Daniel Andrews’ lockdowns and different curbs on primary freedoms in the course of the pandemic have been unjustified, inconsistently enforced in a racially discriminatory method, harmed children and girls disproportionately, and in some instances resulted in outcomes the reverse of these meant.
That’s the conclusion not of Victorian Labor’s political opponents, nor right-wing extremists and cookers, however of the Albanese authorities’s knowledgeable overview of the pandemic, carried out by veteran well being bureaucrat Robyn Kruk, epidemiologist Catherine Bennet and well being economist Angela Jackson — an unbiased and unimpeachably certified group.
The 900-page report makes for ugly studying for the previous NSW and Victorian governments and lockdown advocates, and particularly the Andrews authorities, which the proof reveals exercised excessive powers with out justification or consistency.
On lockdowns, for instance, the overview concludes:
We heard that lockdowns have misplaced credibility with the Australian public. That is notably the case in Victoria. The town of Melbourne was saved in lockdown for 112 days within the second wave in 2020. The ultimate 30 days of that lockdown had both single-digit case numbers or zero instances reported, and most have been contacts of identified instances in quarantine … For greater than half of the latter a part of that wave, most instances have been instantly linked to aged care facility outbreaks. The remainder of the inhabitants have been saved in lockdown to scale back the danger of outbreaks spreading again into the neighborhood through staff or their family contacts.
And:
Use of statewide lockdowns the place there had been no current instances outdoors a capital metropolis, somewhat than localised lockdowns, contributed to the lack of credibility. Recommendation to the chief medical officer from the Nationwide COVID-19 Well being and Analysis Advisory Committee on 30 July 2021 synthesised the advantages of localised short-term lockdowns to handle COVID-19 outbreaks. South Australia efficiently used a brief, sharp lockdown to comprise transmission after an individual crossed into the state who was unknowingly infectious with the Delta variant, stopping a big outbreak (which was contained inside just a few chains of transmission, in contrast with New South Wales and Victoria, which by no means succeeded in getting again to zero instances).
Furthermore, the enforcement of lockdowns, together with Andrews’ infamous exhausting lockdown of housing towers in Melbourne, was wildly racially discriminatory, with an evaluation of COVID-19 fines issued in Victoria in 2020 figuring out that “African and Center Japanese individuals have been 4 instances extra more likely to obtain fines, and native authorities areas with larger proportions of non-English talking backgrounds had larger ranges of fines”.
Not all states adopted Andrews’ lead in hardline enforcement. “Others selected a extra health-driven, academic method. For instance, we heard that the Australian Capital Territory selected to stability the danger of spreading COVID-19 with the safety of human rights and displayed higher engagement total. Proof means that counting on an enforcement method doesn’t essentially present the meant consequence and may have unfavourable impacts.”
Victorian police, whereas ferociously implementing restrictions on civil liberties, additionally used data from authorities contact-tracing apps for different investigations, additional eroding public belief. And never merely have been the Andrews’ authorities’s lockdowns unjustified, however additionally they inflicted important injury on Victorians. “Safer Care Victoria discovered that, between September 2020 and January 2022, 5 Victorian youngsters aged 0 to 4 died from issues related to malnutrition and neglect. This was a regarding improve from the 2 neglect-associated deaths recorded between 2000 and 2019.”
And girls bore the brunt of them. “Caring obligations elevated for each men and women in the course of the pandemic, however girls spent extra hours offering care for youngsters or different members of the family, even in dual-income households. One examine discovered that in 2020, girls spent roughly 5 hours extra per week on unpaid care work in comparison with males. This hole grew to 9 hours per week when observing {couples} with dependent youngsters. The identical examine discovered the gender hole in unpaid care work widened because of the Melbourne lockdown”.
The panel additionally criticises quarantine for returning travellers, which Andrews spectacularly botched in a sequence of disastrous selections for which he was by no means held accountable: “The idea that Australians getting back from residence [sic] wouldn’t adequately quarantine, with out good proof to assist this, meant that quarantine for all worldwide arrivals was based mostly on the premise that residents couldn’t be trusted … if residence quarantine compliance was satisfactory for managing native outbreaks all through the pandemic — and random checking by police did point out that the majority have been compliant within the second wave in Victoria — then lodge quarantine might have been freed up for symptomatic returnees or different arrivals who had no residence to go to or who had weak individuals at residence they didn’t need to expose to threat of an infection”.
And Andrews’ absurd masks mandate for teenagers really led to extra infections: “Victorian knowledge confirmed that youngsters aged eight to 11, who have been required to put on masks beneath state orders, had larger an infection charges than these aged 5 to seven, who weren’t required to put on masks and had beforehand had the identical an infection charges. The older youngsters sporting masks additionally had larger current vaccination uptake, so could be anticipated to have had decrease an infection charges than the youthful cohort throughout this time period.”
The proof assembled by the knowledgeable panel is damning: the lockdowns weren’t justified, they harmed Victorians, and — contra Andrews’ fame for main a progressive authorities — have been enforced by a power-gorged Victorian police pressure disproportionately towards individuals of non-English-speaking backgrounds.
“Dictator Dan” might need appeared extremist rhetoric on the time, however it was loads nearer to the reality than his feral supporters will ever admit.
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