Bid to extend emergency Covid controls just a blatant power grab

The premier was right to knock back an attempt to extend the state’s Covid emergency powers but more must be done to secure our freedoms, writes James Morrow.

Could there have been anything more dispiriting than Tuesday’s attempted power grab by the state’s Covid fetishists to extend the government’s emergency powers well into 2023?

At first glance Premier Dominic Perrottet appears to have saved the day by saying the proposal from Health Minister Brad Hazzard would not be rubber stamped but instead worked through over summer.

But his language — “only the health provisions that need to be extended will be extended” — was equivocal, suggesting that either he is not as pro-freedom as many had hoped, or he is in hock to moderates in his government who see the pandemic as an excuse to meddle in our lives forever.

Premier Dominic Perrottet alongside Minister for Police and Emergency Services David Elliott in Sydney today. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Already there have been some wobbles that suggest the latter might be the case.

Although Minister for Apps Victor Dominello has said that he wants to turn QR codes off at the first opportunity, there is no indication when that might be — despite over 91 per cent of the state’s over-16s double jabbed, low and steady case numbers, and a declining number of hospital patients.

More worrying was the change to restrictions which saw, among other things, the requirement for face masks to be worn in shops extended to December 15.

The fact that not even Queensland, with a relatively scant 71.6 per cent double jabbed, still requires masks in retail settings tells you how scientific this is.

Taken together, it’s a good reminder for NSW that while we may not have been abused like our compatriots to the south with their playground closures and pepper spray, the fight to get past the pandemic is about a lot more than just vaccines and treatments.

It is also about letting those politicians (and worse, unelected health bureaucrats) who would use this crisis as a way to inflate their power and relevance know that their time is up.

Already we are seeing another wave of coronavirus — made far less deadly by jabs and natural mutations — provoking lockdowns and restrictions in the northern hemisphere, though it should be noted not without increasing resistance from citizens who want to absorb the risk and get on with their lives.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard speaks to the media during press conference in Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Flavio Brancaleone

If we are not careful, every annual respiratory disease season will also become Zoom call, home schooling, and toilet paper hoarding season as well.

Despite all this Mr Perrottet has opened the state if not the country in ways not imaginable a month or so ago.

His decision to end quarantine for vaccinated citizens returning to NSW forced the hand of Victoria and the federal government and was a massive blow against parochialism and panic.

Now, though, it is Prime Minister Scott Morrison who is telling audiences that people are sick of governments telling them what to do.

Mr Perrottet should follow this advice and let the current pandemic legislation run out next year.

If we get in to trouble down the road, that’s what parliament is for.