Sanjeev Sabhlok - The Great Hysteria and The Broken State

5. WHY DID THE VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT LOSE ITS HEAD?
5.1 w hy did V iCtoria abandon its pandemiC plan ?
5.2 t he s wedes followed their plan and did not buCkle to the hysteria
6. CALL FOR ACTION: IMMEDIATE ACTIONS

6.1 l ift the loCkdowns , open the borders and work with industry to Create risk - based solutions
6.2 a VaCCine may no longer be needed , like with all preVious pandemiCs
6.3 V aCCine must not be mandatory when it does arriVe
6.4 n o mass testing
6.5 h ow ConCerned should we be about the long - term effeCts of

CoVid-19?
7. CALL FOR ACTION: LONGER TERM ACTIONS

7.1 r eVoke peaCetime emergenCy powers of all goVernments
7.2 e xpunge the preCautionary prinCiple from all legislation
7.3 r eView Commonwealth powers
7.4 e naCt a law in V iCtoria to Criminalise publiC health terrorism
7.5 e thiCs Control oVer goVernment adVertising
7.6 r eView the hiring and firing arrangements for the senior exeCutiVeserViCe
7.7 l et doCtors deCide the mediCine they want to administer
7.8 p rohibit all forms of goVernment surVeillanCe
7.9 C reate a b laCk h at C ommissioner to stop publiC serViCe groupthink
7.10 C larify the nature of a publiC serVant s VoiCe in soCial media
7.11 l arge - sCale working from home is unsuitable for the publiC serViCe
7.12 p rohibit false and misleading data on Cases and deaths
7.13 o ther possible legislatiVe measures
7.14 r eset the disCipline of epidemiology

8. CONCLUSION

Weve been told a lot of lies about Australias coronavirus response. Youll read about many of them in this book, but to me the biggest one has always been that were all in this together.

From day one, the coronavirus has laid bare Australias sharp divide between the two groups my colleague Matthew Lesh has called inners and outers. Well-heeled inners politicians, public servants, academics and scores of rent-seekers subsisting off the public teat have dreamed up pointless restrictions, safe in their taxpayer-funded, six-figure salaries.

The consequences of their decisions have been borne almost entirely by outers parents whove had to moonlight as teachers while struggling to hold down a job, the hundreds of thousands of Australians whove been thrown out of work, and above all, small business owners whove seen their lifes work destroyed with the stroke of a pen.

And the greatest injustice is that when the catastrophic failures of Victorias coronavirus response became clear, there were no consequences for anyone responsible. Not one public servant lost their job, not one minister was sacked. (Yes, Jenny Mikakos resigned, but that was probably more of a kamikaze exercise than a sudden pang of ministerial responsibility.)

But on 16 September, one Victorian public servant did resign. Not because he had anything to do with Victorias ongoing coronavirus catastrophe he didnt. Rather, Sanjeev Sabhlok quit in protest, and importantly, so that he could speak out against the governments actions. In this book, youll find out why it was so important that he did.

As Director of Policy at the Institute of Public Affairs Australias oldest and largest free market think tank Ive been speaking out against lockdowns from the beginning. On 4 April, we became the first organisa-tion in Australia to call for a COVID-safe reopening, releasing an online video in which I stood in an empty Melbourne street and spoke about the terrible damage that prolonged lockdowns would do.

For this, I was derided as a dangerous lunatic, blasted on social media and slagged off by everyone from Channel Tens Hugh Riminton to actor Sam Neill. But privately, I received hundreds of messages from people who thanked me and the IPA for saying what they, for whatever reason, could not. Since then, our position has gone from crazy to mainstream, and Ive kept hearing from the victims of what is unquestionably the greatest public policy failure in Australian history.

But reading this book made me realise that the Victorian governments actions werent as bad as I thought. They are much, much worse.

In these pages, youll get an insiders look at the failures that made this catastrophe possible. Youll learn about the way in which sensible pandemic plans based on risk and proportionality were cast aside in favour of extreme and unscientific lockdowns. Youll find out about the break-down in the functioning of government that led to such punitive and irrational policies. Youll see how the Andrews government ignored its own legislation and possibly acted unlawfully. And youll realise if you havent already that Victorias coronavirus response was not, as the Premier insists, based on the best medical advice, but the worst.

Sanjeev Sabhlok has done Australia a great service by writing this book. It is a shocking and desperately-needed wake-up call to anyone who still takes Dan Andrews meaningless press conferences at face value.