Victoria’s Chief Health Officer admits COVID-19 restrictions are arbitrary

David Limbrick MP last week asked an excellent science question of the Victorian Chief Health Officer appearing before the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee.

'How do you make the decision between which activities should be prohibited and which shouldn't?'

'In a sense these are not easy decsions to make – there is some arbitrariness. That is why you'll see an enormous variety across jurisdictions in Australia.'

Standing apart from many Christian commentators and leaders (though not alone), I've been an outspoken critic of the loss of liberty still being endured by Australians in the name of the global pandemic that might have been. So far the global death toll is just 290,000. While every death is tragic, it's not really a big number justifying the hyperbole we've been subject to.

For some perspective, in Australia alone we kill that many people every three or so years deliberately, care of the abortion trade. That perspective also belies the excuse given for removing our God-given freedoms, ostensibly out of sincere concern for preventable loss of life. No one can disagree with such a motherhood statement, and when I do, many have been quick to accuse me of callous disregard for the lives of others by my critique of the oppressive measures taken by our national and state leaders.

Some Christians quote various Scriptures at me designed to prove I'm wrong. They fail to understand their facile interpretations are not consistently applicable under various historical governments of the 20th Century which saw a greater death toll at the hands of governments than all prior human history combined.

Chairman Mao would've loved to know these interpretations of Scripture about submitting to authority which should have prevented Christians from criticising economic & social policies also restricting freedom in the Great Leap Forward, which resulted in up to 45 million deaths. To this day, the Chinese Communist Party justifies human rights abuses and ruthlessly silencing its critics with the excuse of pursuing "a harmonious society", another motherhood statement no one can disagree with.

Of course we should critique every decision even a Christian Prime Minister or Premier makes. That's everyone's job in our liberal democracy; even those not permitted a vote are still permitted a voice. Support and give strength to good policies publicly, and equally criticise and oppose bad policies. The inconvenient news is you need to be bothered to think critically, consider alternative views and weigh policies against the justice, peace & liberty of our 25 million neighbours. An effective parliamentary opposition, independent courts, free media and engaged voters are critical to good government. They need us!

Incurious people are emotionally manipulated into supporting loss of liberty by appalling claims that anything short of full compliance with the delegated authority of unelected "experts" is not only anti-science but selfishly, literally "risking lives".

Mid April I liaised with the Officer In Charge of a local police station to organise an approved outdoor activity, and he tried to recruit me to make complaints about other people who would be there without approval. He wanted to justify more police resources to fine people $1,300 each for watching the sun set on a grassy hill.

That any person, let alone a police professional, should be so gullible as to think there was an unacceptable risk of virus transmission by sitting 2 metres apart in a paddock in the sun is incomprehensible. Didn't these people have a mother? Surely every son's mum told them plenty of vitamin C, fresh air and sunlight would kill viruses. Turns out that's established by the science, and coronavirus has a half-life of 90 seconds in direct sunlight – with or without vitamin supplements.

Yet the Chief Medical Officers of every state and the Commonwealth variously decreed activities such as reading a book on a park bench, playing golf or going fishing prohibited because they arbitrarily deemed those merely recreational and not "essential" exercise.

Also deemed "non-essential" are natural freedoms such as movement, association, assembly, religion, privacy, trade, commerce and employment, and protest. The healthcare system doesn't exist without an economy, and ours has been recklessly vandalised by the arbitrary decisions of unaccountable public servants.