Writing on the wall?

Under the emergency provisions parliament has been declared "inessential" and the rulings of an unelected official, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton, are unquestionable law.

Following the brutal lockdown of public housing towers in inner Melbourne last year, the State Government was called out by Victoria's Ombudsman and international observers for human rights breaches.

The Government adopted a familiar tone in response, a defiant, even boastul, one that would make any authoritarian regime proud.

"We make no apology for saving people's lives," Housing Minister Richard Wynne said.

There is no right to public protest in Victoria under lockdown. It is not one of the "permitted" reasons to leave your home.

What is even more disturbing, as it goes to the heart of an impartial rule-of-law, is that "illegal" protests have been treated in vastly different fashions.

Police stood respectfully back for a Black Lives Matter protest last year and in some cases even "took a knee" to signal solidarity.

Admittedly, they did issue fines to three organisers afterwards, although presumably not to the officers who effectively participated.

By contrast, when Zoe Buhler advertised a "covid-safe" lockdown protest police barged into her Ballarat home and forced the pregnant woman to the floor to apply handcuffs in front of her children.

Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are also under attack.

Mainstream media reporters covering lockdown protests have twice been pepper sprayed by police despite saying they identified themselves.

The Government even tried (unsuccessfully thankfully, due to a court ruling) to stop media helicopters from covering protests in a public space.