Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott strongly encourages leaving Covid restrictions behind and returning to normal. In an interview with Alan Jones, he points out the absurdity of imposing new restrictions based on omicron, the new variant which is so mild that it causes hardly any hospitalizations, let alone deaths and thus stays behind the threat that regular colds pose every year.
He warns that governments have gotten used to the unchecked power they have been able to seize due to people’s fear, but that this must end sooner rather than later. As Abbott points out: “We always got to be careful about becoming addicted to a crisis. […] We have to put it behind us and get on with life. […] In a democracy like ours, we want stronger citizens, not just bigger government.”
Abbott and Jones both praise the new Prime Misister of New South Wales, Dominic Perrottet, who has been a staunch critic of unnecessary lockdowns and who refused to issue new restrictions, despite his health minister’s push to use omicron as a justification to lock down again. Perrotet took office on October 5th this year after his predecessor resigned. While some other Australian states, most notably Victoria and the Northern Territory, seem to outcompete each other with ever stricter rules (the Northern Territory gained worldwide attention with its Covid-camps where people are being involuntarily isolated), the inauguration of Perrotet marks a refreshing deviation from this trend.
(Interview with Tony Abbott starts at minute 39).