John Pilger canes ‘tin pot dictator’ Daniel Andrews

John Pilger lashes Daniel Andrews’ response to the Victoria outbreak, and accuses governments of ‘fearmongering’.

High-profile journalist and documentary maker John Pilger has described Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews as a “provincial tin pot” and accused governments of “scaremongering in a pandemic-free society” in a series of online comments about the coronavirus pandemic.

The former New Statesman columnist, long associated with the left and known for his anti-war stance and championing of Indigenous rights, accused Mr Andrews of demanding “ridiculous wartime powers” after Victoria went into a snap five-day lockdown on Friday.

“Media-addicted windbag Dan Andrews, whose government in Victoria slashed public health, has locked down Melbourne yet again. Tennis players in the Australian Open are exempt as ‘essential workers’,” he wrote on social media platform Twitter, where he has a sizeable following.

Lucky Australia has no pandemic. This doesn't deter the provincial tinpots who run the states. Media-addicted windbag Dan Andrews, whose govt in Victoria slashed public health, has locked down Melbourne yet again. Tennis players in the Aust Open are exempt as 'essential workers'.

— John Pilger (@johnpilger) February 12, 2021

“The government of Victoria has slashed health care, botched track-and-trace, disregarded mental health, run risky quarantine hotels, set up ridiculous border rules and issued threats. This keeps no one safe.”

A fresh debate about the efficacy of lockdowns and Australia’s response to the coronavirus pandemic erupted last week after Victoria’s government locked down the state after five new COVID-19 cases emerged at a Holiday Inn, one of Melbourne’s quarantine hotels.

“Covid scaremongering allows Dan Andrews, the verbose politician who runs the state of Victoria, to lock down millions and demand ridiculous wartime powers,” Pilger wrote. “This is how autocracies are made.”

Pilger’s comments follow similar, if less vehement, criticism of Australia’s lockdowns by philosopher Peter Singer last year, who said they had occurred “on the basis of relatively unsure evidence, both about the costs and the benefits … it’s a bit surprising society hasn’t had more of a debate”.

Pilger, who couldn’t be couldn’t be reached by The Australian late on Sunday, referenced a report by the Victorian Agency for Health Information from November as indicative of “the human damage done in the Australian State of Victoria by Dystopia Dan Andrews’ impulsive lockdowns”.

That report showed a 72 per cent increase compared with 2019 of the number of serious self-harm and suicidal-ideation presentations in emergency departments for those aged under-18 during Melbourne lockdown last year.

In another tweet Pilger decried the lack of coverage of Julian Assange in Australian media, saying “there is Covid scaremongering in a pandemic-free society, there are pages on Trump’s absurd impeachment trial and there is barely a word on Biden’s decision to proceed with an appeal against a journalist who told the truth. How shameful”.