https://content.legislation.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/bills/591316bi1.pdf
Here is the amended pandemic bill which passed Victorian lower house yesterday (51 to 26) and has been getting talked about a lot in both MSM and independent media.
Some of the main points:
- Giving the premier the power to declare a pandemic
- Allowing that pandemic status to be extended for up to three months at a time without a maximum time period
- Providing the health minister the power to make pandemic orders
- Allowing for prison sentences of up to two years for people who knowingly breach a health order and cause serious health risks to another individual
- A person who fails to comply with a health order and knows that could cause a health risk to others can be fined up to $90,500, while businesses face fines of up to $452,500 for breaching the rules
sweet Jesus, that is some crazy stuff.
wicked tyranny 🙁
lol, they already had all that power, all this does is take away the need to get the government into parliament to vote at the time.
IF his government doesn’t support it he will be out if he tries it on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee6X61jLmt8
Reminds me of Milo Kerrigan that guy
At this point I would be surprised if some members of the military and police were not considering how to organise a coup.
So not too dissimilar to NSW pandemic laws now…
https://auspublaw.org/2020/03/law-making-in-a-crisis-commonwealth-and-nsw-coronavirus-regulations/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Soaz7arrLAc
So we haven’t had an end to end review of what went well and what didn’t, but already the solution is to give the premier and his ministers more power. The review of the hotel quarantine fiasco caused a micromanaging premier and staff to have collective amnesia. No, the solutions required are more fundamental than this like more health funding as Victoria had ambulance ramping in the past and hospital beds have not kept up with population growth. We needed more consistent rules rather closing playgrounds but allowing home renovations to occur. But none of this will occur as it is EZFKA and the dictator will get his powers.
They don’t have any more power in reality. The parliament has just pre voted their support. If they want to remove that support they can elect a new premier or vote no confidence in the government, or repeal the laws they just approved.
in theory, yes.
in practice, it’ll never happen. Not for those reasons.
I won’t argue with that, but by the same token the vote would be a formality to enact any of this at the time it is applied rather than simply give the power to enact it at a future time at their desire for the same reasons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9VOXbMpeus
https://www.rt.com/news/538912-melbourne-protest-bill-mandates/
Hundreds of anti-Daniel Andrews protesters descend on Melbourne CBD
or is it thousands…. no one knows.
In fairness, the people who do know are lying their pants off.
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/stop-medical-apartheid-police-passive-huge-crowd-protests-draconian-pandemic-powers-bill
Meanwhile in Queensland…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10136275/Unpaid-Covid-fines-taken-bank-accounts-seized-homes-Queensland.html
Is anyone here looking to get out of the cities in the next few years? Or has already moved? What’s your story?
Please don’t leave the city. Repeat after me, city living good, country living bad.
And if a heap of people move to the country we might screw up the ‘Wagga Wagga effect ‘ and we can’t have that, can we?
regional towns are ducked, if you are married already or really dumb or whatever, youll enjoy it, but otherwise it mostly sucks. the heat will kill you alone.
Yeah I was thinking area around Jindabyne or something. Really like the area.
I’ve conceded, I’m in my mid 50s, at best, I have about 30 years of life left. It’s a long time, but it will go quite quick. I’m quite happy about this too. Looks like I’ll stay in Sydney.
I’m worried about how it all shakes down if global politics goes tits up. I’m I’m pretty sure it’s likely to go tits up this decade sometime.
We are at the arse end of a very long supply chain in an age of de globalisation. Not a great place to be.
My opinion of course could be wrong.
Nah, sounds like quite a few people are having the same idea.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-31/rental-woes-north-nsw-holiday-maker-influx/100576550
been in the regions all my working life [ coz cheap housing / shit tonnes of work], and am being pulled toward locating closer to the city for health care.
I think there is a massive opportunity in providing healthcare to the region’s. Esp now. I hear you that is a big concern. Very interesting.
its the wear and tear crap thats messing me about …hips knees shoulders
Saw this today:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/nov/02/rural-australians-are-facing-life-threatening-wait-times-for-medical-specialists
Access to health services is a big issue. Littleproud blames doctors, but the way medicine is funded means that it’s not simply a case of encouraging training in rural areas.
The bill allows for health orders to be targeted at “specific classes” of people, making the Andrews Government immune from its own anti-discrimination laws. Victoria’s Equal Opportunity Act — which would be suspended under the pandemic powers — is aimed at shielding people from discrimination on the basis of their race, sex, religion, political beliefs and ten other protected attributes.
In introducing the hastily-written legislation, the Andrews Government claimed that the Victorian Bar association was among the stakeholders consulted in the process. But bar president Christopher Blanden QC was quick to set the record straight.
“This is a gross misrepresentation,” Blanden wrote in a communication to all Victorian barristers. “The Victorian Bar was not consulted … [and] was never provided with a draft Bill.”
The Victorian Bar labelled the legislation “the biggest challenge to the rule of law that this state has faced in decades.” The association warned that the bill would give the health minister “effectively unlimited power to rule the state by decree, for an effectively indefinite period, and without effective judicial or parliamentary oversight”.
Under our system, how far can a State government go?
Blanden is just another legal shill. A member of the Liberal Party, and also the QC representing the government against Manus Island refugee compensation – doubt he actually gives a shit about “human rights.”
you can’t hold that against him. Barristers must represent whoever briefs them. With very few exceptions.
he may well be an asshole. But that doesn’t mean he’s wrong on this.
you take the champion you are given, not the one you wish you had. The enemy of your enemy is your friend….and all that.
C.S. Lewis sagely observed that,