We need to work together to chart a course out of Covid

Nick Cater quotes from a prize-winning student essay on the rule of law penned by Sir Robert Menzies (“Unchecked leaders lock us into states of mental desperation”, 23/8). Well, as Cater so eloquently writes, those freedoms and rule of law have rarely been in need of greater protection than now. He writes of politicians and their bureaucrats who, in pursuit of the unattainable Covid zero, seem to have abandoned any sense of proportion; who, lacking compassion while not sharing the financial sacrifice they impose on others, persist with platitudes of “being in this together” and thanking us for so readily tolerating lost freedoms for the greater good. And now we are told by some that even full vaccination may not prompt an end to the horror. Even more disheartening is the evidence of popular fear-induced acceptance of such restrictions. Witness the recent Queensland and West Australian elections. Perhaps Jane Bieger (Letters, 23/8) is right – we do seem to have forgotten the proud heritage of which Menzies wrote.

John Kidd, Auchenflower, Qld

The human biosecurity emergency period, invoked by the Prime Minister in March last year – initially for a three-month period but repeatedly extended – expires on September 17. This has meant that the commonwealth could take any measures to prevent and control Covid-19, and all measures were exempt from regulatory review. Indeed, while many are totally sick of the nanny-state premiers and their unelected health dictatorships, the feds haven’t been much better.

Which brings me to Nick Cater’s bullseye point that “the rule of law, common law and the separation of powers provide the most important protection any people, anywhere, could desire”.

And that’s precisely why Scott Morrison must use September 17 as the date at which the commonwealth takes back the Covid reins, declaring that no longer will unelected health advice rule but our elected federal government will. Who knows, by prime ministerial example other jurisdictions may follow.

In addition to September 17 being an important mark on the national leadership calendar, a freedom date must be applied to the national road map. Phases and percentages aren’t rallying calls for punters, so how about the first Tuesday in November: the day that restarts the nation?

Mandy Macmillan, Singleton, NSW

The Prime Minister’s determination to open up when vaccination rates reach 70 per cent of the adult population is a dangerous distortion of the Doherty Institute recommendations.

That figure of 70 per cent of adults means the overall rate of vaccination for the whole population is more like 50 per cent, which leaves around 11 million people unvaccinated and highly vulnerable.

There’s no way we should stop lockdowns on those figures. We now know children are high-level transmitters of the disease and they can die from it just like anyone else. The institute warned that with high rates of infection we need to be more conservative as to what is safe, as the absolute number of unvaccinated people at large makes tracing infections so much more difficult. Vaccination should therefore be from birth if we are to get on top of the Delta variant, and on the basis of what is happening in Israel and elsewhere the target figure should be more like 85 to 90 per cent of the total population.

John Biggs, Mount Nelson, Tas

“A police force that enforces arbitrary state regulation to control human behaviour … is not the way we do things here,” says Nick Cater. But such is now the “Covid normal” in Victoria, and the authoritarian disease has demonstrably won in Melbourne, where the support for Premier Dan Andrews is solid as a rock. And with Victoria Police upping the ante in the force used to stop demonstrations, what is left for the inevitable next and bigger demonstration? Rubber bullets? Or worse?

Johannes Leak’s cartoon (23/8), as usual, encapsulates the situation, but sadly it’s beyond satire. For the authoritarian disease is as contagious as its enabler Covid, as evidenced by Queensland-for-the-Queenslanders effectively separating from the once indissoluble commonwealth. Even NSW, which has tried a rational course, is wavering into the curfew morass. The old irreverent Australian attitude is vanishing, replaced by fearful acceptance and compliance.

Tim Fatchen, Mount Barker, SA