifest into something more impressive than rubble.

‘Policy and regulatory reform’ is famous in Victoria – not for its greatness – but for its audacity to piggyback on the pandemic to expand the Office of the Premier to something resembling a dictatorship. ‘It’s a disgraceful mistreatment of our democratic traditions, giving the dictator dictatorial powers and you think that’s great…’ said Tim Smith at the time. The remarks came in response to a 113-page bill rushed into Parliament. ‘It’s the largest I’ve ever seen!’ declared MP Louise Staley, after the Opposition complained they were not given sufficient time to go over the detail.

A group of barristers wrote an open letter to the Victorian Parliament arguing that the Bill would allow Premier Daniel Andrews to ‘rule by decree’ and that they were ‘deeply concerned’ about the way in which pandemics could be declared and extended.

‘It is one thing to allow temporary rule by decree to deal with an unforeseen and extraordinary emergency in circumstances of extreme urgency. It is something else altogether to entrench rule by decree as a long-term norm. In our view, this is antithetical to basic democratic principles and should not be allowed to happen.’

But give Dan a prize, eh?

Victoria was the state so balanced in its adherence to ‘science’ that it used a soft touch on Black Lives Matter protests at the height of the pandemic, but not freedom protests. The material difference between the two events was the freedom movement’s opposition to the Victorian government including their anger over alleged human rights abuses related to lockdowns, vaccine mandates, border closures, and the deliberate demonisation of the unvaccinated by members of the Parliament in daily press conferences which caused extensive social harm.

Scenes of peaceful protesters being shot with rubber bullets by police wearing full anti-terror gear went viral across the whole world and forever changed the way Australia is viewed. One headline in the Daily Mail sums it up:?News photographers deliberately attacked with pepper foam in a new low for Victorian Police after dousing an elderly woman as she lay injured on the road during Melbourne’s wild anti-lockdown protest.

Add to this the arrest of a heavily pregnant woman, dragging people out of their cars, chasing them down beaches and handcuffing them, throwing elderly people against police cars and onto the ground for walking in a park, harassing businesses, fining children – the list goes on.

Victorians have asked for a Royal Commission – not a Royal Award.

The story is much the same with the former Premier of Western Australia, Mark McGowan, and his award for, ‘eminent service to the people and Parliament of Western Australia, to public health and education, and to international trade relations’.

McGowan is the man who turned his state into a desert-and-ocean-bound island during the pandemic years, is jokingly referred to as the ‘hermit king’, and produced one of the unintentionally funniest propaganda ads of all time.

His border closures were so harsh and long-lived that even the other Premiers thought it was ridiculous.

But sure, give the bloke an award.

That sound you can hear is the people of Western Australia choking on their drink and the rest of Australia patting them gently on the back in sympathy.

Allow me to remind you of just one of many horrific headlines we read during the Covid years:?The face of Australia’s border closure cruelty: Young woman takes her own life after being refused entry to WA to see her parents – before grieving couple were dealt another devastating blow.

‘We’ll get there, we’ll reopen, I’ve been going through this for two years with people in press conferences demanding we open borders at various points in time. Had we done so we would have mass deaths,’ said McGowan, in one of many over-cooked, over-hyped statements.

The ?Australian ?eventually reported: ?‘Business has had enough. The sporting world has had enough. Mark McGowan has been called a liar and a Muppet for his backflip on borders, and West Australian companies are seriously considering moving their headquarters to other states.’

‘I think everyone there is starting to see that everyone has been lied to for so long, the trust has been betrayed,’ said Australian Open finalist Matt Ebden on Twitter, after he missed the birth of his child.

‘You have had two years to sort out your disaster of a hospital system with your record surplus. We all did what you asked of us so we could get out of this. And you spit in our faces and take away any hope West Aussies had of this ending. You are a disgrace to this state and a disgrace to this country. ABSOLUTE MUPPET,’ added Josh Inglis.

Handing out awards is a way for a government to legitimise bad behaviour. In the same way that lawfare paints the political opposition as ‘criminals’, awards like this allow the government to add a list of titles and graces to the names of those accused in the Covid era. How could such highly decorated people do the wrong thing?

Author: Flat White