I need to get this off my chest.
Victoria is in a bit of a pinch. Please pray for us. The Pandemic Bill is now at a final vote, set for sometime around midday Thursday, December 2, 2021 AEST.
In the past couple of days, one of the hold-out crossbenchers, Transport Matters MP Rod Barton, folded for six amendments to the Bill and, behind the scenes, some generous deal for the taxi industry that he has been representing (Some say it was a funding package worth AU$640 million).
This allowed the leftist Labor party and their pet crossbenchers—Samantha Ratnam MLC of the Greens, Andy Meddick MLC of the Animal Justice Party and Fiona Patten MLC of the Reason/Sex Party—the opening needed to ram the Pandemic Bill through the upper house. This came after a week of a vote-tie deadlock when Upper House Independent MLC Adem Somyurek returned from the political sidelines and announced his intention to vote against the Bill.
In the Upper House the opposition (the Liberal Party, Liberal Democratic Party members David Limbrick MLC and Tim Quilty MLC, independent Catherine Cumming MLC, and other minor parties) questioned, debated, amended and filibustered the bill as much as they could, and they held up quite well despite the Left's attempts to undermine their efforts. Unfortunately with the numbers, the vast majority of the time the opposition was in the minority, so only token amendments could be applied. Any requests for more time was easily defeated.
One silver lining in the sand though was that the egregious "Aggravated Offence" clause was struck out entirely, meaning that the risk of AU$90K fines and jail time was removed from the wording. Nevertheless, maximum fines of AU$10900 and $1000 still remain, with "concession" fines of AU$9000 and AU$900 amended to the bill in "generous" courtesy of the Greens' Samantha Ratnam (who supports the Bill). These clauses nevertheless pale in comparison to the other clauses which make the state of emergency powers permanent and concentrated in the Premier's hands.
The process dragged out for well over 24 hours straight, with the debate a very long 21-hours. (A good chunk of this was spent waiting for the three-minute division bell that calls members into the chamber for each vote required. Most would go insane listening to that bell for that long!) Once finished, the bill and its amendments are sent back to the lower house for approval and final vote.
Unless some miracle occurs where a lower house Labor MP listens to their conscience and breaks ranks with the party (for which Labor's penalty is expulsion), this bill is set to pass and become Law. It is likely too late to stop it, so please pray for us that we may survive, and take our experience as a dire warning for you all.
Political apathy is what brought tyranny to Australian shores. We had it too easy, and we always hand-waved and tread carefully around political debate, with an easy-going attitude as we said, "Nah yeah, she'll be right, mate". We traded key principles of life, liberty, and truth for short-term economic gain, for promises of shiny infrastructure projects that save us time in commute, or for the feel-good vote to support our personal flavour of advocacy. We did not stand up for the one core unit that binds the community together, that being the family.
We did not give voice against the evil that encroached our doorsteps, hoping that, if we don't answer the door, they'll leave us alone. Now, we have a true prostitute in power who sold her vote to the Andrews Government for a Sex Workers Bill, one that Uberizes prostitution so that every home can become a brothel, and, to add insult to injury, exempts sex workers from vaccinations. I speak of course of Fiona Patten MLC, who was a key proponent of the Bill. Alongside her, we have Samantha Ratnam MLC, who was voted in on a green-conscious Social Justice platform but grandstands about her accomplishments and negotiates nothing; and we have Andy Meddick MLC, who could care less for humanity so long as the animals are taken care of. These three crossbenchers were instrumental in the back-room writing of this Bill, joined afterward at the eleventh hour by the fourth crossbencher Rod Barton MLC who sold his vote for some generous taxi money.
And the Labor Party, let's not forget to mention them. Victorians were too willing to overlook Dan Andrews' corrupt electoral arrangements as long as he got the job done. What did it matter to the voters how the man ran and won with his party? Meanwhile, he filled the party with members loyal to his ideology and to his personality, and ran slick media campaigns that hid the machines behind his goals and achievements. Everybody looked for shiny, too strapped for time or money or care to see, beyond the apathy, that hang on, all the details and all the fine print do matter after all.
But most importantly, we turned away from God. For evidence of this, look no further than the same-sex marriage and late-term abortions that were agreed to with ease. Putting these to a final vote was one of the primary platforms upon which the Labor party was elected. Without God, a vacuum emerges which must be filled the next most authoritative thing, that being the Government in tandem with the sensual Human. We did little to nurture the human spirit: instead, pleasures, riches, convenience and ease all bribed us all for a vote for our Government, and our apathy blinded us to the contract that we signed. And when the pandemic struck, we clamoured for Government to save us, so unwilling we were to trust in the Lord to guide us and help us face our mortality. And so we traded our freedoms for security, and now we shall lose both in this state of emergency, in this regime of evil.
Perhaps though, I may be too close to dooming, for thankfully in the Lord's grace, people are now waking up in the millions across our land. Surely the authorities cannot prosecute so many? And we are not unrepresented in State Parliament, for good men and women tried to keep this bill from passing. This is it, this is the time that we must fight for our liberty. Will the Lord show mercy to those now awake, and bless us with us the courage and strength and integrity to rise together with those who are willing to fight for us?
Take heed and be warned that evil encroaches upon all the corners of the earth, lurking in the shadows of even the most peaceful of cities and nations. Please pray for mercy on us all, and take heed of our plight.
Thank you for this wonderfully written and very informative post--this one gets printed for my files. I've been following the Australian drama as closely as I can from where I am, but this explains so much "behind the scenes" that we in the US would have almost no way of knowing. Your analysis of the causes and miniscule steps along the road that's led to tyranny--both Down Under and worldwide--is spot on. SO many are praying for Australia in general and Victoria specifically: the Lord who cares for every sparrow will not fail to hear the cries of His loved ones who are being so oppressed. Whether rescue comes now or a little later, it is certainly coming. 🙏 God bless you, your family, and all our Aussie frens.