off-guardian | New rules passing in the Australian state of Victoria
could see “conspiracy theorists” and those “suspected by health
authorities of being likely to spread the virus” detained in quarantine
centres, according to The Age
The rules are amendments being added to the Omnibus (Emergency Measures) Bill, which was first passed back in April.
The proposed detention would last “for the period reasonably necessary to eliminate or reduce a serious risk to public health”.
To translate that from bureaucrat into English: it means as for long as they want, or can get away with.
Legislation with this kind of vague verbiage is always a red flag,
but then Victoria is currently over-flowing with warning signs of this
kind.
Victoria – The World’s Fascist Test Run?
Maybe you haven’t been following exactly how bad things are getting
in Australia – and most especially Victoria – but they have essentially
aggressively seized their opportunity to create a fascist micro-state. A
social Petri dish, in which to culture some tyranny.
They have declared both a “state of emergency” AND a “state of
disaster” for a disease which has killed fewer than a thousand people in
9 months across the entire country.
For a sense of perspective, in 2018 over three times as many people died of influenza, and the same number again committed suicide.
As of right now Australia has just 16 cases of coronavirus classified as “severe”.
And yet, among other highly authoritarian regulations in place, Victoria currently has:
- A curfew, everybody must be home by 9pm and remain there until 5am.
- Special work permits for “essential workers”, which must be carried at all times and presented to any law enforcement officer that asks.
- Police check points on the roads – “leaving a restricted area” is now a criminal offense.
- “Indefinitely suspended” all Jury trials – all criminal proceedings are now bench trials (they tried that in Scotland, too)
- A 60 minute limit for anyone leaving their home to exercise, and a rule forbidding people from going more than 5km (3.1 miles) from their home.
- Instituted a mandatory masks for anyone leaving the house for any reason.
Though notionally intended to be “temporary measures” which only
lasted six weeks, they have already extended that timeline for a further
six months. There is some planned “loosening” of these restrictions, but with such vague and mutable conditions it’s unlikely this “new normal” is going away.
Indeed the “emergency” is so comparatively minor that this precedent
means almost any future event can be designated a “disaster” or
“emergency”, and used as excuse to impose authoritarian social controls.
