Caleb Bond: Hypocrisy of Covid do-gooders laid bare at Queen’s funeral

Nothing could expose the hypocrisy and theatre of Covid do-gooders like Anthony Albanese better than a historic global event.

A mask-less Anthony Albanese at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. Picture: Getty

You could safely declare the Covid pandemic over after watching the Queen’s state funeral on Monday night.

About 2000 people all packed into Westminster Abbey and barely a mask in sight. What a magnificent spectacle it was – and much more humane than when the poor Queen had to sit on her lonesome at Prince Philip’s funeral.

Alas, the pandemic is only over in the UK.

Masks are still required on public transport in Victoria, despite them being scrapped in NSW and SA this week. And Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is trying to set a standard for the nation, dutifully wearing a mask in parliament and making sure all his Labor colleagues do the same.

Labor MPs wearing masks during Question Time at Parliament House. Picture: Gary Ramage

How curious, then, that Mr Albanese was among the maskless in the Abbey. Surely if one needs to wear a mask in the massive hall that is the House of Representatives – which might house 250 people at its busiest – then it should also be worn in a church of 2000 people packed in like sardines.

He hopped off the bus to the Abbey maskless, too, so we can assume he travelled with all the world leaders without protection.

Is this the same PM who barely two months ago said he expected MPs to “follow the advice which is out there, which is, if you can’t socially distance, if you’re around the corridors of Parliament House … to wear a mask”?

The same man who, at the opening of parliament, characterised mask-wearing as “people making decisions to look after each other, to look after the community”?

Not a mask in site during the Funeral Service for Queen Elizabeth II. Picture: Getty Imag

Are we to assume the PM no longer wants to look after the community? Or maybe Covid just spreads more readily in parliament than it does in churches – a bit like how it was safe to sit down in the pub but a major public health risk to stand at the bar.

Nothing could expose the hypocrisy and theatre of Covid do-gooders better than a historic global event. It was important to be seen at the Queen’s funeral. Those photos and videos of solemn faces will be eternal records of a major moment in world history.

You couldn’t let a mask get in the way of that. Meanwhile, we all have to wear masks on the train.

If Mr Albanese and his colleagues mask up again when parliament sits next week, then we’ll know we’re the punchline of an unfunny joke as leaders hang on to the last vestige of control and importance they were afforded by the pandemic.

End the ridiculous, theatrical virtue signalling. We got the message on Monday night – the upper crust don’t need to wear masks. And nor should we.

Originally published as Caleb Bond: Hypocrisy of Covid do-gooders laid bare at Queen’s funeral