Sign the Petition

As the coronavirus crisis unfolds, it is clear that our governments have no strategic plan underpinning their day-to-day panic. They do not know what they are doing. Short-term crisis management fills the space where leadership and strategic thinking should be. After 18 months, Australian Governments are no wiser about managing the virus than they were at the outset.

From the moment the virus hit our shores in February 2020, our politicians panicked. Instead of thinking carefully about the uniqueness of our circumstances as an island continent with vast distances and low-density living, they picked up bits and pieces of epidemiological data and modelling from the northern hemisphere and imposed it on Australia, warning of up to 150,000 deaths and collapse of our hospital system. They shut down society and put the economy in a coma.

This was ill-conceived and unsustainable. As soon as the restrictions were eased, the virus re-appeared. Restrictions were reimposed. There is no forseeable end to this cycle. Vaccines are a help but do not mean an end to the lockdown madness. The virus will continue to mutate, and the effectiveness of current vaccines against future variants is unknown.

Perpetuating this cycle is complete madness. A proper democracy would have had a serious national debate before imposing the lockdown measures about how we eventually get out of them. But our politicians didn’t do that. Their born-to-rule mentality kicked in. They shut down parliaments and imposed the biggest restrictions on personal liberties, family life, community activity and free enterprise in Australian history – including wartime – without giving a minute’s thought to an exit strategy.
We need to send an urgent message to our governments and politicians – Stop the Madness.

We invite Australians to sign this petition. It calls on Australian Governments to step back from prolonging unnecessary social and economic damage on the country which is out of all proportion to the risk of COVID-19. It calls for the rescue of our reputation as a nation of sensible, practical people. The group-think of the political class is trashing our society and economy. The 80% of us in the sensible centre of Australian life must speak up.

This is our Ten Point Plan. And below it is a space where you can add your voice for sanity.

Stop the Lockdown Madness – Sign the Petition

10 Point Plan

1. Australian Governments should stop trying to eradicate community transmission of the virus. It cannot be eradicated. It will continue to be with us for years to come.

2. Lockdowns have never been advised by the World Health Organisation and have not been recommended by leading global medical authorities. The social, economic and psychological costs of lockdowns are greater than the health risks of the virus. Australian Governments should abandon lockdown strategies.

3. All epidemiological data, modelling and forecasts used by Australian Governments should be made public, without redaction. All health, social and economic data held by Australian Governments concerning the impact of COVID-19 should be publicly available.

4. Australians who are not at high risk of medical complications from the virus due to age (over 70 years) or co-morbidities (such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease or cancer) should resume normal living while continuing to practice social distancing and careful hygiene maintenance (regular washing of hands). This means, in all states and territories:

a. Schools and universities should operate as normal.
b. Sport and leisure activities should operate as normal.
c. Cafes and restaurants should open as usual.
d. Economic and business activity should operate as normal.
e. Weddings, funerals and religious activities should be undertaken without restrictions.
f. Elective surgery should resume in our hospitals.

5. Domestic travel should be permitted. Closure of state borders should not be permitted by any Australian Governments.

6. Travel to and from Australia should be re-opened with a continuation of 14 day quarantine requirements for incoming arrivals. Hotel quarantine is a flawed and counter-productive form of quarantine, since co-residential settings facilitate the spread of the virus. It should be replaced by home detention under strict supervision. Australian Governments should not waste taxpayers money on purpose-built co-residential quarantine facilities.

7. Mask-wearing should be optional. Global scientific opinion on its effectiveness is mixed.

8. Reliance on medical practitioners to conduct vaccinations is a slow and costly process, driven by political pressure from organisations of medical practitioners. Pharmacies, nurse practitioners and mass vaccination centres should have been permitted to distribute vaccines from the outset. Vaccination should remain voluntary.

9. All people over the age of 70 years with high-risk medical conditions (such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease or cancer) should be supported with a designated Circle of Support around them of 6-8 family, friends and neighbours, under medical supervision.

Circles of Support are an established social mechanism widely employed in the disability and mental health fields to build an intentional network of civil society support around vulnerable people. In this crisis, their role is to secure the basic needs of people over the age of 70 while in isolation from the public. This would include:

a. arranging for home deliveries of groceries, pharmacy items, hygiene supplies
b. regular contact and social support, via telephone or socially distanced personal contact
c. assistance in paying bills and coordination of daily living arrangements
d. arranging specialist health and well-being support

We need civil defence infrastructure at micro-local levels to support people over 70 with co-morbidities and those at risk of violence, suicide and mental illness. This civil defence infrastructure should assume responsibility for co-ordination of Circles of Support.

We favour precinct-level networks (200-400 households), connected online and in-person, as infrastructure through which to enable mutual supports and information flows that involve the whole of the population in mitigating risks and ‘looking after each other’.

10. Responsibility for health should be transferred from the States to the Commonwealth, and ‘National Cabinet’ discontinued as a failed experiment in public governance. Instead, we need a genuine Government of National Unity to fix the mess created by fear-driven strategies.

The country can not afford governments based on the old adversarial party politics. It has driven the exploitation of fear for party political ends, producing the flawed eradication and lockdown strategies. If any group of ordinary Australians were selecting people to manage this crisis, we would seek out people with a track record in solving problems and fixing things. Instead, we have Premiers, Federal Ministers, and their inexperienced advisers trying to lead when virtually none of them have a track record in fixing anything. They tend to hide behind ‘expert medical opinion’ instead of subjecting all advice to critical scrutiny, and weighing it up against a wide range of other considerations.

The economic devastation imposed by the political class in 2020 will have to be fixed in coming years. To do that we will need a high level of social consensus and a genuine Government of National Unity.

Sign the Petition

“I want to send a message to governments and politicians to Stop the Corona Madness. Unnecessary social and economic damage is being inflicted on the country which is out of all proportion to the risk of COVID-19.

Stop. Step back before the collateral damage is irreparable.”