Coronavirus: ‘Daniel Andrews, drop your virus detention law’, says Malcolm Broomhead

Business leader Malcolm Broomhead has launched a strong attack on Daniel Andrews’s pandemic detention laws, branding them heavy-handed.

Orica chairman Malcolm Broomhead. Picture: Aaron Francis

Australian business leader Malcolm Broomhead has launched a strong attack on Daniel Andrews’s pandemic detention laws, branding them heavy-handed and warning that they imperil Victoria’s democratic freedoms.

In an open letter on Thursday, the chairman of mining, oil and gas giant Orica and BHP board member calls on the Victorian Premier to abandon the new laws.

“I am compelled to raise my objection to what I believe is a fundamental threat to core democratic and legal tenets … the bill is neither necessary or desirable,” Mr Broomhead writes in the letter.

“During these times, it is important the values upon which our community has thrived, and weathered previous crises, remain as our guide.

“They should not be set aside under any circumstances.”

The Andrews government’s legislation widens the type of public servant who can be armed with detention powers, and gives them ability to lock Victorians up on a pre-emptive basis if they believe they’re about to breach health ­restrictions.

The COVID-19 Omnibus (Emergency Measures) and Other Acts Amendment Bill 2020 has passed through the lower house, but the government needs the votes of crossbench MPs in the upper house.

Mr Broomhead, 68, told The Australian he felt so strongly about the pandemic detention laws that he decided to break with a career-long tradition of not speaking about topics unrelated to his business interests.

“Giving public servants or any other designated person powers to detain people merely on the their suspicions of someone spreading the virus and without court orders is just so totally at odds with the fundamentals of our Australian society … civil liberties and democracies are our bedrock,” he said.

“Throughout my career, I have run companies with operations all over the world and our values are what differentiate us from authoritarian regimes.

“Those freedoms and values were hard won and fiercely defended by our forebears, and we shouldn’t give them up just because we are in a crisis.

“We are bigger than this legislation implies.”

In his letter, Mr Broomhead, says the pandemic detention laws are “neither necessary nor ­desirable”.

“The omnibus bill proposes to give persons authorised by the government the power to detain their fellow citizens indefinitely on the ‘reasonable belief’ that the may breach an emergency direction,” he writes.

“These measures will see Vic­torians arrested on a perceived ‘likelihood’ with no judicial oversight or apparent appeal process.

“The potential for abuse of these powers is self-evident.”

Mr Broomhead’s intervention follows concerns raised by a group of 18 retired judges and QCs who have called on the Victorian parliament to reject the bill.

Mr Broomhead writes: “The heavy-handedness of the bill’s proposals comes at a time when we should be focusing on a unity of purpose and collaboration on the hard work ahead of us, not on undermining the community’s con­fidence in the assumption of innocence, the right of appeal and a professionally trained police force.

“Australia and the community of Victoria is better than what is suggested by the measures.

“We have already demonstrated considerable goodwill, co-operation and voluntary compliance with the … lockdown.