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di August 23, 2021

Hmmmm… virtually martial law is an interesting thing to say. Because it’s not. Nor nowhere near it.

Also talking about Covid lockdowns and the treatment of asylum seekers in the same breath is also really quite incomparable.

I would like to hope that lockdowns have made Australians aware of the plight of asylum seekers and refugees here more empathetic. 9 weeks in lockdown( although traumatic in it’s own right for many) is not the same as years in camps and of an uncertain future. Let alone the trauma and struggle many have come from and experienced.

Personal freedom and liberty rhetoric hasn’t really been working for the US or UK

has it? Most of my family is overseas. I haven’t seen my sister or Mum or dad for 2.5 years. It sucks. Being in lockdown sucks.

The fact that my disabled child can’t get a vaccine sucks. ScoMo sucks.

But we live in a democracy not an anarchic state. Part of our social contract is that we agree to follow the rules in society in order for us to function and enjoy the freedom we have.

Society needs to change to incorporate those who are discriminated against whether it be race, gender, sex, orientation or ability. We need dissident voices to procure those changes.

At the moment we are in the middle of a global pandemic that has killed millions of people. Tho not unprecedented. It has taken many people by surprise and generations of Australians who have lived with freedom are finding it difficult. ( Tho many generations of Indigenous Australians are used to lousy, criminal treatment at the hands of successive. governments). Let’s not even start on constitutional reform.

Disparity in wealth distribution has been greatly highlighted all over the world by the pandemic. Mental health services, lack of funding for hospitals, staff and medical infrastructure highlighted. How we treat people who are on Centrelink and what they’re expected to live on, aged and disabled people and the resources available to them .

There are many many people who have treated callously by Australian governments before the Covid pandemic.

What about their rights as citizens?

What Australia needs is a caring, empathetic approach with money spent on support and infrastructure for those in disadvantaged circumstances . Now more than ever during a pandemic.

Everyone , of course, is entitled to their opinion and this pandemic has made everyone very opinionated ( me included).

It is a bit difficult tho reading someone in New York talking about rolling Police States. ( have you ever experienced a police state or martial law for that matter ?) over their beers with friends.

I’m angry at the government too. Because so many people who have been treated like shit for years are really suffering right now.

What the government needs is coherent policy in a time of crisis that is maintained after all of this passes. And it will pass. Even though it doesn’t feel like it right now.

What we don’t need is angry men protesting because they don’t want a vaccine or to be in lockdown. Thus spreading Covid and extending the lockdown .

What has become apparent to me over the last 18 months is that a lot of people are quite happy living their lives , supporting governments with dodgy policy making decisions, funding decisions and crap treatment of marginalised groups.

However when asked to give away a bit of their individual pursuit for the good of all they are up in arms and start being sovereign citizens . At best these people are scared and want it to go away and at worse it reeks of entitlement.

Yet there has been an enormous amount of kindness , compassion and I like to think that the majority of people in Australia will look out for each and support their fellow people in a very difficult time.

National identity is not a ‘ fluffy’ concept and Australia not a brand to be sold.

We live in a country that the has the oldest continuous culture in the world. This land is ancient and has seen the world unfold.

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