Valiant Women Defending Freedom

These brave young women put most of us to shame:

When darkness covers the land, there will always be some brave light-bearers who will stand strong, resisting the smothering evil and championing righteous liberty. There are many who are standing up and being counted in these dark times.

I have written on many of them – men and women who are willing to risk everything as they stand against the rising tide of evil, and seek to uphold our basic liberties. Here I want to highlight two women who are both in Melbourne and are standing against one of the most egotistical and diabolical power-hungry megalomaniacs in all of Australia: Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews whose sole passion in life it seems is to be declared Dictator for Life.

His latest push to crush the people entirely and become the very model of a modern Major-Generalissimo (to paraphrase Gilbert and Sullivan) is his despicable bill granting him despotic powers forever, complete with massive fines and jail times for those who dare to resist. I have written about this fiendish legislation often now – see here for example: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2021/10/27/dictatorship-dangers-everywhere/

Many have already spoken out against it in particular, and against tyrannical lockdowns and health fascism in general. A group of eminent QCs actually had an open letter about the bill published in the leftist Age newspaper. They said, in part:

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. We are now more than 18 months into the pandemic. It has become clear what sort of powers might be required to deal with it. There is no need to give the government of the day a blank cheque to rule by decree.

 

Instead, the Bill should give the minister specific powers to do specific things (such as border closures, lockdowns, mask and vaccination mandates, etc), subject to specific and prescriptive requirements listed in the Bill, and subject to unconditional Parliamentary disallowance (i.e. without requiring any SARC recommendation). https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/an-open-letter-against-victoria-s-new-pandemic-laws-20211029-p5948y.html

But let me consider just two others. These women are real champions in this regard and deserve to be singled out. First let me share a powerful two-minute speech that Melton councillor Moira Deeming recently delivered. Here is part of it:

This week, after some of the harshest and longest lockdowns in the world; after hoarding all the State’s powers and using them to crush public dissent; after constantly promoting fear, contempt and division; after trampling over patient-doctor confidentiality, and the principles of free and informed consent for medical procedures; and after gleefully announcing that Victoria will now embark on a new era of social segregation, Daniel Andrews had the arrogance to refer to himself as a “Father figure,” when in reality he is more like Big Brother from Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984.

 

The Government has admitted that Covid-vaxed and Covid-unvaxed people can both catch, carry and transmit covid viruses- and almost at the same rate. Yet, only one of those groups is being treated as though they are inherently dirty, diseased and dangerous. Only one of those groups has been denied a place in public. Only one of those groups has been denied the right to do honest work to support their families. Only one of those groups is being denied the right to attend swimming lessons and school concerts with their children. Only one of those groups is being told to wait outside like dogs, when picking up online orders of clothes and shoes for their children. Only one of those groups has been barred from representing their voters in Parliament House.

 

And may I just applaud the principled stand of the five MPs who stood up against that anti-democratic legislation: Neil Angus, Catherine Cummings, Tim Quilty, David Limberi, Adam Somurak, and Bernie Finn. Only one of those groups has been labelled ignorant and selfish by the very same government internationally branded as, and I quote “a model of what not to do in a pandemic.”

You can watch her entire speech, as well as get more information on this from the ever-useful site Caldron Pool: https://caldronpool.com/victorian-city-councillor-rips-into-daniel-andrews-over-vaccination-segregation/

We just did an interview with brave Moira. Please have a listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU49gL5-FvA 

My second champion – also a young female involved in the Victorian political arena – is Steph Ryan, a National Party MP in the Legislative Assembly. She also gave a terrific speech on this horrific bill and it too is worth quoting from. She begins:

I feel sick that we are having this debate. I do not think there has ever been a piece of legislation come before this chamber that I have been more vehemently opposed to. I feel sick that Labor MPs are not brave enough to stand up and speak the truth about this legislation. I do not care if you think that the Premier’s handling of this pandemic has been infallible. I do not care if you stand with Dan. I do not care if you think he is the greatest thing since sliced bread. The truth is that this legislation is about handing the Premier and the Minister for Health the ability to rule by decree. Is that power that you want to hand to every future Premier and health minister? It does not matter what you think about the Premier. This is not even about the current government. This is about the management of pandemics but also the ability to trigger these powers for ever into the future. It is about the regime that it has the potential to set up here in this state. That is what is at stake here. Is that what we want as Victorians?

 

This Bill allows the government to declare a pandemic in Victoria and make orders that lock down the state even when there is no presence of disease here. Yes, the chief health officer needs to publish his or her advice within 14 days of those orders being made, but that advice, even if it contradicts the order made by the Premier or the health minister, does not invalidate those orders if it does not support them.

 

The Bill gives the government the right to make orders on the ability of attributes – things like race, gender, sexuality. How on earth can people support that? How on earth can members opposite support that? It is extraordinary. It offers no rights of appeal to courts for people who are incarcerated. It sets up a penalty regime of fines that would see an individual face more than $90,000. That would send most ordinary Victorians to jail. Who can afford a $90,000 fine?

She concludes:

The Irish philosopher Edmund Burke said, ‘The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.’ Those opposite tell us that unprecedented powers are required for unprecedented times. Governments always present compelling reasons to concentrate power. My grandmother came to this country fleeing Mussolini, and I am glad that she is not alive today to see what is happening. I genuinely am. I think she would be absolutely horrified. I honestly never believed that the people elected to this chamber would think that it is appropriate to hand the Premier and the health minister the kind of power to lock people up, to lock people down and to cancel protests without the checks and balances of Parliament – to strip people of their most basic rights without the oversight and the checks and balances of Parliament. The erosion of people’s liberties does not happen overnight; it happens by degrees. Streamline pandemic laws, by all means. We do not argue with that. We know that the government needs a certain degree of flexibility to control dangerous outbreaks of disease. We are not arguing about that. We are arguing for proper accountability and oversight. This Bill does not deliver those measures.

 

Let me conclude with the proverb that we all know because it is inscribed into the foyer of this building: “Where no Counsel is the People Fall; but in the Multitude of Counsellors there is Safety.” That is the principle of this Parliament, and it is the principle that I urge members of the Labor Party to adhere to. Do not give this unchecked power not just to this government but to future governments. It is wrong. https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/one-womans-stand-against-the-outrageous-power-grab-in-australia/

Terrific stuff Steph. Australia sure does need more superstars like Moira and Steph. But yes, others do exist, and future articles will highlight some of these champs as well, so stay tuned.

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