Andrew Bolt: Politicians too weak to stand up to health fascism

Health bureaucrats have one job — stopping the virus. It’s the job of our elected leaders to consider the bigger picture. Except they don’t in Victoria, unlike in NSW.

Acting Victorian Premier James Merlino handballed the hard decision. Picture: Getty

Now we know how fascism feels. Health fascism, that is, where cowardly politicians cause terrible pain by giving health bureaucrats the final say in dealing with this virus crisis.

Just look at the latest two examples.

In Queensland, a couple in a quarantine hotel had their baby son born prematurely last week – and were then banned from seeing him in hospital.

Note: the couple were fully vaccinated and had repeatedly tested negative. The hospital had agreed to help them see their son safely.

The risk of the couple spreading the virus was virtually zero.

But according to chief health officer Jeannette Young, even that was too much.

Health bureaucrats like Brett Sutton get the final say in Victoria. Picture: NCA NewsWire

She banned the parents from visiting because she has only one job – stopping the virus, without considering people’s jobs, freedoms, happiness – or babies.

It’s actually the job of our elected leaders to consider that bigger picture. But Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk dodged that duty, deferring to her health officials.

No guts.

Same story in Victoria.

A shattered family in Warrnambool planned a funeral for their eight-year-old son, who’d drowned on a school outing.

But there was a statewide lockdown. Funerals could have no more than 10 mourners.

Here, too, the health risk was about zero. The nearest infected person to Warrnambool was in Melbourne, 250km away. The funeral could have been held, masks on, in the open air, where virtually no one ever gets infected.

But yet again a political leader dodged their responsibility to consider all factors, and exempt this funeral.

Acting Premier James Merlino handballed the decision to his chief health officer, Brett Sutton, who handballed it to more junior health bureaucrats in the “exemptions team”.

And of course that team said no.

Where in the job description of health bureaucrats does it tell them to also consider people’s tears? Or worry about children missing months of school? Or people losing their jobs? Going through hell?

As Professor James McCaw, an epidemiologist advising governments in this crisis, said on Monday: “it’s the government that makes those decisions.”

Except they don’t. Not in Victoria, at least, unlike in NSW.

So we get this health fascism that’s locked down Melbourne for two weeks because of an outbreak that’s killed no one and for days infected no one who wasn’t already in quarantine.

But as fascists always say, it’s for your own good. The enemy is everywhere!