This covid emergency measures bill MUST be stopped. It is wrong on so many counts. 1). The provisions usurp the role of the police who, in the final call are subject to strict a hierarchy of governance. If you usurp the role of police, and you have no control over the army, you are creating a private security force. I believe this to be unconstitutional. 2). It usurps the role of the Courts insofar as the authorised officer decides who is guilty. One only has to look to the decision not to fine some while fining others heavily and disproportionately. This is in effect a plea bargain which side stepped the Courts. It is contempt. 3). It shreds the concept of habeus corpus as detention is potentially indefinite. 4). It opens the probability of trial by social media, with witch hunts and posses. One only has to look to the Pell exoneration.
This bill is straight out of the copybook of the Apartheid ‘90 detention without trial’ Law.
Finally, the Premier must stop fighting Victoria. We are Citizens, not the enemy.
Victoria - if this legislation is passed each one of you are at risk of the following:
"You are sitting down to dinner at home with the children and there is a demand at the door. You open it to be confronted with a person who states they are a designated officer and you are under arrest. This person is not a police officer, or someone authorised by the executive of the police, but any person a Secretary of a government department authorises. That is, any one of your fellow citizens the Secretary decides to appoint to that position. You ask why and are advised that you that in the 'opinion of the designated officer' you are 'likely' to refuse or fail to refuse a direction, (not that you have actually done so) but in the opinion of that person you might do that, at some time in the future. The designated officer also advises your partner is also under arrest as he or she has been in close contact with you. You both then urgently ask what is to happen to your three children sitting at the dinner table and are advised they will be placed in 'out of home care', effectively they become wards of the state. Will they remain enrolled in the same schools? Unlikely, as wards of the state they can be placed anywhere in Victoria dependant on who they can be placed with. Under this legislation they can be taken away from you up to 30 months. You ask how long you are to remain in custody and the designated officer advises for as long as you are 'likely' in their opinion to refuse or fail to refuse a direction (which you have not actually failed to do yet). You and your partner run your own business but without you that business will fold and your bank in the following period sells your home as a mortgagee in possession.
Victorians - your constitutional rights and democratic freedoms are at risk. Please demand of your local member this legislation is rejected.
Also do you really want a Premier who is prepared to push this type of law upon you?
I shouldn’t be surprised but I’ve been taken aback by the number of citizens who are happy to throw away their freedoms to be “safe” from COVID. The arrest and handcuffing of the pregnant lady for posting what was a fairly mild and responsible (wash your hands, socially distance etc) post pushing back on the government was the real litmus test.
An extraordinary number of folk saying that she was “inciting” a riot. This is where we’ve got to in Australia. Who needs the Stasi when we have own citizens only to willing to mimic Saddam Hussein’s secret snitches and dob in their fellow citizens.
