Karen Matthews: Is protection in the form of mandates worth the cost?

Sure the government has a responsibility to protect the people but to what extent and at what cost? KAREN MATTHEWS hits out at the ‘new world of discrimination, division and cockeyed democracy’.

Welcome to Australia 2021 and a brand new world of discrimination, division and cockeyed democracy.

Where a person’s choice not to be vaccinated against Covid, for whatever reason, could ultimately result in termination of their employment and exclusion.

They are not convicted criminals nor are they listed among Australia’s Most Wanted.

No, the greatest offence of which they are guilty is to exercise something called their human rights by choosing not to be vaccinated.

Contrary to popular belief, many are not mindless ratbags screaming from the rooftops but ordinary intelligent Australians who looked at the options, studied the advice and simply decided against getting the jab.

While you and I may not agree, that is their fundamental right.

It also pays to note that from the word go, Prime Minister Scott Morrison maintained vaccination against Covid was not compulsory.

That was before he walked away from the table and allowed his rabble of state leaders to make up their own minds on the matter.

A healthcare frontline worker injecting COVID-19 vaccine to patient.

So is it compulsory or not?

Well State Governments are now picking and choosing which sectors of the workforce in which to make vaccinations mandatory.

I can understand the obvious being the health, emergency services and teaching sectors.

But in Queensland some police and health workers have already taken their opposition to the courts, while here in Victoria there are serious rumblings among areas of police, teachers and health workers who feel likewise.

Not surprisingly, news on mandatory vaccinations in the construction industry, has fallen deathly silent since the recent demonstrations.

Not a lot sinks in with this government but it certainly understands, with brilliant clarity, the consequences of when members of your main political support base turn against you.

According to ‘the experts’, (of which there also seems to be a contagion at present), being fully vaccinated does not prevent you catching Covid or passing it on to others, but it does prevent you becoming seriously ill and possibly dying from the virus.

Then there’s all this talk of ‘vaccine passports’ which would discriminate between those who have had the jab and those who have not, allowing only the fully vaccinated to attend and enjoy certain venues and ‘benefits’.

And who would be expected to police this nonsense?

Why the battling business owner, still struggling after 18 long, hard, miserable months to make ends meet while at the same time ensuring compliance with all the other Covid requirements, of course.

Sure the government has a responsibility to protect the people but to what extent and at what cost?

By putting people out of work when the only people they are likely to harm is themselves?

Now here’s a thought!

Perhaps instead of vaccine passports the ‘brains trust’ could mandate bar codes on our foreheads, implant security tags in our necks or bring back the cat o’ nine tails to encourage recalcitrants to roll up their sleeves.

For almost two years we have been given that ridiculous ‘we’re all in this together’ line when absolutely nothing could have been further from the truth.

We have been spun lies and deception at every turn, and continue, in Victoria, to look on silently, like the sad, frightened, compliant shadows of our former selves, we have become.

Fact is we are all Australians despite the ugly divisions created by political point scoring state and territory leaders.

Fortunately our leaders do not define us as a people.

As for those who have chosen not to be vaccinated, we should at least accept and respect their rights as individuals to do so.

And time will show that bullying, threats, blame and derision were not, and never will be, the answer to dealing with problems.

Nor, as a matter of fact, are rubber bullets.

Originally published as Karen Matthews: Is protection in the form of mandates worth the cost?