Authoritarian Oz?

‘Some countries are using the pandemic to undermine liberal democracy to promote their own more authoritarian models … Now, quite ironically, it turns out that Canberra plans to send its military personnel to help enforce social lockdown.’

This was Lu Xue in an article in Global Times, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, criticising Australia’s pandemic management.

A year ago, Australia (and New Zealand) was the envy of the world. Almost-zero Covid and an economy that had recovered rapidly to pre-pandemic heights. Now China mocks, and much of the rest of the world looks on in bemusement and horror, as Australia struggles to come to terms with the Delta variant. An unvaccinated, unmasked limo driver caught the virus driving from Sydney airport and now there are thousands of cases in Sydney; Melbourne, Canberra and even New Zealand are in lockdown. South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia have cut themselves off, not just from the rest of the world, but also from most of their fellow Australians. Families are split, the economy is losing billions and Australia has become the biggest, and nicest, prison in the world. It seems as though it is easier to get into North Korea than it is to get into Western Australia!

The Sydney Morning Herald recently reported that tens of thousands of expats are planning to get out and return home. Hundreds of young people in Sydney and Melbourne are being taken to hospital with mental health issues every week – Melbourne in the midst of its sixth lockdown is now one of the longest locked-down cities in the world. The police have enforced lockdown measures with a zeal that matches that of the most authoritarian governments. In an infamous case, a dog rescue centre in New South Wales was ordered to kill all its dogs so that people would not travel to collect them.

The church has struggled with this. Most are determined to be law-abiding and supporting citizens. But now there are concerns that the powers governments have taken will not be easily given back. There is concern from some – and support from others – that vaccine passports might be required to get into church.

Australia’s position is now to move from the ‘zero Covid’ policy to relying on vaccinations as the way to live with Covid. But the underlying issues that this pandemic has exposed suggests that something greater than a vaccine is needed for the country’s ills.