Coronavirus: ‘History needn’t repeat’: Yassmin Abdel-Magied backs Annaliese van Diemen over Cook tweet

Yassmin Abdel-Magied has likened Annaliese van Diemen’s position over her Captain Cook tweet to her own.

Victorian Deputy Chief Health Officer Annaliese van Diemen. Picture: AAP

Muslim activist and engineer Yassmin Abdel-Magied has weighed in to the debate over Victoria’s Deputy Chief Health Officer’s tweet, likening the health bureaucrat’s position to her own.

Dr Annaliese van Diemen sparked controversy when she posted a tweet comparing Captain Cook to coronavirus on the 250th anniversary of Cook’s landing.

Dr van Diemen tweeted on Wednesday: “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?’’

Ms Abdel-Magied sparked outrage in 2017 when she tweeted in reference to Anzac Day: “Lest. We. Forget (Manus, Nauru, Syria, Palestine ...)”.

She later deleted the tweet and apologised for being “disrespectful”, blaming the resulting media firestorm for her decision to move to the UK, comparing Australia to an “abusive boyfriend”.

Yassmin Abdel-Magied. Picture: Chris Pavlich

On Friday, Ms Abdel-Magied retweeted a post saying “The bully boy tactics that sent @yassmin_a out of Australia should NOT be repeated on @annaliesevd during this time of #COVID19. Get your priorities straight!”

The bully boy tactics that sent @yassmin_a out of Australia should NOT be repeated on @annaliesevd during this time of #COVID19. Get your priorities straight!

— 😷Champagne Dame of Oz 🥂 (@ellisoconnor) April 30, 2020

Ms Abdel-Magied added her own view, tweeting “Folks ban on about free speech until it’s inconvenient for them.”

Folks bang on about free speech until it’s inconvenient for them.

— Yassmin Abdel-Magied (she/her) (@yassmin_a) April 30, 2020

“I’ve spoken ad nauseam about the price I paid for a social media post n (sic) the betrayal felt when folks in power said nothing,” Ms Abdel-Magied tweeted.

“Folks have since said they’re sorry, they wouldn’t want that to happen again.

“Well, I sense an opportunity for ppl to come thru. History needn’t repeat.”

I’ve spoken ad nauseam about the price I paid for a social media post n the betrayal felt when folks in power said nothing.

Folks have since said they’re sorry, they wouldn’t want that to happen again.

Well, I sense an opportunity for ppl to come thru. History needn’t repeat.

— Yassmin Abdel-Magied (she/her) (@yassmin_a) May 1, 2020

“Tbh, the challenge is engaging without feeding the fire.

“The way to do that is by reframing the entire conversation to the one that is about substance, and not the smoke and mirrors outrage loop others prefer.”

Tbh, the challenge is engaging without feeding the fire. The way to do that is by reframing the entire conversation to the one that is about substance, and not the smoke and mirrors outrage loop others prefer.

— Yassmin Abdel-Magied (she/her) (@yassmin_a) May 1, 2020

Ms Abdel-Magied also retweeted a tweet from journalist Miriam Cosic, saying: “When did we become a stupid country run by third-rate intellects who don’t recognise a citizen’s right to make a minor historical point in a private tweet?”

Ms Cosic compared the response to Dr van Diemen’s tweet with those to Ms Abdel-Magied’s and to the 2015 sacking of former SBS sports reporter Scott McIntyre, after he described Anzac Day as the “cultification (sic) of an imperialist invasion”.

“@yassmin_a run out of the country for a pov on history”, Ms Cosic tweeted. “@mcintinhos sacked on PM’s intervention for a pov on history”

When did we become a stupid country run by third-rate intellects who don't recognise a citizen's right to make a minor historical point in a private tweet? @yassmin_a run out of the country for a pov on history@mcintinhos sacked on PM's intervention for a pov on history
etc.

— Miriam Cosic (@miriamcosic) April 30, 2020

Public health officer to face probe

Victoria’s Public Sector Commission has confirmed it will investigate whether Dr van Diemen contravened the Public Administration Act when she compared Captain Cook to coronavirus in a tweet.

State opposition freedom of information spokesman James Newbury wrote to acting public sector commissioner Julia Griffith, requesting that she look into the matter.

Ms Griffith replied to Mr Newbury on Friday. “The commission will consider the matters you have raised in accordance with the objectives, functions and powers of the Victorian Public Sector Commission under the Public Administration Act 2004,” Ms Griffith wrote.

“Following these considerations, I will advise you further.”

The development came after the Prime Minister told Ms van Diemen to “stick to her day job” and Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton said she should quit, but Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews refused to reprimand his Deputy Chief Health Officer over the controversial tweet.

Mr Andrews says his sole focus is on the public health effort — despite the social media controversy sparked by Dr van Diemen’s tweet.

Mr Andrews has refused to reprimand the state DCHO, saying she was on a day off on Wednesday when she posted the tweet.

He also took a veiled swipe at Mr Morrison and Mr Dutton, saying that if “they’ve got time” to discuss the issue, “good luck to them”.

Mr Morrison said he found Dr van Diemen’s comments “disappointing” and she “clearly won’t get a job as chief historian”, while Mr Dutton called for her resignation.

Asked by The Australian earlier on Friday why Dr van Diemen had not been reprimanded for breaching the Public Administration Act, which requires that public servants are ‘impartial, apolitical and behave in a way that sustains public trust”, Mr Andrews said he stood by his Health Minister Jenny Mikakos’s comments yesterday that Dr van Diemen is doing “an outstanding job” and “criticism from angry MPs is irrelevant to the fight against (COVID-19)”.

“I would simply say to you, we’ve got a lot of things to be concerning ourselves with at the moment, and I am far more focused on the fact that hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs,” Mr Andrews said on Friday morning.

“People have died. This is a once in a century event, and we’re by no means at the end of it.

“They’re the things that I’m focused on. I’ve got no comment to make about any member of the public health team other than the say on behalf of all Victorians, thank you for the job you are doing, because it is making a massive difference, and it is essential to the options that we’re trying to create, so that we can get to the other side of this.”

‘Dumb, wrong, unprofessional’

Victorian Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien has accused Daniel Andrews of sending a “green light” to public servants to breach the public sector code of conduct, after the Premier failed to reprimand Dr van Diemen.

Mr O’Brien said the tweet was “dumb”, “wrong”, “unprofessional” and undermined the public service’s reputation.

“Keep your undergraduate politics for dinner parties. Don’t put it out on twitter when you’re supposed to be plotting a path to get us out of Labor’s lockdowns,” he said.

“What’s more concerning, or as concerning, is Daniel Andrews’ refusal to take this seriously.

“The Premier had no words, no words to deal with this at all today.

“Well Premier, the code of conduct applies to all public servants, regardless of politics.

“It’s about time you started taking these issues seriously, because if the Deputy Chief Health Officer had gone and tweeted an extreme right wing opinion, I don’t think she’d still be doing her job today.”

Mr O’Brien reiterated calls for Dr van Diemen to resign.

“The public service code of conduct is really clear about these matters, really, really clear, and the Deputy Chief Health Officer is clearly in breach of the public service code of conduct.”

Asked whether he would cut Dr van Diemen “some slack” given she issued the tweet on a rare day off, Mr O’Brien said the code of conduct applied “whether you’re on a day off or not”.

“Have we heard any contrition? Have we heard any remorse? Have we heard any apology? Have we even seen the tweet being deleted? No, no, no, no,” he said.

“At the very least, couldn’t Daniel Andrews have said, even if I agree with her politics, it was the wrong thing to do, the wrong time and the wrong place, and I’m saying it shouldn’t have happened and she should apologise.”

Stick to your day job

Mr Morrison said Dr van Diemen should stick to her area of expertise.

“I found those sorts of comments very disappointing. She certainly won’t get the job as chief historian,” Mr Morrison said.

“Those sorts of comments do not inspire confidence and people should stick to their day jobs … I am going to listen to the experts in their field.”

Mr Dutton called for Dr van Diemen to step down.

“I think it’s pretty obvious that in the middle of a pandemic the second highest medical officer in the state of Victoria should be concentrating on the people of Victoria and the crisis associated with COVID-19,” Mr Dutton said.

“I think if you are in the middle of a pandemic as the health officer and you are tweeting about Captain Cook and writing disparaging woke sort of comments that might please your mates at the ABC or at the university campus where you hang out, fair enough, but I don’t think that’s acceptable.”

Albanese tells Dutton: focus on Ruby debacle

Labor leader Anthony Albanese attacked Peter Dutton’s calls for Dr van Diemen to resign, declaring the Home Affairs Minister should focus on investigating the Ruby Princess debacle.

“People engaged in the health sector have a job to do at the moment protecting us on health issues,” Mr Albanese said. “Peter Dutton has a job to do as well.

“He’s in charge of our borders and maybe he should concentrate on what went wrong with Ruby Princess before he goes outside those parameters.”

Liberal frontbencher Tim Smith brought Dr van Diemen’s comments to public attention, tweeting: “What's with the culture wars crap from a state health bureaucrat at a time like this?’’

“Comparing the extraordinary first voyage of Captain Cook where he charted the east coast of Australia for the first time to a deadly virus is disgraceful. You've lost the plot,’’ Mr Smith said.

Dr van Diemen ironically shares a surname with Dutch colonial governor Anthony van Diemen, who commissioned his country’s exploration of what later became known as Australia in the 1640s.

The public health physician and general practitioner also has a Master of Public Health – Medicine, Emergency Management and Disaster Preparedness from James Cook University.

Her other qualifications include a Bachelor of Medical Science, a Bachelor of Medicine and a Bachelor of Surgery from Monash University and a Diploma of Child Health Paediatrics from the University of Sydney.

Dr van Diemen was appointed as Deputy Chief Health Officer in November, having worked at the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services since March 2016, initially as the manager of communicable disease prevention and control and more recently as a senior medical adviser on antimicrobial resistance.