A letter to the PM

Dear Prime Minister Morrison,

I believe you to be a decent and honourable man, seeking to serve your country to the best of your ability. As a fellow father (of three in my case – 15, 12 and 10yo), a small business owner and a grateful Australian, I am certain that we share a remarkably similar worldview.

I’ve voted Liberal my entire voting life (I’m 46), and believe fiercely in the principles of conservatism, limited government and individual liberty as the best way to ensure the flourishing of all people; principles that I know you share deeply. Since we appear very much aligned in many respects, I am urgently writing to you to plead for an immediate change of direction; you have now fallen into a grave and catastrophic policy error that betrays all of these core principles.

You hold an unenviable position, and I recognise that you have a difficult task as PM to placate and appease many divergent voices (which you have generally done with aplomb in the face of hostility), hence I do not offer this criticism lightly. However, you MUST immediately reverse course regarding attacks on the personal liberty and health autonomy of all Australians. Your recent pronouncements — regarding ‘compulsory-as-possible’ vaccinations, two-tiered Australian societies based on vaccination status, preferential/prejudicial treatments before the law based on health status, wholesale restriction of movement for defined people groups — are:

• Antithetical to every notion of liberty upon which the Liberal Party was formed and operates (“We believe in the inalienable rights and freedoms of all peoples…a lean government that minimises interference in our daily lives…In short, we simply believe in individual freedom and free enterprise” –
  sourced from the Liberal Party website).
• Deeply un-Australian — they are divisive, coercive, prejudicial, unfair and already fostering resentment and distrust between fellow Australians.
• Profoundly unconstitutional and open to myriad legal challenges (from the perspective of Human Rights charters, the Privacy Act, the Biosecurity Act etc, illegal restriction of cross-border movement, not to mention claims against adverse effects following a mandated/coerced/incentivised vaccination).
• Not supported by scientific data — numerous studies now show catastrophic effects (on mental health, suicide, self-harm, economic hardship) from lockdowns, mandatory masking, school closures etc — and also that vaccination will not prevent infection and is showing links to myocardial
  inflammation, blood clotting, menstrual irregularities, high concentrations of lipid nanoparticles in the ovaries and bone marrow of vaccinated patients etc. Mass vaccination is not the answer (consider how many people already have natural immunity and/or are not in at-risk groups in Australia) and resumption of normal life must not be tied to any vaccination percentages.
• Effectively un-policeable without a corresponding de-prioritisation of police response to real crime and a massive incursion into – and continued erosion of – the civil liberties we have held dear for generations. We categorically reject the development of a police state, and recent ugly scenes involving violent, unacceptable and patently illegal responses by some police members (in NSW and Victoria especially) to Covid-19 related mandates remind us that this balance is always precarious and readily open to abuse where the principles of liberty are clouded.
• Politically untenable (I do not believe you understand or have properly calibrated the degree of underlying resentment to these measures, outside of the vocal and already-hostile left-leaning media, academia and chattering class who are already opposed to your government). The same Quiet Australians that elected the LNP government do not support these coercive, regressive and
  profoundly antithetical policies that belie every principle by which the LNP government was reasonably expected to govern.

The counsel that you appear to be receiving behind the scenes (e.g. from Jane Halton, Greg Hunt et al, who support global “CommonPass” ID cards, proscribed movement of citizens, the preeminence of supranational bodies over national sovereignty) is profoundly wrong — politically, morally, ethically and biblically. It does not merit your support, and is directly contrary to what you actually stand for. Australians resoundingly rejected the Australia Card when proposed, and we must not be subjected — almost by stealth — to mass digital identification, restriction of movement, restriction of commerce, restriction of liberty tied to any health status (which could of course be used in any number of nefarious ways).

As a Christian, as a student of history, as a conservative and a Liberal, you must surely realise that these measures — coerced vaccinations, mandatory tracing, health passports, restricted movement of defined groups, prejudicial treatment — run absolutely counter to human liberty and human flourishing. The Australian government’s current course of action on these matters is indefensible and decimates the freedom of all Australian citizens to manage their own health and wellbeing, free from threats, coercion and discrimination.

I am imploring you to immediately reverse course and advise all Australians that — while voluntary vaccines will of course be available to all who wish to take them:

1. No Australian should feel compelled to take a vaccine;
2. No certificate/passport or any similar technology will ever be developed or required for establishing health/vaccination status; and
3. It will remain 100% illegal for any business, government or other entity to discriminate against any Australian based on their vaccine status, just as it is illegal to discriminate based on wider health statuses (status which must remain private between a citizen and their health professional).

This is the only tenable, defensible position for a Liberal Party leader to take and — while I recognise it may mark a departure between yourself and Biden, Trudeau, Johnson, Ardern and others — it will be recognised as a landmark restatement of the principles of liberty and inalienable rights in the face of ever increasing statism and encroachment upon freedoms. It will also be welcomed by a huge section of the country as a sensible, mature, balanced position that positions Australia well for recovery. (As you may know, Florida is thriving as a result of DeSantis’ boldness — tech companies are moving en masse from Silicon Valley to Miami, business/tourism is booming, and DeSantis is incredibly popular as a champion of liberty and free enterprise (he’s legislated that vaccine passports are banned/illegal), with huge political momentum for a 2024 Presidential run).

Failure to stand up for individual freedom now on this matter will lead us to a position of technological and bureaucratic subservience and intrusion from which Australians will never fully recover. I urge you to courageously stand up for the principles of liberty and freedom now: this decision will be your greatest legacy, either way.

Kind regards,
Matt Lowe
July 6, 2021