As we have seen from the outset of the Wuhan plague, politicians and bureaucrats around the world have uniformly implemented the worst possible policies and completely refused to learn from their failures. In lockstep, their camp-followers on the left have dutifully cheered on official stupidity and viciously attacked dissenters.
As Professor John Ioannidis has said, Australia (and by extension, New Zealand’s) relative good fortune in the pandemic, is most certainly not due to the political-media elite’s favoured response, lockdowns. Instead, it’s a natural outcome of our relative isolation – and one of the few possibly sensible government policies, travel restrictions on regions with big outbreaks.
But that policy is hated by the left-media. When former President Trump followed Taiwan’s lead and restricted entry to the US for Chinese citizens, the left screamed “racism!” Now that Australia is temporarily banning arrivals from India, the left-media are howling “racism!” again.
And yet…
A man who has tested positive to coronavirus had arrived in Australia from COVID-ravaged India, but most likely caught it in hotel quarantine, Victoria’s chief health officer says.
Which would say more about the stupidity of hotel quarantine – another media-political favourite – than about supposed “racism”. But, given the regular dribble of lies from public health officials about hotel quarantine, there seems little reason to believe the claim that this case wasn’t imported.
The Victorian man in his 30s completed hotel quarantine in South Australia after returning to Australia from India on April 19.
The man returned to his Wollert home in Victoria on May 4, and developed symptoms four days later.
He was confirmed to have COVID-19 on Tuesday, sparking a “full public health response”.
The Australian
After a year in which Australians were constantly prevented from even travelling from state to state, the sudden media campaign against external arrivals seems more than a little opportunistic. After all, interstate travel bans were instituted by mostly Labor state governments. This time it’s the conservative federal government closing borders.
No doubt, though, state governments and bureaucracies will be itching to smash down on the lockdown button again.
Meanwhile, the travel ban has survived its first court test.
The Federal Court has quashed a bid to overturn the Morrison government’s travel ban from India, rejecting part of an urgent case put forward by a Melbourne man stranded in COVID-stricken Bangalore.
Judge Tom Thawley dismissed the first round of claims on Monday after an urgent half-day hearing when he refused to overturn an emergency declaration made by Health Minister Greg Hunt that prevents Australians in India from returning home. The restrictions are due to expire this weekend.
Justice Thawley agreed Australian citizens had a fundamental common law right to enter Australia but confirmed this could be “abrogated by valid legislation”.
“Having the power to restrict the movement of persons across borders is a necessary incident of a power to prevent the entry of a human disease in Australia,” he said.
The Australian
If state governments can close borders with impunity, then how is the federal government not within its rights to temporarily close national borders? The media can’t have it both ways.
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