Where does Victoria's Evil Gnome keep getting his ideas from?
Dan Andrews, the Evil Gnome masquerading as Premier of the state of Victoria, goes power mad
Where does Victoria’s Evil Gnome keep getting his ideas from?
Orwell, perhaps? The Bill seeking to codify supreme power in the Premier’s hands is delightfully named the Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment (Pandemic Management) Bill 2021 . So, it’s all about ‘public health and wellbeing’, just to reassure the plebs.
Or Adolf, perhaps? It was the Enabling Act 1933 that granted sole executive authority, under a fake emergency, to Hitler, without even any pretence of parliamentary power, that lead to outright dictatorship – and didn’t that end well for the ubermentschen of the day. I know that Godwin’s Law states that as a political argument grows longer and more heated, it becomes increasingly likely that somebody will bring up Hitler or the Nazis to describe their opponent’s views and the first to do so effectively forfeits the argument, but, hell, if we can’t afford to get a bit emotional about Dan Andrews’ love for absolute power spiced with Robocop violence, then we aren’t really awake.
Oh, and Andews’bill, which has passed the lower house, is to be voted on by Victoria’s senate (the Legislative Council) from which, very conveniently, four minor party representatives have been suspended in perpetuity because they have refused to show proof of vaccination under Vaccine Passport rules introduced by Herr Andrews (two of the four members thus disenfranchised are double-jabbed but object to the segregation regime). Andrews has already bought off, with policy favours, three independents (one from the - Orwell again! - ‘Reason Party’ run by a former Adult Sex Industry head, one from the Greens, and one from the Animal Justice Party), so passage of the bill into law seems assured.
Under Andrews’ bill, the premier will have the sole authority to declare a pandemic and his 2-I-C, the health minister, can knock out public health orders on a whim. There is an “independent oversight committee” of public health and human rights ‘experts’ which will, of course, be chosen by the dictator from the pool of ‘experts’ who got us into the lockdown/compulsory-jab mess to start with.
The bill’s definition of a pandemic that could be conjured into existence to invoke the Premier’s emergency powers is so broad that it includes a ‘potential’ pandemic whilst the penalties for individuals breaking its new laws (including “not wearing a mask, breaking a movement limit, attending an illegal protest or a gathering, refusing to get tested or failing to show ID”) are two years in jail or a $90,000 fine whilst businesses face a ruinous $425,000 fine.
The Liberal ‘Opposition’ has finally woken from its Covid spell and promise to ditch the new powers if elected in November 2022 but that may be moot as the latest pinion poll shows Labor’s primary vote, whilst a low 38% (a 5 percentage point decline since the last election in 2018) is still ahead of the Liberals 34%. Andrews’ approval rating as premier is down from 65% in November 2021 but is still in election-winning territory at 52%. Stockholm Syndrome continues in Victoria but, perhaps, it’s days are numbered - if the champagne-popping double-jabees come to realise that they really aren’t all that free when they are only ever one six-monthly booster away from being classified as unvaccinated.