So what is going on in Australia? View from an Australian Freeper

22nd September 2021 | Me

[naturalman1975]

I posted this as a mail to somebody who asked me what was going on here - and they suggested I post it here as well. This is just one person's view - others might well differ, certainly on some details. I've slightly modified it from the mail.

I've been here on FR about 17 years at this point. I've spent much of my life living in Australia, coming back to Victoria whenever I could - my time in the Royal Australian Navy took me all over the world and the country with postings in different states of Australia and some overseas as well. But this is the perspective of a long term Aussie and Victorian.

There's a lot of stuff going on here related to COVID. It’s a bit complicated.

First thing - it’s not the Australian government doing a lot of the things people are concerned about. That seems to be causing a lot of confusion overseas - our Federal Government, though certainly not perfect, had opposed most of the extreme reactions here by state governments - but under the Australian Constitution, matters of ‘public health’ are almost entirely in the hands of state governments, not the Federal government. The Federal government has very little ability to intervene in any matter involving public health. Likewise, while the Constitution prevents the Federal government from closing state borders, it doesn’t stop the state governments from closing their own borders.

Remember that - it's not Australia's Federal government which is broadly speaking conservative, lead by Prime Minister Scott Morrison who is doing this. Constitutionally all he can try and do is get the state governments to agree to a national plan, but they have all the power and quite a few of them are from the opposite side of politics. The Federal government does not 'outrank' the state governments - the states were almost sovereign before they decided to unify as a single country and they wrote a constitution that kept a lot of the power for themselves. And some of the Premiers are probably loving being able to be the ones really in charge of the whole country right now. It's not that the Federal government is powerless - but it only has power in its domains. It negotiates international treaties, it controls our defence force, it has primary control of most of the national budget.

But critically it doesn't have control of 'public health'. The states do.

What this means is that is happening in Australia has been very state specific.

I live in Victoria, which is the state with the biggest problems. We have a hard left socialist state Premier called Daniel Andrews and he’s the one making nearly all the decisions here. And he’s totally paranoid, on top of being an authoritarian. We’ve been locked down on and off for considerably over half of the last year and we’re likely to remain locked down for at least another six weeks before we even get close to back to normal. That’s down to his paranoia. You can’t leave your home except for certain specified reasons, there’s a curfew at night when you can’t leave at all (well, there are still a very small number of reasons), you can’t travel more than a short distance from your home even if you are allowed out. Most businesses are closed.

NSW which has a conservative government has also recently, over the last couple of months also imposed heavy restrictions (which go too far in my view) but they have only done it in the face of the worst COVID outbreak Australia has had and they are trying to get things back to normal as fast as possible - unlike Victoria. It’s a very different situation there - like I say, I think they’ve gone too far, but it’s nothing like Victoria.

The other states have occasionally had very short lockdowns that have actually succeeded each time in getting COVID numbers in that state back to zero. Personally I don’t think that’s unreasonable. They also close their borders to NSW and Victoria - which again, as we have nearly all the COVID in the country I don’t actually think is unreasonable.

There have been some protests against this, but not as many as some people seem to think there should have been. The main reason for that is - well, honestly, it’s hard to argue with the fact that we have been protected from COVID. We’ve only had just over 1000 deaths from COVID during this entire pandemic - people don’t want to throw that away by going to large scale protests that will lead to greater infection. The trouble is, in Victoria, especially we haven’t got a middle ground - some restrictions might have been reasonable but the degree is ridiculous but very few people think we shouldn’t have any restrictions at all. Most people would be happy to wear masks and social distance, and avoid large crowds.

In the last couple of days we have had large protests in Melbourne but they aren’t quite what some people seem to think - this is not a general uprising against the restrictions. As I said earlier, most industry in Victoria has been largely shut down for the last year and a half, but there was one big exception to that - the construction industry was allowed to continue, mostly because Daniel Andrews, a socialist Labor Premier, derives a lot of his political power from union support - so he was keeping them happy, while not caring about anybody else. In recent weeks though, construction sites have been the source of most new infections in this state, so finally he started putting restriction on them - some, I think were reasonable (no gathering inside in crowded rooms to have lunch), but he also mandated vaccines for them. And that triggered their first protest (where they actually attacked their union leaders rather than the government). He then ordered the construction industry be shut down for two weeks - and that’s lead to them starting widespread protests over the last two days. There are some other people with other concerns joining them but mostly this is a bunch of socialist trade unionists who are angry that the socialist state government is no longer giving them special treatment.

The media hasn't helped - most of it is left wing and supports Daniel Andrews because of that (though that might shift a bit now the unions are angry) and nor has social media - a lot of nonsense is being spread. Australia is not under martial law. We are not forcibly vaccinating school children. There aren’t police hitsquads chasing people down and sticking needles with vaccines into people - all claims I’ve seen repeated (possibly in good faith by people who believed them) on FR in recent weeks. When things get exaggerated or lies or told, it actually becomes harder for us to focus on the real problems here.

But there are real problems. Some state governments are going way too far at times, the Federal government is constitutionally limited in stopping them. State police forces are being asked to enforce a lot of dumb laws with massive fines and now we have more and more protests, some police decisions do seem heavy handed - but not all.

We really didn’t need an earthquake on top of it :)

[Aussiebabe]

Some people will just never understand. There are states like California and New York that have give up far more liberties than Oz. I have tried to explain to Americans and for some, it is hopeless, others listen and understand. We have both types on FR. By the way, for other readers, we have very few restrictions here in South Australia and schools, etc have been back in operation from almost the beginning of the Covid epidemic in April 2020.

[naturalman1975]

Very few - freedom of religion is about the only one clearly expressed in the Constitution.

Why?

Because Australia didn’t have to revolt against Britain to get independence (well, there was a very short revolt in Victoria in the 1850s - it lasted less than a day and the government gave in because they didn’t want a repeat of what happened in America - they have the people who had revolted representation with their taxation (established the first Victorian Parliament) so Australia fully inherited all the English common laws rights protections. The one exception to that was religious freedom (England had an established Church).

Our rights remain protected by common law at a Federal level and most of those rights are the same as those in the American Bill of Rights except for gun rights - they were limited in English Common law in the late 17th century.

At state level, it’s different - in my state in 2006, the socialist government managed to bamboozle enough people into accepting a ‘Charter of Rights and Responsibilities’ by calling it a Bill of Rights. It isn’t a totally terrible document except for one part - that says the rights can be suspended if there is a declared state of emergency. Which is what they’ve done.

Because the states are sovereign (technically only almost but the exceptions don’t matter here) the fact we have protections under Federal law don’t overrule state law except in areas where the Constitution specifically and clearly gives power to the Federal government.

In a very real constitutional sense, Australia is still six separate sovereign countries in a lot of ways - the Federal government only has control in a few areas. Important areas like defence and trade, but only in those areas.

[Nextrush]

People have been bloodied in these protests that’s for sure and the police drew the blood on them.

[Aussiebabe]

Amen, from what we read about the USA, they have given up far more freedoms than Oz has....they want to make everything about guns, when there are more guns in Oz than when they put in the restrictions. While we do have the anti-Oz movement here and BLM, it is far less spread than in the anti-USA culture in the USA. We both have the problem of the universities taken over by the far left. Also, the most worrying thing is that it was good about the nuclear subs agreement, but it sure looks like Biden and the top military brass in the USA do not believe China is that much of a threat. We understand far more about how dangerous China is, than the Americans.

[Nextrush]

This man explains why the protesters chose the Shrine of Remembrance...its about the freedoms that those honored at the Shrine died for...

https://gab.com/T_J1776/posts/106973555047418589

[naturalman1975]

Is it true that your coppers killed a protester with a rubber bullet?

Unless it's happened very very recently, no, I don't believe that's true. But I haven't looked at the news for a couple of hours. I'll take a look.

[naturalman1975]

It's also an area that is incredibly difficult to block off.

But speaking as the son of a soldier killed in defence of Australia, and somebody who served in war himself, I do not feel at all honoured by most of these people.

There are words carved into the side of the Shrine.

LET ALL MEN KNOW THAT THIS IS HOLY GROUND. THIS SHRINE, ESTABLISHED IN THE HEARTS OF MEN AS ON THE SOLID EARTH, COMMEMORATES A PEOPLE'S FORTITUDE AND SACRIFICE. YE THEREFORE THAT COME AFTER, GIVE REMEMBRANCE.

There might be some in the crowd who understand what that means. Maybe even the ones who chose it. But they are only a small number of the people there.

I support the right to protest. But I think it's going to do more harm than good in so many ways.

If it forces Dictator Dan to resign or seriously back down, I might change my mind.

[naturalman1975]

I can’t find any evidence of a protester being killed at the demonstration in any way. But people have been injured and it’s an ongoing volatile situation so while I would have expected it to hit the news in a big way here, it’s not absolutely impossible it hasn’t yet if it did happen.

I’d be surprised but police do fire them and less lethal doesn’t mean nonlethal. Especially when there are ways they can be misused to make them more dangerous - firing a round designed to bounce and hit legs directly at somebody’s face for example.

[GOPJ]

Thanks

[ifinnegan]

Yes. It can never end in Australia.

[Nextrush]

Its a no win for both sides perahps one could argue the protesters have “defiled” the site what does one say if police open fire there and damage something with their anti-riot weapons.

The talks are on to move the protest away from the shrine an offer made by the police to move up St. Kilda Road and come back to protest tomorrow no arrests.

We will see if this works out if people leave the site could happen in the next minutes.

We’ll see tough sell to some in the crowd.

[ifinnegan]

“Australia will be back to normal sometime next year in terms of the risk of disease.”

How is this?

Australia has minuscule levels of Covid death. 174th lowest at 46 deaths per million. World average is 605.

U.S. is 21st at 2090.

What is going to change by “some time next year” so that levels won’t rise above Australia’s minuscule levels throughout the epidemic?

[blueplum]

your Daniel Andrews sounds a lot like our Calif Gavin Newsom. Where we are still under mask mandate in our 4th wave, and have been through similar curfews, travel outside the city restrictions, locked restaurants, etc. Our version of construction workers has been ‘essential workers’ who are the most likely to be out in the streets demonstrating for ‘hazard pay’ but “refusing “ vaccinations. I put ‘refusing’ in quotes because these folks, including teachers unions, demanded priority access to vaccines over and above seniors even, which delayed school openings three times. The goal always being vaccinate the elderly, the first responders, the ‘essential workers’ and protect the kids. Now that parents have bent over backwards to accommodate them, they’re back in the streets demanding that kids be vaccinated instead. We’ve heard stories that some of the first responders and teachers came to the local center be vaccinated in disguise or with a mum’s the word, so they could continue their anti-vax persona of ‘risking their lives’ if they return to in person working with ‘unvaccinated children.’ Similar to Australia, Calif is one big melodrama in certain parts of the state. So don’t be thinking Australia is the lone ranger on those too long in the noonday sun. :)

[naturalman1975]

It’s down to numbers compared to flu numbers. There actually is a standard that’s in place at which certain things would happen, if the state of emergencies weren’t lifted.

I don’t want to go too much into that. It’s not secret but if some of the crazies find out about the details they could make things harder.

[fieldmarshaldj]

The regime in DC does not see Red China as much of a “threat” for the simple reason that they are puppets of Xi and the Chinese Communist Party and on their payroll (as is Plugs’ family members, such as Hunter, for which the “Big Guy” gets a cut). The Clinton family horror were also similarly puppets of the CCP and allowed them to engage in carte blanche espionage from nuclear secrets on down since the 1990s.

That we don’t have millions of people out in the streets demanding this present regime puppet abomination be forcefully removed from office and indicted for high treason and other various crimes related to his installation in an office he did not legitimately win is absolutely appalling.

[HollyB]

Thank you. I appreciate your post. However, I’m curious. . It sounds almost like while you call them ‘socialists’, you agree with their rulings? How do you feel about the state border closures? How do you feel about the union heads decisions?

[flaglady47]

You know naturalman1975, you’re a great guy but you sure are willing to let your economy go down the drain with lock-downs and attempts to get down to zero cases of the virus, which is ridiculous. It appears too many Aussies are like the frog in the boiling pot, finding out too late that their goose (pardon the switch from frogs to geese) is cooked.

Aussies have let their guns be confiscated by their gov’t, and are at the total mercy of their gov’t mandates on any subject. Australia has gone too far down the socialist road to easily recover from this path and are unarmed to boot. We could go down the same path if our citizens don’t wise up fast. The results of the mid-term elections should show us what trajectory we are on.

[HollyB]

Do you really think this is only about Covid?
I’m truly baffled by your nativity. Perhaps a year ago I may have hoped for this. But, surely you are listening to more than your own msm if you are a conservative? You are a conservative ? Correct?

[HollyB]

I agree with you

[naturalman1975]

Yes, I’m a conservative.

What I’m not is a paranoid conservative.

If this was just happening in one country I might believe in the conspiracy ideas.

But there’s no way on earth - literally - that so many countries with so many different forms of government and ideologies would be involved in something like that.

Americans seem to have this huge distrust of their governments. Maybe that’s justified in the United States.

But I don’t live in the United States.

I live in a country where I am not particularly afraid of my government.

If I was I wouldn’t have spent most of my life serving my country.

I also have the advantage that - largely because of where I went to school (the “best school in Australia”), I know quite a few of the really important people in my country. They’re not all trustworthy by any stretch of the imagination but a lot of them are.

Hell, if there was a big conspiracy, I’d probably be part of it.

I’m not. Because I don’t believe there is one.