Australia’s ‘Zero-Covid’ tyranny – and a PR disaster
Attempting to hide information or tamper the facts in a partisan manner heightens distrust and paranoia, so public bodies must take note that their ability to be open, informational, and honest is a large source of their legitimacy and authority.
Context matters, in a more important way than in the puritanical scrutinisation of the cancelled social media comedian, when making sense of the actions of those in positions of power. This ensures transparency, as the inclusion of any and all relevant articles of information can be pieced together like a jigsaw to reveal the full picture.
Attempting to hide information or tamper the facts in a partisan manner heightens distrust and paranoia, so public bodies must take note that their ability to be open, informational, and honest is a large source of their legitimacy and authority. Otherwise, an institution opens itself to interrogation, investigation, and perhaps scandal, if it does not diligently execute its role as the messenger of the public interest.
One such public relations disaster rests at the feet of Australia’s Victoria Police. A recently released video appears to show three police officers, accompanied by two other personnel wearing full personal protective equipment, forcibly separating a father from his child. The man and his child are cornered, with the child torn away kicking and screaming by the two medical staff, while the man is restrained on the ground (video here).
The short clip is traumatising, but still inconclusive. A captioned tweet of the incident suggests that this happened because children that have tested positive are being forcibly removed from their parents. If we’re talking about Australia, this is frighteningly plausible, given that the nation has just recently sentenced twenty-nine year old Anthony Khallouf to a minimum of three months in prison for conspiracy to organise an anti-lockdown protest.
In the land lock-down under, the zero-covid carpet bombing campaign is in full force. This month, the country’s capital city, Canberra, was chained head-to-toe after one single Covid case was detected. Placed in context, Victoria Police auditioning for the role of the Child Snatcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang doesn’t sound so farfetched.
Faced with this reputation Victoria Police missed a moment to arrive on angelic wings, release a statement clearing up any confusion, and show those Covid deniers to stick their conspiracies where the sun doesn’t shine. But it seems that Victoria Police doesn’t care about revealing to the population the context it already knows and has under its thumb (offices should really stop letting the intern run the social media).
The reply, of course, begs several other questions. Why was the father and child forcibly separated to begin with? Is the story being withheld from the public at the request of the distraught father?
Was the child taken away because the man was a danger to himself and others? Was he caught boxing a kangaroo after one too many pints of Fosters? Did he set fire to a family of Koalas? Was he the criminal mastermind behind an anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne? At this moment, Covid infected children snatched from their parent’s arms remains the most plausible explanation.
Don’t rely on Victoria Police to tell you anything different.