Another Australian senator has stepped up to oppose the political class’s embrace of COVID-19 powers as if they were permanent, unbridled, and unlimited.
Last week, South Australian Senator Alex Antic (LNP) joined the ranks of dissenters telling Real America’s Voice host, Steve Bannon:
“…we’ve given away a lot of our liberties and freedoms to our unelected bureaucrats. I’ve been a strong opponent of that, particularly for the last six months.”
The lawyer turned senator referenced Victoria as the most blatant example, saying that the COVID response in parts of Australia has been “almost a drift into authoritarianism.”
“You’ve probably seen [had] police firing rubber bullets, old women being pepper-sprayed; strike breaking type tactics and [Victorians] locked in their homes for almost 280 days.”
Using a personal example, the outspoken South Australian federal senator recounted to Bannon how he was met by police and members of legacy media at the airport after flying home from Canberra.
Antic has been forced into hotel quarantine, under guard, for two weeks, not far from his home.
This was “despite him having had three negative COVID tests” and despite South Australia’s COVID Safe protocols allowing residents who travel interstate to quarantine at home.
Wrestling for reasons why, he explained that the presence of legacy media at the airport suggested a more sinister agenda was at work, telling Bannon that the media appear to have been “tipped off.”
According to Senator Antic, it is possible bureaucrats wanted to make an example out of him.
This is because he’s been “poking around the health department, seeking documents about providing medical advice,” in order to understand why South Australia was “locking people down.”
The Senator said:
“We’re [also] in the grip of an expanding vaccine mandate program in this state. We’ve got teachers and doctors and nurses; all being forced to get vaccinated or lose their jobs; it’s hard to know why but you know, join the dots.”
Returning to his point about authoritarianism, he added:
“Our parliamentarians have gifted the most extraordinary power to the bureaucracy in this country. In Victoria at the moment, they have passed the most illiberal act of parliament, which now affords the premier of Victoria almost unilateral powers to do whatever he wants, for however [long] he wants. It’s the sort of stuff that you’d see coming out of the politburo in China.”
The senator then rightly described Australia, stating:
“We have in this country, I think, in many respects sacrificed liberty at the altar of COVID paranoia. We have to wind these powers back quickly because it’s damaging Australia. It’s dividing our country; we’ve got family member against family member…it is putting a big wedge down.”
When Bannon asked whether bureaucrats can justify “draconian measures” with science, Senator Antic replied:
“No, they can’t, and in fact the data out of Melbourne suggests that it actually is almost counterproductive.”
He concludes, “Australia is in a dark place,” but millions are protesting in numbers “not seen since the Vietnam War, so this is a matter that the political class is missing and it needs to be picked up on quickly.”
News of Senator Antic’s strange detention in his home state of South Australia came the same week actress Rebel Wilson was given an exemption to skip a 72-hour (3-day) quarantine.
Wilson’s exemption was granted by the NSW government after ‘arriving in Sydney from Los Angeles on the 6th December to attend the 10th Annual AACTA awards.’
This example of the arbitrary and fluid nature of COVID restrictions, which differ from State to State, backs the Senator’s assessment to Steve Bannon about Australia’s bureaucrats.
Many COVID restrictions are clearly political, not medicinal.
Senator Antic told Caldron Pool “it’s unclear why he has to stay in a hotel.”
He also said, “he was willing to quarantine at home, and will be seeking legal advice on the matter.”
The pro-informed consent senator also voiced his concerns to us about how the fluid nature of COVID safe restrictions were hurting everyday Australians, particularly those in the small business sector.
Thanks to an unpredictable bureaucracy, small businesses are faced with an unsteady, and uncertain future.
Antic said, people are still being locked-down, and locked out even after “meeting all the health requirements.”
He added, South Australian bureaucrats in particular, “are sending a message that no matter what the people of South Australia do to meet the requirements they will still be punished”
Doubling down on his comments to Bannon, Senator Antic told Caldron Pool, its mind-bobbling how some people are just not seeing “how much freedoms have been thrown away.”
I agree. The removal of freedoms for citizens has transitioned into an unlimited number of freedoms for bureaucrats.
However, there is good news. Growing political opposition to the power-drunk health bureaucracy signals a wind of change in the Australian political milieu since CCP-19 took over the world.
From mid-2020, the balance of power has been shifting into the hands of an unelected bureaucratic caste, who appear to see the power on loan to them as some form of elitist entitlement.
Power is being used arbitrarily with government permission, without the informed consent of the governed.
For evidence of this look at the lack of transparency from the health bureaucracy.
Antic said they have it “incumbent upon them to provide the medical advice they are following” under freedom of information laws, but appear reluctant to play by F.O.I rules.
Why are health bureaucrats hiding information? Why the apparently deliberate obfuscation?
This raises questions about whether the public is being told the truth regarding the necessity for draconian measures.
This also places big, black and bold question marks over demands that a healthy public, surrender civil liberties, in the name of keeping the public healthy.
Reasonings from public health bureaucrats are, at best, often circular and nonsensical.
The double standards, inconsistency and gagging of facts also raise questions about where, and from whom, health bureaucrats have been taking their advice.
Those like Senator Antic who are asking questions, and seeking to keep authorities accountable are the calibre of representation Australians need in their leaders.
The fact representatives like Antic, Christensen, Roberts, Kelly and Rennick are seemingly being railroaded by a bloated bureaucracy, and big media, suggests they’re hitting a raw nerve, and are perhaps closer to the truth than Australia’s political class wants them to be.
Senator Alex Antic is only on Facebook. He has also appeared on Fox News powerhouse, Tucker Carlson Tonight; has written for The Spectator Australia, and was a recent contributor to Jake Thrupp’s (Ed.) impressive anthology of essays, ‘Australia Tomorrow’.
