The New South Wales police have been whining about not having enough power to arrest anyone anywhere anytime for no reason. Understandably, the government of Australia’s most populous state pushed back on these demands, even flatly refusing for several hours.
However, now the the virus is clearly out of control in the state with over 600 infections a day and climbing, the Premier told the police to go and write the regulations themselves. As a Channel 9 commentator put it, they’ll redraft them “to make these health orders work for the police, rather than work for the public.” He wasn’t even joking.
That is the very definition of a police state: the police get to write the rules and then enforce them.
In Victoria, the police have already been granted full immunity from prosecution while acting under the cover of the Health Act. We think that New South Wales police will be smart enough to add in a similar clause.
They will also ask for more “help” from the Australian Army. No surprise here, given the central government placed Lieutenant General John Frewen as head of Operation COVID Shield (the vaccine rollout), assisted by Commodore Eric Young. These are civilian positions overseeing civilian operations. One can only wonder at the precise reason for selecting a soldier when there are plenty of qualified and competent civilians to choose from. Are we really aiming for a police state, or will we settle for a dictatorship?
We don’t have a crystal ball, but but we don’t think this is going in the right direction.
Unless downhill is the right direction.
P
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