Australian leaders deeply wounded our democracy. They should cancel all COVID fines

(LifeSiteNews) — On October 31st, 2020, I was arrested three times in one day, put in the back of a police van for 45 mins, and fined thousands of dollars just for leaving my house. After more than two years of fighting these embarrassing fines, the prosecutors have just dropped the charges with no explanation.

I was prepared and wanted a chance to set the record straight, but they never gave us the opportunity. They don’t want their actions being questioned in open court. They try to intimidate and when they realise you aren’t backing down, they drop the charges.

When the lockdowns began, I didn’t agree with the heavy-handed approach that the Victorian Government took. I saw that my fellow Victorians were suffering and had no outlet for their frustration. So, I started an activist organisation called Reignite Democracy Australia.

I didn’t intend to create such a stir … I was just doing what I thought was right. RDA grew very quickly which means there was clearly a need for something like this. We helped followers file petitions and email their members of parliament, and connected people who were feeling alone, and even suicidal, to each other. I have worked tirelessly for years, and still am.

Because of this I have been publicly vilified, arrested several times, put into solitary confinement in a maximum-security prison for 22 days, had my house raided and my family torn apart. My personal life will never be the same. I have also been in and out of court for two years.

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How have once reputable people fallen into a trap of blaming the everyday Aussie? A famous economist once said: “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” It is time for Australia’s justice system to change its mind. The COVID fines that thousands, including me, are fighting in the courts need to be cancelled immediately. The basis on which they were levied, the alleged facts in evidence, has been revealed as false. If our courts are to have any respect for the truth, then the time has come for a change of direction.

The fines robbed people of their basic rights, including the freedom of movement and the right to speak freely. And these extreme measures were justified by claims now exposed to have been factually wrong. On both counts it is time that the authorities, and not the people being accused, took responsibility for their egregious errors.

It is not my moral obligation to justify my position. It is the obligation of the courts, the legislators and public servants to serve the public good to withdraw the appalling court actions, which still hang over many Australians.

Our social fabric has been deeply harmed by these legally extreme and aggressive acts – a society also inhabited by people in the judiciary, government, and the public service – and it is time to start returning to something like the decency that Australia once prized. In the final analysis, we are necessarily in this together and persisting down the path of bureaucratic savagery and incompetence will only deepen the problems.

Fault Lines, an independent review funded by three major philanthropic organizations, and headed by former senior public servant Peter Shergold, has started to uncover the extent of the errors and malfeasance, although it only scratches the surface. The review consulted some 200 health experts, public servants, epidemiologists, unions, community groups, businesses, and economists, receiving more than 160 submissions.

It points to “too many instances in which government regulations and their enforcement went beyond what was required to control the spread of the virus, even when based on the information available at the time.” It especially criticises the closure of the schools, which led to mental health problems, especially in children. The report draws some obvious conclusions. The lockdowns were wrong and inhumane. School closures were wrong and cruel. Border closures were wrong and, especially when it affected sick or dying loved ones, utterly appalling. And poor people were hurt the most.

READ: Swiss study shows heart injury in all mRNA COVID jab recipients, myocarditis in 3%

We had many discussions over two years ago with politicians and police and bureaucrats when we warned of just this – it has happened exactly as we said. So, who is guilty of wrongdoing here? Why are people being fined for trying to speak out about what has turned out to be entirely true?

Other facts that are emerging are even more damning. The reason given for shutting people in their homes, imposing travel restrictions, forcing mask wearing, and locking out the unvaccinated was that the virus was allegedly a 100-year event that required the suspension of normal life, including incurring massive economic damage. So why, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (which used the best primary source, death certificates) did Covid-19 rank as the 34^th cause of death in 2021 when the pandemic was supposedly at its height?

When those responsible for applying the law do so in a way that is lawless, then the basic foundations of society begin to fracture. We were shot at with rubber bullets. We were shot at with tear gas and pepper spray. People were arrested. People were forcibly dragged out of their cars. People have been in and out of the court system for the first time in their lives.

The way lawmakers have behaved has deeply harmed our precious democracy. It would be bad enough to take way our rights if the facts claimed were correct, but they are not. They are doubly culpable.

When the courts and the authorities are in the wrong, they should have the courage to admit it and correct their errors. It is to be hoped that there are some people left in positions of power who have the maturity to change course.