Rita Panahi: Pandemic no time for Deputy Chief Health Officer’s partisan display
Why is a top health bureaucrat posting illogical, fringe-dwelling nonsense on social media during a health crisis? And it wasn’t the first time Dr Annaliese van Diemen posted highly partisan material, writes Rita Panahi.
Rita Panahi
Don't miss out on the headlines from Rita Panahi. Followed categories will be added to My News.
It’s a dire state of affairs when one of Victoria’s top health bureaucrats is exposed as a partisan nincompoop parroting infantile polemics during a pandemic.
Annaliese van Diemen, the Deputy Chief Health Officer, posted a tweet on Wednesday comparing Captain James Cook’s first voyage to Australia in 1770 to the deadly coronavirus outbreak.
The ironically named Dr van Diemen, who received her post-graduate qualifications from James Cook University, tweeted: “Sudden arrival of an invader from another land, decimating populations, creating terror. Forces the population to make enormous sacrifices & completely change how they live in order to survive. COVID-19 or Cook 1770?”
Putting aside the sheer lunacy of comparing one of history’s great navigators charting the east coast of Australia 250 years ago to a pandemic originating in China, Dr van Diemen’s words betray a startling ignorance of Australian history, Western civilisation and Enlightenment values.
Did she think Australia would remain untouched if not for Cook? The founding of modern Australia, and all that we have achieved since, should be a source of national pride. But we have allowed our colonial past to be shamefully misrepresented with the “black armband” view now dominating in schools, universities and other public institutions.
The Deputy CHO’s cringe-worthy display of ignorance had many asking why a top health bureaucrat is posting illogical, fringe-dwelling nonsense on social media during a health crisis.
Victorians have been told that we are in such perilous times that a mere game of golf, a spot of fishing or just sending the kids to school is an unacceptable risk that could endanger lives.
Indeed, Dr van Diemen tweeted a warning on April 19 to any Victorians looking for lockdown loopholes: “And the next time you want to talk about not playing golf, or any other loophole, please remember that all we’re thinking about, all the time, is not filling ICUs with people you love.”
For a public servant who should be able to work with politicians of all stripes, Dr van Diemen has a history of posting and retweeting highly political and partisan material, much of it critical of the Morrison government.
She has expressed horror and shame at a government ad warning people against coming to Australia illegally by boat and declared Australia is racist because Adam Goodes was booed.
“Watching The Final Quarter. I’m embarrassed & ashamed & angry. I have so much respect for Adam Goodes. We are a racist nation and we must do better,” she tweeted.
One can only hope her medical judgment is sounder than her warped view of Australia and Australians.
Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist