In a dark day for Australian democracy, Victoria’s “Dictator Dan” seems certain to get the absolute power he’s always wanted for Christmas. In return, Victorians are getting protected wombats and more rubbish bins. Welcome to Parliament of Wombats, where a gaggle of micro-party MPs almost no-one’s ever heard of, have shamelessly fought and squabbled for their own Christmas presents from Santa Dan.
Last week, it seemed as if the passage of Andrews’ pandemic management bill — described variously as “a blank cheque to rule by decree”, “Stasi-like” and “the most dangerous legislation to come before an Australian parliament” — was in grave danger. Disgraced former Labor MP Adem Somyurek announced his return to parliament and his intention to vote the bill down.
Andrews was forced to scramble desperately for just one more vote from the faceless micro party MPs. And he got it.
The unedifying progress of Victoria’s emergency pandemic laws through state parliament is another lesson in the tyranny of single-interest fringe party members of parliament. With legislation expected to pass through the upper house, Daniel Andrews insisted he had not exploited heightened concerns about a new variant of the Covid-19 virus to push the new laws across the line.
Transport Matters Party MP Rod Barton, the man who agreed to provide the vital last vote, insisted no deals had been done. Given the history of the bill and the outpouring of public mistrust and anger towards it, there has been good reason to reconsider, and still is. Mr Barton said the bill he agreed to support was vastly different to the one that had been first proposed. But it remains deficient in not allowing a proper oversight of pandemic orders, and the sweeping powers they entail, by parliament.
Under amendments drafted to secure Mr Barton’s support, MPs will be able to act only if a disallowance motion has been recommended by a cross-parliamentary committee and then supported by an absolute majority in both houses of parliament.
They might as well have specified a stampede of wild elephants running through parliament between 3:55 and 4 PM on the Fourth of July, during a hailstorm.
Nearly every legal body in Victoria vociferously opposes the legislation. Even the spineless Human Rights troughers, who’ve been conspicuously missing in action during the pandemic, finally mustered the backbone to speak out.
Opponents of the bill have included Ombudsman Deborah Glass, the Victorian Bar, the Law Institute of Victoria, the Centre for Public Integrity, the Human Rights Law Centre and more than 60 QCs. Concerns have included the lack of a sunset clause and the fact it would allow a person to be detained without charge for an indefinite period, without the right of appeal to a court.
So, what do the sort of people who got elected by less than a few thousand votes get, in return for bending over and dropping their pants for Dictator Dan?
To pass the amended legislation, the Andrews government has relied on the support of a small group of individuals with a shopping list of issues that do not reflect the gravity of what the pandemic emergency laws entail. Bargaining chips for the Greens have included banning single-use plastic bags, introducing a four-bin recycling system and a declaration of wombats as a protected species. The Animal Justice Party has secured support for CCTV in slaughterhouses and greater rights for wildlife volunteers. The Reason Party has won support for decriminalising sex work, axing the Lord’s Prayer in parliament and an inquiry into the use of cannabis in Victoria.
The Australian
Victoria: Australia’s economic basket case elected dictatorship — now with extra Woke.
Please share this article so that others can discover The BFD