My letter to kill the bill

Dear Victorian State and Federal Parliamentarians,

I know you are being inundated with emails and correspondence. I simply ask for you to take the time to read this one as I give you four examples of humanity being impacted due to the actions of governments on both sides of the aisle. I then ask you to reflect upon and give consideration to these stories and my thoughts contained within. Then please realise that these stories from my experience would replicate tens of thousands of others, many of them far worse than these.  After this, I then ask for you to reject the Pandemic Bill currently before parliament in its entirety.

I write to you to not appeal to you as a politician but instead as a fellow human being, as an individual person not attached to any political agenda or party or any ideology. For a significant part of our lives, we are all blissfully unaware of these things and the important things in our lives are instead our family, our friends, our pets and the freedom to just live our lives. For some, these periods in our lives last significantly longer than for others, but we all have our moments, even if it’s just enjoying a beautiful spring day with the breeze in your hair or a beautiful cup or bowl of your favourite hot soup on a cold winters day while on the couch watching your favourite movies.

In these moments, the strains and pressures of life seem far away and we can drop our guard and realise what is most important in life. For many of us, those moments over the past two years have sadly been few and far between. I could imagine this would have been magnified in your positions of influence, if it hasn’t then I question your suitability to be in political office.

Just think back to your childhood. In primary school did you even worry about what political party or ideology your best friends supported or embraced? Or were the football teams they supported or musical artists they liked more important to you? All of you, just like me have enjoyed the greatest decades in human history thanks to the sacrifices of our parents and grandparents. Our shores in Australia have never seen the types of constraints and impositions upon our lives compared to those suffered by people living in countries under the governance of one state or even one person draconian rule.

Whether we have had a Labor or Liberal government we have been largely able to go about our lives unhindered where our only concerns about politics have been during election periods and on polling days.

How times have changed for all of us these past two years. Our lives are now dominated by politics, press conferences and news about the political fray all inspired by the covid19 virus and vaccine mandates. It has been a political groundhog day for nearly two years now. What I am about to request from you all is to not read this as a politician but as a person, as a human and to change the course of where we are heading as a society.

I would like to begin this  with you by sharing some stories from my own personal experience.

Story number one (My own)

For over thirty years I have dedicated my adult life to my community through establishing and administering sports associations, clubs and teams through the sport of basketball. Most of those have been predominately junior competitions. In those thirty years, I have had the tremendous privilege of coaching young people seeing them grow up and witnessing them starting their own families. Over the past eight weeks, I have gone from being that person who for thirty years quietly embraced this role, to now being considered a leper by my community due to what I consider abhorrent attitudes and draconian measures implemented from our governments on both sides of the aisle.

I resent being labelled an anti-vaxxer, a conspiracy theorist or a right-wing extremist as some within our parliaments are labelling many of us. I have followed all government directions, most importantly I have followed my Prime Minister’s and my Premier’s advice and talked to not one GP but three of them (they were of little help actually), I jumped off social media and started reading medical papers and research on the virus and the vaccines and my ultimate choice was to wait for the novavax vaccine. To me, it was the superior of the vaccines on offer by a long way. The very same Prime Minister and Premier who encouraged me to take this approach bizarrely then took that option off the table with their vaccine mandates.

So I knuckled down on some research again and talked to people who had taken the vaccine and worked in the health industry. This included a doctors intern at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, a member of Victoria’s contact tracing team and a neurosurgeon. This led me to reluctantly choose the Astra Zeneca Vaccine mainly for the reason that it’s more closely aligned to a traditional vaccine and I simply don’t trust the new mRNA vaccine technology due to its lack of a stringent testing phase and the collection of long term data that goes along with that testing period. So I chose what I consider to be the best of a bad bunch of vaccines being forced upon me by my government.

I had my first AZ jab three weeks ago and will have my second jab in another three weeks and be considered fully vaccinated by my government in five. In the meantime, I am banned from coaching my junior team at their local basketball Association. For seven weeks those boys are now without their coach, even though I have engaged in the vaccine process outlined by my government. How far we have come from “two weeks to flatten the curve”.

Even worse is that the local Association is going above and beyond the advice from their governing basketball state body itself, who gained their advice from the Department of Health. Under that advice, I should be fine to coach. This is simply a reflection of the divisions you, our politicians, have created within our society.

I had another job as head coach at Melbourne University and despite having their support to resume my coaching duties in the New Year, I knew that was unfair on my team and stepped aside to allow a trusted colleague of mine to take over. Two years of work from my players and I was thrown out the window, because once more, Academia is engaged in a race to see who can be the most draconian group within our society and decided to go further and harder than the health advice provides. This meant I would miss my teams entire pre-season period as the University banned anybody not fully vaccinated from their campuses and buildings. I considered that this was too unfair to my team and my club

It’s a bizarre development in our society that has been unleashed by you, our politicians, in what can be only described as a manic and unscientific desire to vaccinate every person on this continent. Your collective mandates and more importantly your demonising language has encouraged these attitudes and the ensuing divisions amongst our society.

It cannot go on.

I am a casualty of all of this but in comparison to others, my situation is minor. Let’s share some of their stories.

My Nephew’s nineteen-year-old daughter

Why is there not more questioning of the need to vaccinate the healthiest in our society? To be specific those for whom the data that has been collected over the past two years indicate that they are the least at risk to this virus. In other words our kids and our young adults between 18 and 40 years of age. Why are we using our young and potentially destroying their futures to save those of us who already have had the enormous privilege of having lived the best years of our lives in the best years of our nation’s history?

Who asked people of my age (58 years) with underlying health issues (I have diabetes 2) whether this is what they wanted? My answer would have been an emphatic NO. Despite my age and health factors, I am more than happy to take my chances with the virus rather than putting these young people at risk from vaccines that could put them in harm’s way.

 This was brought close to home for me recently when my great-niece was forced, yes forced, into having a vaccine she didn’t want. Her parents were not in favour of kids and teenagers being forced into this measure. I am sure millions of other parents across this nation are just as unsure and concerned. My great-niece was so traumatized by being forced into the vaccination jab, she had to cancel her first attempt. A week or so after finally working up the courage to have her first jab she had trouble breathing and experienced tingles in her left arm. Her mother took her to an Emergency Ward at the nearest hospital and after multiple tests and diagnoses, they discovered she was suffering from a rapid or irregular heartbeat and concluded it was minor myocarditis.

Sound familiar?

Of course it does, what sort of safe and effective vaccine creates such a rare and dangerous medical response in a person so young and previously healthy. One of her friends also ended up in hospital with similar issues. Strangely enough, over the two years of lockdowns in Melbourne, I have not met one person who has had covid-19 let alone suffered seriously from it. Yet I now know multiple people who have suffered one of these so-called rare adverse reactions from the vaccine.

To be clear I am not saying that the covid-19  virus is not a thing and I acknowledge that it is something to be taken seriously, yet I ask why at the same can’t so many of you as politicians acknowledge the mounting evidence that these vaccines are causing life-changing adverse reactions amongst many in our society and in some cases death?

To not acknowledge this is to treat the general public with contempt and disrespect.

My nephews family has three teenage children, all of whom have suffered through the denial of school sport and socialisation over the past two years. Now they are confronted with the ransom of taking this vaccine or losing their part-time work, their sport and their access to things such as cinemas and cafe trips with friends. You are tearing families and peoples friendships apart through your actions. My nephew and his wife are desperate to keep their kids safe, their teenage children are desperate to get their lives back, this leads to unnecessary confrontation, angst and anxiety within their family unit and this is just one household.

How many other households are there just like this in our once great, city, state and country? Yet many amongst you within the political ranks are now cheering on vaccinating not only our kids but our babies between 5 and 12 with the Moderna vaccine that many other nations have now rejected.

Are you insane?

Stop hiding behind the medical advice, it is contradictory anyway and over two years has been proven to be unreliable on far too many occasions. Look at yourself in the mirror and make judgements instead as humans, think of those families just like my nephews who are being torn apart with individuals amongst those family groups being considered second class citizens by their politicians, their governments and many of their fellow citizens.

A young boy in my domestic basketball team

As I have said previously, I coach junior basketball. I am currently coaching a young group of boys in the U16 age group at the Southern Basketball Association in Sandringham. 

The Southern Basketball Association actually chose Remembrance day last week to advise its members that it is banning unvaccinated kids from 12 years and above from their competitions from November 24th. This is breathtaking in its ignorance & stupidity.

Its ignorance is demonstrated in making such an announcement on November 11th. The very day that we remember & pay homage to those brave souls who sacrificed their lives for our freedoms. Yet the Southern Basketball Association chooses this date to remove the freedom of our kids to be able to play sport and hang with their mates.

The decision is stupid due to the fact that they believe they are acting in the best interests of health when this age demographic should be living with no fear of the covid19 virus. It is stupid to the fact that banning unvaccinated kids won’t stop the spread of the virus. It is both stupid & ignorant to the fact that the less obese our kids are, then the healthier their natural immune systems are and the better prepared and protected they are from all viruses, let alone covid19.

As a person who has actively coached kids in this sport for over 30 years and as a person who can hand on heart claim to have NEVER discriminated against any of them, I find this decision shameful and a reflection of the times that we live in, that so many accept this. This is a situation of your making, it’s also a situation that you can change.

My concern now is how many other sports clubs & associations will adopt this sort of madness? How many other organisations & businesses involved with our youth will adopt such mandates?

What will it take to stop this thinking? Will it need our kids to develop serious adverse reactions to these vaccines? Apparently not, as that’s already happening.

For this development on this most sacred of days when we honour those fallen sons & daughters buried in foreign lands, should we not ask ourselves if this is the concept of the country that those diggers and servicemen and women were willing to sacrifice their own young lives for? They fought for our country’s future, they fought to give our youth hope for better days to come, are we now fulfilling that legacy by delivering those better days at the moment?

I would argue strongly that we are not & that our fallen diggers are rolling in their graves in those foreign lands,  full of shame witnessing our collective cowardice. We had better wake up & do so quickly before we inflict irreparable damage on our youth & our nation’s soul. Reflect on that & the hypocrisy that we, the general public, are witnessing as we see politicians spruiking the virtues of freedoms after taking the very freedoms our forefathers died for away from us over the past two years.

“Lest we forget by fighting for our kids.”

That’s what our fallen diggers would have demanded of us. Sadly as a society, we are failing them at the moment & in doing so disrespecting their legacy. Surely, as descendants of the ANZACS, we are better than that.

As a result of this decision by the Southern Basketball Association, one of my young lads will now have to stop playing after this weekend. Why? Because his parents have had families and friends who have had adverse reactions to the vaccine. They know the science, they know their son is at nearly no risk from the virus, they know that even if vaccinated he would have as much chance of spreading the virus as if he was unvaccinated. Their choice was to not have their children vaccinated when they see no reason for it. Why cannot we respect that informed decision? Why are we penalising this boy and others like him who have no control over their parent’s decisions and in all likelihood would agree with anyway?

I have been critical of the Southern Basketball Association, but they use council own courts as well as school-owned courts, for all I know this is a decision enforced upon them by their local council and the schools they utilise. Collectively we are all accountable, but the most accountable are those who have created this environment that now demonises and discriminates against our kids and instead of stepping back, they are looking to double down by oppressing the very youngest amongst us.

The most accountable is the majority of you, our politicians within our parliaments. You can continue to double down or you can do what most politicians refuse to do, take a second look with transparent eyes and realise you’ve gone too far, you are wrong and you have given the emperor clothes that he doesn’t have. How many amongst you will lobby on behalf of the boy in my team and the many others suffering from mandates imposed unnecessarily on them by the likes of the Southern Basketball Association?

We will see.

Businesses being bullied by government thugs

Last week tens of thousands of us watched via live stream as a gang of what can only be described as government thugs stormed a doctors practice to then storm out with that doctor’s patient files and his appointment book. Under what circumstances is this justifiable? Since when do Australian governments utilise strategies and tactics straight out of the eastern bloc’s Stasi police manual?

Doctor Mark Hobart wasn’t the only one being bullied and intimidated in this fashion. I know of a business on the Mornington Peninsula that was the victim of a similar raid. They received what can only be described as an abusive call from a government health department official the day before this raid. The business is a customer service orientated one and they have put in place all the covid-19 processes and precautions. Their staff are all fully vaccinated despite not wanting to be and yet somebody has “dobbed” them in for an infraction of a responsibility unnecessarily imposed upon them by a government too cowardly to do the dirty deed themselves.

Why is it businesses responsibility to police these vaccinations in the first place?

If they are to be placed in this situation, then why are they bullied and intimidated due to a coward’s call? Is this the actual society you want to develop? A community of snitches and dobbers? The type of individual our diggers were repulsed by?

You dishonour those diggers memory by encouraging this behaviour and at the same time, you demonstrate your ignorance of history’s worst dictatorships if you support it. Next, you will be building camps for detainees. Oh, I am sorry, you have already started doing that, haven’t you?

How many other businesses have been subject to these phone calls? To these visits? This bullying and intimidation?  How can you possibly justify this? I have run my own business and the challenges are many as it is. There are enough pressures on a family-owned and run business without this nonsense imposed upon them. Do you stop to think how much extra anxiety you are placing upon hard-working, decent Australian citizens and families?

How do you look in the mirror, how do you look into your souls and justify any of this? How do you stand by and simply watch this happen to your fellow Australians? Where is your integrity? Where are your ethics? Have they been consumed and lost by party politics, polling numbers and focus groups? If so it’s time for you to find a new vocation as you have forgotten what this one is all about.

Not only are you justifying this sort of oppression (and that is what it is) many of you are now seriously considering passing legislation that will give unprecedented power to an individual politician never seen before in this country. On behalf of the people I have listed above and the millions of others across this state and country who are victims of similar circumstances and who are going through far worse, then I implore you to look at this from a human perspective.

You’re on the verge of breaking irrecoverably any trust that we have in our politicians, our governments and our institutions. You may have already done so. If this happens we are facing anarchy in this country in the near future if things aren’t resolved.

Stop worrying about your political connections, stop worrying about your political careers and backroom deals, throw away any fears of political repercussions.  Instead, focus on your humanity, focus on the humanity of the people within your communities such as the ones I have covered here who are being oppressed, denied and intimidated. Serve them, support them, embolden them once more that our politics can be a force for good. Make us believe again, make us trust again, give us hope in our future and our country once more

Focus on your souls as human beings, on your place in this country’s history. Reject this bill in its entirety, forget about amendments, don’t sell out the public or risk being seen to do so. For those of you who think this is legitimate legislation then give it some legitimacy by having the courage to put it before the Victorian electorate at next years election. Let the people decide as opposed to pushing it through via sleazy backroom deals in the dead of night.

If any of you vote for this legislation then be accountable for it. If you support it you must know it’s wrong, wrong in its drafting and wrong in the way it is being implemented. If you vote for it, then you expose yourselves as nothing more than political charlatans embedded within a piece of the political machinery that doesn’t value the people it represents. Instead, your priority is for political ideology and agendas. If that’s the case have the courage, to be honest about it.

I hope enough of you have that humanity we all had as children to vote down this bill, not to amend it but to send it where it belongs; into the dustbin of political history.

To those federal parliamentarians, in particular, those in government, don’t think that we are not watching or appealing to you as well. Our prime minister washed his hands of Victorians this week, hopefully, those of you with more intestinal fortitude than Mr Morrison will have the courage to break ranks with him and speak out on our behalf as assistant minister to the attorney general, Amanda Stoker, attempted to do just last week.

I know millions just like me will be watching with anticipation at the transition or otherwise of this bill. We will be noting those who support and oppose it before next year’s election so do yourselves a favour and reject it emphatically. Our premier has demonstrated he has more than enough powers without giving him any more, reject this bill and any future state of emergency declarations. Give the Victorian people their freedoms, their liberties and their lives back, vaccinated or unvaccinated.

In doing so, you will give yourselves your humanity back and begin the long process of building trust with us once more.

.Yours sincerely and respectfully,