This is the most ominous attack on our freedoms and democratic rights ever seen in Australia:
If you are wondering if you are now living through the 2002 sci fi film Minority Report starring Tom Cruise, you would be quite right to do so. Set in America’s east coast in the year 2054, PreCrime, a specialised police department, goes after and arrests criminals based on foreknowledge provided by psychics (precogs). No crime has been committed yet, but in anticipation of crimes that might be, these folks are hunted down and apprehended by the police.
Victorians could be arrested and detained by public servants, union officials or anyone else the government authorises under an extraordinary new law that Premier Daniel Andrews wants to pass. The new law would allow the government to let protective services officers and WorkSafe inspectors enforce public health directions such as Melbourne’s 9pm curfew and strict gathering limits. The unprecedented plan would also allow officials to arrest people they suspect may spread coronavirus even if they have done nothing wrong. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8758579/Daniel-Andrews-demands-extraordinary-new-law-let-government-officials-arrest-Victorians.html
I have already warned about what a dangerous bit of police state legislation this is. See here for all the horrific details of what Despot Dan wants for Victoria: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2020/09/19/full-tilt-dictatorship-planned-for-victoria/
In that piece I noted that this must be a really horrific and dangerous bill indeed, when you even have hardcore leftists like Julian Burnside and his Liberty Victoria group sounding the alarm about it. And plenty of others have been speaking out about how utterly damaging this is to freedom, democracy and human rights.
Let me appeal to some of them. Just yesterday a group of 14 eminent legal experts – lawyers, QCs, former judges – called out the new Andrews’ police state bill in no uncertain terms. Here is their public letter in full:
We are deeply concerned by the passage of the COVID-19 Omnibus (Emergency Measures) and Other Acts Amendment Bill 2020 (Bill) through the Legislative Assembly. Emergency powers already allow authorised officers under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 (Vic) to detain people and to restrict movement. The Bill would expand the emergency powers to allow an authorised officer to detain:
- any person that the authorised officer reasonably believes is likely to fail to comply with an emergency direction and is a close contact of a person diagnosed with COVID-19 (or a person diagnosed with COVID-19) not given clearance from self-isolation;
- for so long as the authorised officer reasonably believes the person in detention is likely to fail to comply with an emergency direction.
The Bill would also allow any person the Secretary considered appropriate to be authorised to exercise emergency powers. There would be no requirement that persons authorised be police officers, or even public servants. Authorising citizens to detain their fellow citizens on the basis of a belief that the detained person is unlikely to comply with emergency directions by the “authorised” citizens is unprecedented, excessive and open to abuse. We call on the Legislative Council to amend the Bill, or to vote against it.
MICHAEL MCHUGH AC QC
PETER HEEREY AM QC
NEIL YOUNG QC
JAMES PETERS AM QC
PETER COLLINSON QC
MARYANNE LOUGHNAN QC
MARY ANNE HARTLEY QC
PHILIP CRUTCHFIELD QC
GEORGINA SCHOFF QC
PHILIP SOLOMON QC
DAVID BATT QC
STUART WOOD AM QC
FELICITY GERRY QC
MICHAEL BORSKY QC
Wow, indefinite detention for anyone suspected of not following orders – even if no crime has been committed. And arrested by fake police with no training and no qualifications. This is Orwellian to the max. Big Brother statism is here big time, and it is clear that Andrews is completely drunk on power and control, and he wants to be made dictator for life.
This should shock every single one of us. Others have also warned about just how bad this is. In my previous piece I quoted from Ian Hanke. He has written another important article which is also worth alerting you to. In it he says this in part:
Put simply, this means you can be locked up and detained indefinitely at the whim of a designated officer. There is no provision whatsoever for a review of the detention. Ultimately a person may have to apply to the Supreme Court to grant an order of Habeas Corpus for release. These extraordinary powers are arbitrary and extreme.
They are a draconian attack on civil liberties the like of which Australia has never seen before. Further because all laws are overridden there would appear to be little recourse to any excesses by an authorised officer or their civilians co–opted by them. These laws are so broad and ill-defined that you could be detained for almost anything.
Remember the emergency powers give “authorised officers” power to “detain any person or group” or “restrict the movement of people” or “prevent a person or group from entering an emergency area” or “give any other direction”. Nowhere in the Bill or its Explanatory Memorandum is a reason or justification given for the introduction of these extraordinary sweeping and ill-defined laws.
These laws will operate side by side with the powers that already have Melburnians locked in their own homes for 22 hours a day; where the first-ever curfew in Australia’s history is in place; where freedom of movement is banned; where police and ADF personnel patrol the streets to enforce mask-wearing; where $5000 fines are handed out if you attempt to breach internal state borders and so on.
These proposed laws are unjust, unnecessary and unjustified. They are a direct attack on citizens’ civil liberties. Even if this Bill is not passed it says much about the mindset of the Victorian government that it is prepared to assail its citizens’ rights. This Bill is a direct assault on our democracy. It should be rejected by the parliament. https://www.spectator.com.au/2020/09/daniel-andrews-indefinite-detention-plans-and-yet-more-questions/
And even those from overseas are shocked by what they find happening here. This just in from LifeSiteNews:
On my podcast today, Dr. Bella d’Abrera, the Director of Foundations of Western Civilization Program at the Institute of Public Affairs in Melbourne, told me that the crushing, anti-freedom measures taken by the Victorian government during COVID-19 are reminiscent of 1960s Berlin, and that they are likely being implemented as a sort of test case to see how to control the population.
“I can’t believe the police state that I’ve woken up in…I feel like I’ve woken up in 1961 on the wrong side of Berlin,” she said. “The premier, who is a socialist and a liar and corrupt, is…using communist language…[He’s] channeling 1960s Berlin. I do feel like Melbourne has been a test run and a test case to see how you can control population and how you can manipulate population.”
Dr. d’Abrera was not alone in calling out the Victorian government’s authoritarian behavior. Mr. John Macaulay, a businessman who also joined us during the podcast today, echoed her sentiments. John told me he was on a simple walk around town the other day just like he does every evening but was stopped by police who demanded to know what he was doing and who he was.
“The moment the police can stop, question, and detain people who are otherwise law-abiding citizens is very much proof-positive that the state of Victoria here in the south of Australia is a police state. It’s not becoming one. It is already a police state,” he said. https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/its-a-police-state-australias-crackdown-on-freedoms-during-covid-similar-to-1960s-berlin
ACTION
Stalin and Hitler would be proud of what is happening in Victoria right now. We all must act on this, and soon. The Lower House in Victoria with its Labor majority voted this through on Friday, and now it is being discussed in the Upper House and will be voted on soon.
Everyone must tell their MPs that we do NOT want these police state measures in free and democratic Victoria. They are not needed and the legal experts are telling us they will do immense harm. Please contact these Victorian Upper House members NOW:
bruce.atkinson@parliament.vic.gov.au;
matthew.bach@parliament.vic.gov.au;
georgie.crozier@parliament.vic.gov.au;
david.davis@parliament.vic.gov.au;
bernie.finn@parliament.vic.gov.au;
wendy.lovell@parliament.vic.gov.au;
Beverley.McArthur@parliament.vic.gov.au;
Edward.ODonohue@parliament.vic.gov.au;
craig.ondarchie@parliament.vic.gov.au;
gordon.rich-phillips@parliament.vic.gov.au;
melina.bath@parliament.vic.gov.au;
jeff.bourman@parliament.vic.gov.au;
Catherine.Cumming@parliament.vic.gov.au;
adem.somyurek@parliament.vic.gov.au;
fiona.patten@parliament.vic.gov.au;
Andy.Meddick@parliament.vic.gov.au;
Stuart.Grimley@parliament.vic.gov.au;
Tania.Maxwell@parliament.vic.gov.au;
David.Limbrick@parliament.vic.gov.au;
Tim.Quilty@parliament.vic.gov.au;
Clifford.Hayes@parliament.vic.gov.au;
Rodney.Barton@parliament.vic.gov.au;
samantha.ratnam@parliament.vic.gov.au;
Also, you can sign a petition on this here: https://www.policestate.org.au/
My father fought in WWII to resist fascism and to stand for freedom. I never thought I would be seeing a repeat of this in my lifetime. Yes, we are now seeing plenty of ominous similarities. Recall that in 1933 a democratic election brought the Nazis into power. It was an incremental approach at first, but ended with deadly results.
As one Austrian woman wrote about all this: “Totalitarianism didn’t come quickly, it took 5 years from 1938 until 1943, to realize full dictatorship in Austria. Had it happened overnight, my countrymen would have fought to the last breath. Instead, we had creeping gradualism. Now, our only weapons were broom handles. The whole idea sounds almost unbelievable that the state, little by little eroded our freedom.” https://billmuehlenberg.com/2020/03/02/warnings-given-warnings-unheeded/
She might as well have been talking about Victoria under Andrews: “The whole idea sounds almost unbelievable that the state, little by little eroded our freedom.”
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