Andrew Bolt: Victorians shouldn’t have to put up with Andrews’ nonsense

Victoria once boasted people prepared to die for democracy. Yet now we have the Andrews government, which is stuffed with health fascists who seem to think democracy isn’t worth the infinitesimally tiny danger of sickness to turn up and do their solemn duty, writes Andrew Bolt.

So this is how democracy ends. With a medical certificate from a Chief Health Officer declaring parliament a health hazard.

Look at Victoria and tremble for your freedom.

Victoria once boasted people prepared to die for democracy at the Eureka Stockade.

Now it’s overrun with cowards and panic merchants, and led by an authoritarian Premier who had the Legislative Assembly shut this week on medical advice.

Watch Daniel Andrews and his gang of seven “Crisis Council” ministers — most of them faithful sycophants — now wave their certificates from the unelected Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton.

In it, Sutton opines that is “prudent for you to consider delaying the return of the Victorian parliament” — a parliament that last sat two months ago — so that “the health and safety of those working in the parliament is safeguarded”.

Brilliant! This lets Andrews and his “Crisis Council” escape parliamentary scrutiny of their mega-incompetence, not least letting the coronavirus escape Victoria’s quarantine hotels and get into 100 nursing homes, killing more than 100 residents.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and his “Crisis Council” have escaped parliamentary scrutiny of their mega-incompetence.

It also give this “Crisis Council” an excuse to escape scrutiny for then turning Victoria into a quasi police state, complete with a curfew, bans on visitors, bans on travelling 5km from home, bans on even sitting with friends for coffee, and bans on so many shops that another 250,000 Victorians will this week lose their jobs.

Isn’t it urgent for any parliament to debate such huge decisions, which curb so much freedom, cripple so many lives, shatter so many businesses, and trigger so many suicides? What is parliament for, if not for this?

Andrews’ government must be stuffed with health fascists to think democracy wasn’t worth the infinitesimally tiny danger of sickness to turn up and do their solemn duty.

This same Premier ordered all Victorians to all wear face masks, assuring them it was “a really significant public health benefit”. He told them social distancing — 1.5m — and handwashing “would save lives”.

Well, then. What is the real danger of politicians meeting in parliament if spaced apart, masked and liberally splashed with sanitiser?

Let the MPs and staff most at risk of dying — anyone over 70 — stay home, but what excuse does Andrews, a fit 48-year-old, have for closing the Legislative Assembly?

Thank God that his Socialist Left Labor government does not control the Victorian Upper House.

Sutton opines that is “prudent for you to consider delaying the return of the Victorian parliament” so that “the health and safety of those working in the parliament is safeguarded”.

It still met in defiance of Sutton’s impertinent request, thanks to the determination of the Liberals, Nationals and minor parties who have the numbers and the courage of their democratic principles.

But even then, one of Andrews’ most lethally incompetent ministers, Health Minister Jenny Mikakos, still had the hide to protest, wailing that it was a “dangerous trend for leaders to ignore medical advice”.

“We should set the example,” said a Minister who herself sets an example of running from her responsibilities.

Wake up, Minister! Any worker on a Woolworths checkout counter today is taking 100 times more risk than you, and they’re just selling baked beans and toilet paper.

You, however, were elected to parliament, entrusted with the freedom and governance of a once great state.

But Mikakos, once dragged into the Legislative Council on Tuesday, soon revealed just why she was so upset at having to turn up.

The questions were too tricky. Too embarrassing. And so no matter what she was asked, she refused to answer.

Example: when was Mikakos first told that there were problems with the amateur-hour security at her quarantine hotels?

Er, I’ll tell you tomorrow, in writing, was all she would say, although she must have known the answer — or, if not, deserved the sack for monumental ignorance.

This obfuscation is typical of the Andrews Government, whose arrogance soars in curious parallel with evidence of its incompetence.

Consider: this is a government which hired amateurs as security guards at its quarantine hotels, and did not test people before letting them out.

This is a government which rarely checked whether sick people in home quarantine stayed there, and even let them go out for exercise.

Now, to dodge awkward questions on all this and much more, Andrews and his gang of seven have perfected a non-answer.

They say they could not possibly comment (a lie), because they’ve appointed a “judicial inquiry” (it isn’t) which will look into all these matters (when the dust settles).

Why have Victorians put up with all this? Have they become so timid and tired of freedom?

And is this just a Victorian thing, or a symptom of a wider Australian sickness?

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