Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison did something that few national leaders would even consider: he voluntarily delegated power to state premiers. In a pandemic.
This is unparalleled in the world today where leaders (especially Australian state premiers) have been using the pandemic as an excuse to seize “emergency powers” and essentially rule by decree.
At first I was amazed. Morrison isn’t a weak leader by any means and is a very canny politician to get elected Prime Minister on a pro-coal ticket in these woke times.
But now the protests in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and the rest of the country are all creating history just as Morrison knew it would happen.
Few politicians in the world have the guts to stand up to global pharma and deny the pandemic, and none are left alive today other than one former politician in Sweden. Morrison certainly wasn’t going to go down that route, and nor were the state premiers.
But once they went beyond the implausible route of “flattening the curve” to the impossible one of complete and permanent eradication, the writing was on the wall.
Eradicating a virus permanently is impossible without an effective vaccine tested over several decades. And even then, the historical total is one.
It was inevitable that a) there would be screwups by the states with their ineffective quarantine measures; and b) state premiers would bask in the lime light of fame as they pronounced new decrees and pontificated on the way model citizens should behave.
Morrison very cleverly cajoled/allowed the states to arrange for quarantine, even though it is stated clearly in the constitution (section 51) that it’s a federal government responsibility. This reduced costs significantly (everything done by the federal government is done 100% better for only 300% of the cost).
The state premiers could gave the juicy contracts to their mates (one assumes) and everything was great.. until it wasn’t.
The inevitable leaks occurred, inevitable mistakes were highlighted, and the finger pointing began. And so did the fun. Dick tata time
This was when state premiers, notably Dan Andrews of Victoria, could declare states of emergency, giving the Chief Health Officer (and consequently police) extraordinary powers and immunity from prosecution should anything go wrong. This was the start of the dictatorships, and they loved it.
Dictator Dan was in the lime light and the people adored him. At first. They always do.
Remember Hitler? He had something like 90% approval rating at the start of his reign. The German people loved him (mainly the gentiles; Jews not so much). Similarly, Governor Andrew Cuomo in New York became a celebrity and even won an Emmy. Who wouldn’t want this?
Meanwhile, Morrison took a very low profile, allowed the premiers to reign supreme in their own back yards, and went off hobnobbing for his G20 summit (these don’t work over Zoom because it doesn’t offer the same photo ops).
What was super cheeky (and very smart) was Morrison asked state premiers to use lockdowns “only as a last resort,” knowing full well that at the next inevitable leak the first thing the premiers will do will be a kneejerk lockdown.
It took less than two weeks. This guy’s a genius.
We now have most of the country locked down, and Morrison’s roadmap to nowhere is becoming a reality. Businesses are going bust, people are rising up against the lockdowns, and police are issuing fines left, right and centre.
And this is just stage 1 of the 4-part plan. Lockdowns are written into stage 2 as well. Stage 3 could be months or years away. We’ll never actually get to stage four as the plan is currently written, because it would require the government to see COVID-19 as “less dangerous than the seasonal flu” — a reality no government outside of Sweden could ever visualize.
So by the time we reach stage 3.5 two years from now, every decision made to date on COVID-19 will have been proved to be either misguided at best, or at the other end, deliberately aimed at destroying Australian families and businesses.
This will be the point where Morrison, in robes of pure white and just the hint of a glowing halo hovering over his head, can stride in, take back control, denounce the premiers as either well-meaning incompetent fools (labor premiers) or Aussie battlers who give it their best (liberal premiers), and finally take Australia out of a four year emergency that should have lasted for a week.
Maybe he’ll even have Morrison’s “No more Lockdown” playing in the background.
No more lockdown
No more government overreach
No more fascist police
Disturbing our peace
No more taking of our freedom
And our God-given rights
Pretending it’s for our safety
When it’s really to enslave
Who’s running our country?
Who’s running our world?
Examine it closely
And watch it unfurl
No more lockdown
No more threats
No more Imperial College
Scientists making up crooked facts
No more lockdown
No more pulling the wool over our eyes
No more celebrities telling us
Telling us what wе’re supposed to feel
No more status quo
Put your shouldеr to the wind
No more lockdown
No more lockdown
No more lockdown
No more lockdown
No more lockdown
No more lockdown
