Andrew Bolt: Why anti-lockdown riots didn’t erupt in Sydney

Our Premier acts like a dictator; Sydney has a democrat. And that’s the reason why anti-lockdown protests exploded here, but not in NSW.

There’s a reason why Melbourne has anti-lockdown riots but Sydney doesn’t. It’s called Dan Andrews.

See, Melbourne has a Premier acting like a dictator; Sydney has a democrat.

I don’t exaggerate. God, I wish. I’m terrified by what’s happening to Victoria, where police now fire rubber bullets at people who dare to protest.

Premier Andrews himself asked us two months ago to compare his style with that of Premier Gladys Berejiklian, as she struggled to control Sydney’s virus outbreak.

He attacked Berejiklian for refusing to crush Sydney with a lockdown as savage as his own, plus a curfew: “I would think they’d look at what we did and have a long, hard think about whether they should do that.”

Construction workers and demonstrators at the Shrine on Wednesday. Picture: Con Chronis

Even then Andrews’ boast seemed mad. He’d just ended Melbourne’s fifth lockdown, yet Victoria still had more than 90 per cent of Australia’s virus deaths.

Two months on, Andrews’ strategy seems an even more disastrous failure. Melbourne is in its sixth lockdown, and will on Monday next week break the world record for the city locked down the longest.

Yet look: Infections in Victoria are soaring much faster than they did in NSW, where numbers are now falling.

Asked last week to explain why his lockdowns weren’t working, Andrews said: “I think fatigue in our community is a very real thing…

“But it’s so important we just see this thing through. It’s only a few weeks we’ll be able to end this lockdown.”

The first part was true. The second is a con. Few Victorians trust Andrews to end his brutal lockdown in “only a few weeks”.

Protesters have been pepper sprayed and tear gassed. Picture: Jason Edwards

Hence last week’s riots – or, in fact, protests wrongly banned and violently suppressed, China style, with protesters roughed up by police, sprayed in the face, handcuffed, tear gassed, fined $5000 and even shot with rubber bullets.

But, yes, Andrews is right that “fatigue” with his lockdown, plus widespread distrust that he’ll set Victorians free any time soon, makes many people break his rules.

That isn’t just because Andrews’ lockdown has lasted much longer than Sydney’s. It’s also because his rules are more harsh and irrational, with fewer rewards and little hope.

Only a man like Andrews – who seems to think a Premier just has to set rules and send police to crush any resistance – would think this is how to run a democracy.

Take, for instance, his response after deciding Melburnians were “fatigued” with his lockdown. He just had police go in even harder.

The Critical Incident Response Team in a show of force on Melbourne’s streets. Picture: Darrian Traynor

At the weekend, an army of police cleared out anyone from a Northcote park who even looked like a protester, and stopped people in the street to demand their name.

Why? An Irish study – the world’s biggest – reckoned just one in 1000 people with Covid got infected in the open air. Like in a park.

Yes, Berejiklian also banned people from meeting outdoors, but she was also the first to relax that terrible rule, so vaccinated people especially could meet in small groups outside.

Daniel Andrews’ reaction was typically authoritarian. Allowing this social contact wasn’t why NSW was given all those vaccines, he raged: “It’s … not a national plan for picnics, just quietly.”

We repeatedly see this critical difference. Berejiklian tends to take away the fewest freedoms possible, Andrews the most.

Berejiklian gives back freedoms to offer hope and set examples; Andrews promises to think about it, and meanwhile uses a stick instead of a carrot.

Police arrest a man at Northcote’s All Nations Park. Picture: David Crosling

Some examples:

BEREJIKLIAN finally imposed her curfew, but only on Sydney suburbs with the highest infection rates, and lifted even that a week ago. Andrews’ still has all Melbourne in curfew;

BEREJIKLIAN allowed golf, skate parks, basketball courts and playgrounds, knowing the risk of infection outdoors was extremely low, especially for children. Andrews banned the lot, until recently;

BEREJIKLIAN allowed unlimited exercise outdoors; Andrews first allowed just two hours, and, later, four;

BEREJIKLIAN used social pressure to get construction workers vaccinated, saying every site with unvaccinated workers could have only half the usual workforce. Andrews, in contrast, bluntly decreed “no jab, no job”, and then shut the whole construction industry after furious workers protested.

Being a good leader in a democracy means bringing people with you, not just issuing commands like some banana republic strongman.

Berejiklian knows this, but Andrews still barks out his orders – often pointlessly cruel – and sends police to force the growing number of angry citizens to submit.

So who’s surprised that some Victorians feel he’s pushed them too far, and that protest offers their own hope of freedom?