Traditionally, Australians have been perceived and represented in popular culture in a certain way. Laconic, dry, no-nonsense and with a healthy suspicion and disrespect for governments and authority. Certainly there is a strong tradition of political satire in this country with shows like the Gillies Report, Full Frontal, The Chaser and more recently, Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell which have all been adept at lampooning politicians and governments of all persuasions.
However, unfortunately that's about as far as it goes, and the myth of the coarse Aussie larrikin who cheerfully thumbs their nose at authority is just that. For when it comes to calling out the actions of governments who abuse power or for insisting on protecting our basic civil rights, we Australians tend to be meek, apathetic, terrified and far too easily cowed into submission.
While not as endemic here as foreign totalitarian regimes, elected governments in Australia have often over-played threats for political gain or to frighten the bejesus out of everyone so as to justify some law or practice that would otherwise be unthinkable or highly unpopular. For example, it's easy to forget now that the Howard government was trailing Labor in the lead up to the 2001 election when two things happened to change the direction of the campaign. The first was the September 11 attacks in the US and the second was the "Tampa" children overboard affair. Both of these incidents were manna from heaven for a cynical and rat-cunning politician like John Howard who managed to stir up sufficient panic about terrorists and boat people to frighten everyone into not changing the government when of course, neither threat subsequently proved worth worrying about.
However the legacies from that time annoyingly live on to this day in the form of a lingering societal xenophobia about asylum seekers and Neanderthals sticking wands down your underpants at airports before you are allowed to get on what is basically a flying bus. Of course, that last one hasn't been a particular problem of late but if and when we are finally allowed to travel interstate again, the mind boggles as to what new idiotic biosecurity measures have been dreamt up to "ensure our safety".
Which brings me to the latest thing that governments would like us to get terrified about, being the COVID pandemic. This time however given the nature of the crisis it's been left-leaning governments who've been engaging in abuses of power. Take Queensland for starters. On the basis of a "public health" issue, the Palaszczuk government has decided to outsource the critical decision on border re-opening to an unelected bureaucrat, whose sole focus in the government is stopping the spread of the virus in Queensland. Untroubled as Dr Young must be by matters such as the decimation of the tourism industry and disruption to border communities who were previously oblivious to arbitrarily-drawn state lines, not surprisingly she has adopted a Draconian approach which ensures she hits her KPI of zero cases but which must have thousands of people and businesses tearing their collective hair out.
Over in WA, you have Mark McGowan who has gone even further and refused to allow anyone into the state from anywhere for the foreseeable future. When pressed on his attitude last week, he finally let the cat out of the bag and confessed that it wasn't so much of a public health issue any more, but because he didn't want South Australians coming over and taking West Australian jobs, or West Australians going to spend money in the eastern states. Well, I think with that comment he's just made sure he's lost his High Court case with Clive Palmer, and if the Federal Government had any gumption they would immediately cut off WA's GST until he pulls his head in. Fancy for no valid reason having the hide to try and stop an Australian citizen from visiting another part of their own country, or stopping them moving to WA permanently to pursue a better career or life. If you want to secede, mate, by all means do so, but don't come cap in hand to the eastern states when Brazil's mines come back on line, the iron ore price tanks and Big Fat Gina stops paying you royalty tax.
However of course the gold standard of government abuse must go to our own inept despot-in-chief here in Victoria, Dan Andrews. You would think that any government with any sense of decency or shame having directly caused the current mess would first own up and apologise profusely for having done so, then do its utmost to try and minimise the impact of its stuff-ups on their constituents while they are trying to fix it.
But no, that's not how Dan rolls. Instead Victorians have been subjected to some of the most stringent lockdown measures in the world, with some not even recommended by health officials but rather imposed to suit either the government's convenience or to indulge Dan's autocratic instincts. Then when daily caseloads got back to a level where NSW somehow managed to cope with a more or less fully open economy, what we got was 8 more weeks of the same. Which, interestingly, hasn't worked as well as NSW's strategy when you look at the numbers.
Perhaps the most worrying thing though about how state governments are behaving is that people generally seem unconcerned about it. In Queensland there have finally been some rumblings which is why the government has had to make some concessions around re-opening with NSW border communities. However in WA, Labor enjoys a record approval rating, which suggests that 90% of people there are OK with the Premier illegally preventing them from leaving the state until he decides on his capricious whim to let them do so.
And in Victoria - well, bizarrely Dan is riding high on a 60% plus approval rating for how he's handling the pandemic. Let's think about this a bit more, shall we?
This means that over 60% of people, most of whom are not criminals on parole, are perfectly happy to be told by the government the reasons for which they can leave their house, the times of day when they must be locked up in their house, how far they can travel from their house, and what they have to wear when they do.
More than 60% of people have no issue with a succession of ministers and senior public servants turning up to an enquiry and claiming to have no knowledge of who authorised what must surely be the most serious and far-reaching administrative stuff up in Australia's history.
Over 60% of people don't mind the Premier fronting the media for 90 plus days in a row to dismiss experts out of hand, to refuse to provide any detail about the advice which has framed his strategy, or outline what steps he is taking to make sure there aren't more screw ups when society opens up again.
The lion's share of people are fine with the government passing a law that has been condemned by a host of eminent QCs and former judges and which will enable any government official authorised by DHHS to apprehend anyone they think might offend a COVID lock down law and hold them indefinitely without charge.
At the time the original 13 states of the USA were negotiating their independence from Britain, Benjamin Franklin made a famous quote: "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Right now, Benjamin must be looking down from that great internet cloud in the sky at what we meek, compliant and terrified Australians are letting our governments get away with during this pandemic and just shaking his head in disbelief.
Seriously - wake up Australia.
