Andrew Bolt: Daniel Andrews’ maskless moment proves stupidity of Covid rules

Dan Andrews didn’t “think he was above the law” when he went without a face mask, he obviously realised – even unconsciously – he didn’t really need a mask.

No, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews didn’t “think he was above the law” when he twice last week walked to an outdoor press conference without a face mask.

It was much worse than that.

In fact, Andrews immediately accepted he was in the wrong, and paid a $400 fine. Police didn’t have to spray tear gas in his face or shoot him with rubber bullets to show who was boss.

The real problem is that Andrews obviously realised – even unconsciously – he didn’t really need a mask. He clearly posed no danger in the open air with no one in touching distance.

And most of us know he was right. I saw dozens of Melburnians last weekend making exactly the same calculation, walking maskless on a beach or down the street with their dogs.

That’s the harm here. Victoria cannot have nearly 2000 new infections a day after seven months of lockdown, brutally enforced, unless many people decided to break laws they think useless, or just make life worse.

\ Daniel Andrews was fined for not wearing a mask. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Sarah Matray

This is a dangerous and rare thought. Even most people caught speeding don’t think we should scrap speed limits, but Victoria’s virus laws are now held in contempt by even scrupulously law-abiding citizens like me.

It’s not just making us wear masks outside. The curfew is also stupid. Banning golf was insane. Keeping grandparents in their last years of life away from grandchildren was cruel. Stopping people from sitting on a beach or park bench was dumb. Banning protests and sending police to brutally crush dissent was dangerous.

I’m not surprised that one officer, Acting Senior Sergeant Krystle Mitchell, has now resigned in protest at “the way in which the organisation I love to work for is being used and the damage that it’s causing to the reputation of Victoria Police and the damage it is causing the community”.

We build a society not by using police to scare unwilling people into obeying unjust laws. We build it when the vast majority of citizens accept the rightness of those laws, or at least their legitimacy, and when they can protest against the few they think wrong.

That is no longer the case. For too many Victorians, the laws are stupid and the police and their government a menace.

We’re told Melbourne’s lockdown will be over in weeks, or maybe a couple of months. But I fear that the damage done to the faith of Victorians in their police, laws and government will last.