Covid-19

Update – Hotel Quarantine Prosecution – Supreme Court Victoria – A bit boring but important!

March 21, 2022 by Self-Employed Australia

prosecution Finally we’re able to give you an update on how things are developing in our efforts to prosecute the Victorian government (and individuals) over the 2020 Hotel Quarantine disaster.

We informed you that, on the 14 February 2022, we lodged an application in the Victorian Supreme Court for an order to require WorkSafe to comply with (what we say) is the required investigative process under the Act. Details are here: https://selfemployedaustralia.com.au/notabovethelaw/

The first ‘Directions’ Hearing has now been conducted with an ‘Order’ issued setting out dates by which both our and WorkSafe’s lawyers are required to lodge documentation. That is, we’re now in the legal ‘administrative’ process that will eventually lead to a court hearing. The next Directions hearing is listed for 27 July 2022. We believe a court date is likely to be set at the 27 July hearing. Here’s the Order setting out the dates.

Now it’s a ‘long haul’

After all the effort to raise the membership funding for the case, securing the legal team and initiating the legal process, we are now in the ‘long haul’ phase of the legal process. There won’t be any major ‘new’ developments to announce as we work through the legal process. So—“sorry”! Nothing ‘dramatic’ for some time!

We again thank everyone who has become an SEA member enabling us to fund both the legal effort and the necessary related general campaigning. With the budget secured for the anticipated legal costs, we are continuing to work on membership funding for the broader, supportive ‘Not Above the Law’ campaign. All efforts continue!

As we’re now in the ‘long haul’ legal process, it’s good to remind ourselves why we are doing this. Remember that, at this stage, our legal process seeks to require WorkSafe to do its job and explain why it is only prosecuting the Department of Health and not the individuals we say should also face prosecution.

Victoria’s top radio journalist, Neil Mitchell, probably best explained what concerns the community. On 4 October 2021 Neil said the following on Melbourne radio 3AW:

He referred to “… this enormously controversial decision not to prosecute personally, Daniel Andrews or any of these ministers, over the catastrophic breaches in hotel quarantine …”
(that) “… raise crucial questions, that must be answered about the process that led to the decision not to prosecute personally, but only go after the health department as an entity.”
Mitchell asked “…Who made the decision not to prosecute the Ministers or the heads of departments or in fact the Premier…?”

Our Supreme Court action cuts to the heart of the “…enormously controversial decision not to prosecute personally, Daniel Andrews or any of these ministers…” As far as we’re concerned, we’re not only fighting for justice but also for our democracy. No-one should be above the law.

We lodge court action against WorkSafe Victoria. No-one should be above the law

February 15, 2022 by Self-Employed Australia

After a lot of preparation we have today lodged in the Supreme Court of Victoria an application for a ‘writ of mandamus’ against WorkSafe Victoria related to WorkSafe’s failure to prosecute individuals and others over the 2020 Hotel Quarantine disaster.

We will shortly also issue subpoenas to 26 individuals and government departments to require them to answer questions. This will include the Victorian Premier, Chief Health Officer and others whom we have cited as requiring investigation. See the list here.

Our writ of mandamus is an application to the court asking it to issue an order to require WorkSafe to do certain things. What we are asking is quite simple.

WorkSafe is prosecuting the Victorian Health Department for breaches of work safety laws to do with the Hotel Quarantine disaster. WorkSafe has told us that because it is prosecuting Health it doesn’t have to prosecute anyone else or do anything else.
We say that under the work safety laws WorkSafe must supply to the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions materials from its investigations into each of the other 26 individuals and departments we have named, if WorkSafe chooses not to prosecute them, and give us reasons why they are not prosecuting them. Our writ of mandamus asks the court to look at the law and decide who is correct, us or WorkSafe.
If we are correct, the court would (presumably) order WorkSafe to (1) give us reasons for its decision not to prosecute the other 26 individuals and departments, and (2) hand its investigative materials to the DPP so that the DPP can advise WorkSafe (in writing) whether she considers that prosecutions should be brought in relation to any or all of the other 26 individuals and departments. Ultimately this would require a copy of the DPP’s written advice to WorkSafe to be handed to us.

This perhaps looks like a small legal step. But in fact the implications are vast. Is WorkSafe doing its job correctly at law or not? The court will decide.

In November last year we explained our legal strategy. See here. This is now being put into action.

This would not be possible without the huge support received from all SEA members. Our big thanks for all the $ contributions.

If you are keen to know the full details of our court action here is:

The originating application (3 pages)

The supporting affidavit (the first 13 pages) and all correspondence with WorkSafe and others (the remainder of the document and, yes, it’s lengthy!)

We have kept you updated on our efforts through our dedicated Not Above The Law section on our website. A quick summary for you, however, is as follows:

Section 131 of the OHS Act enables anyone to lodge a request for investigation by WorkSafe if WorkSafe has not investigated an incident for 6 months. WorkSafe must then investigate.
29 Sept 2020 SEA lodged a 131 application on WorkSafe. WorkSafe had 9 months to investigate and decide to prosecute or not and was/is required to notify SEA.
29 June 2021 (9-month deadline) WorkSafe informed SEA that it had not completed its investigation. SEA then triggered an additional 131 provision that required WorkSafe to refer the matter to the DPP for the DPP to review and make a recommendation.
5 Aug 2021, WorkSafe informed SEA that it had not supplied its investigation to the DPP. This means that WorkSafe is failing to comply with its statutory obligation and has put the DPP in the position where it also is failing to comply with its statutory obligation.
29 Sept 2021. WorkSafe announces that it is prosecuting the Department of Health. WorkSafe tells us that it doesn’t need to do anything else.

The specific relevant section of the Occupation Health and Safety Act states the following:

Section 131 (3) If the Authority advises the person that a prosecution will not be brought, or that it has not brought a prosecution within 9 months after receiving the request, the Authority must refer the matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions if the person requests (in writing) that the Authority do so.

We have made the required request for referral in writing twice.

We will keep you informed as events unfold.

ABC’s Dr Norman Swan says badly degraded Victorian Health capacity to blame

February 6, 2022 by Self-Employed Australia

The ABC’s Dr Norman Swan explains why Victoria did so badly with Covid in 2020. Watch his comments here (47sec): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3h8mS-6VUM

Dr Swan says Victoria has

“… 88 different health services which don’t look after the population unlike most other states (the Victorian government)… long ago degraded … the public health capacity, and in 2009 they ran the white flag up … Dan Andrews was the Health Minister.”

This analysis by Dr Swan reinforces why we must proceed to push for the prosecution of the government and responsible individuals (Premier, etc.) over the 801 Hotel Quarantine deaths in 2020. If WorkSafe fails to do its job by prosecuting individuals, the degraded Victorian health system will continue to put people at risk. It’s unsafe.

Running parallel to Dr Swan’s comments is an analysis by a public administration academic who case studied the 2020 Hotel Quarantine program. His report Hiding in plain sight: Vulnerability, public administration, and the case of Covid-19 hotel quarantine sets out a table that shows all the actions and inactions of the government that led to the 801 deaths disaster. The paper says:

“The Covid-19 HQ Inquiry found that a series of actions and inactions surrounding decisions by politicians, practitioners, and policymakers with responsibilities for public administration portfolio areas gave rise to accidents which brought failures and subsequently a crisis into existence.”

“… the leadership and functional expertise at group as well as individual levels was unable to take meaningful action to ensure that the program was fit for purpose.”

However, the paper focuses exclusively on the notion that the disaster should be treated as a learning experience for public health administration. Some people might believe that no individuals need to be held to account to enable ‘learnings’ and change. Such a position would be plain wrong—even dangerous and unsafe in our view.

We see this attitude too often in public administration. The people who make the decisions (politicians and bureaucrats) are rarely held personally accountable for their decisions. The ‘blame’ is isolated and attached to the ‘system.’ But this is not the standard applied to business or the community. Small business people, in particular, are held personally accountable for every action they take. We say the public sector must be held to the same community standard.

This is why we say that Victorian WorkSafe is making things dangerously unsafe in only prosecuting the Department of Health and not the individuals who were the decision makers in the Hotel Quarantine disaster. Community standards of individual responsibility must be applied. No one is above the law.

More developments and news soon.

Covid ‘rebels’ and the Eureka Stockade

January 5, 2022 by Self-Employed Australia

There’s a band of people who see themselves as the ‘keepers’ of the Eureka Stockade tradition, and they are much miffed by anti-Covid lockdown protesters who wave the Eureka flag. The ‘miffed’ are principally unionist, republicans, and avowed leftists who hold that their causes shine bright under Eureka’s Southern Cross. To them, lockdown protesters are engaged in the theft of (their) sacred symbol.

But there are parallels between the Eureka rebellion and the anti-lockdown protests that give the current-day protesters some justification for flying the Eureka flag.

Eureka The Unfinished Business by Peter FitzSimons gives a highly detailed account of the ‘massacre’ (the term used by the Melbourne media at the time) just after dawn on Sunday, 3 December 1854. Some 30 ‘diggers’ were killed in a brutal 20-minute attack by colonial soldiers against the Eureka Stockade at Ballarat. Soldiers fell along with unknown other diggers – potentially several hundred – that died subsequently from horrendous wounds.

The seeds of the massacre were laid some short 20 years earlier when Melbourne was founded by a near lone explorer, John Batman. The ‘village’ and Victoria exploded in population to some 250,000 after gold was discovered in 1851 – not just ‘gold’ but massive nuggets were literally sitting under the soil, easily picked up by the lucky finder.

The Victorian colonial government appointed from London had a degree of local parliament, but the representatives were elected only by landholders (squatters). These lucky first settlers of Victoria had received huge land grants from the government, paid a small annual rent to the government, then acquired wealth on the back of wool and related grazing activity. These 4,000-or-so elite individuals were effectively a social and political nouveau riche aristocracy.

The gold rush induced not only a huge immigrant population explosion, but a rush of squatters’ workers and every other type of worker to leave their jobs for the lure of riches in the goldfields. The colonial government faced a big revenue shortage and so imposed a monthly mining levy on every goldfield digger whether the digger had found gold or not.

This levy, often violently enforced by the police, was the core reason for the Eureka revolt. Their ‘revolutionary’ theme was ‘no taxation without representation’.

The Eureka revolt is a symbol for some modern Australian republicans because some diggers, mainly Irish, added a republican agenda to the diggers’ cause. This divided the diggers.

Karl Marx himself, who wrote his Communist Manifesto in 1848, showed great interest in the diggers’ 1850s rebellion. In 1855 Marx opined that the rebellion was the workers’ proletariat rising up against the ruling bourgeoisie just as he predicted. This was enough for today’s political Left to grasp Eureka as their symbol of the inevitability of the workers’ revolution.

It was out of this Marxist idea of the endless struggle of the workers versus the bosses (however defined) that was – and remains – a central idea of the Australian union movement and the Australian Labor Party. As the primary funders and factional controllers of the ALP, Australian unions fly and display the Eureka flag at all opportunities.

But here’s where the truth of Eureka breaks from the symbolic myth and connects to the Covid ‘rebels’, particularly in Victoria.

The diggers were self-employed. They were ‘workers’ and ‘bosses’ all in one. This shatters the Marxist, Leftist, unionist myth. The Eureka revolution arose from ‘workers’ who deserted their ‘bosses’ to become their own bosses. They took their luck in the marketplace of gold prospecting. Their revolution was against the bureaucratic government elite who sought to (and did) distort their free market, thereby creating massive harm. The elite cared not for the harm they did.

Likewise the Covid ‘rebels’ are drawn heavily from the ranks of the self-employed. Under Covid, self-employed and small business Victorians have carried the financial burden, with some pushed into comparative poverty. These are the people most damaged by the world’s longest and harshest Covid lockdown – all staged in Victoria.

Look at the Victorian ‘revolution’…

Construction workers massed against and attacked their own union. A huge police presence was needed to protect the union ‘bosses’ in their Elizabeth St Melbourne citadel. Repeated weekend after weekend, huge but peaceful (even polite) rallies stretched from the gold rush funded Victorian Parliament House to the end and beyond of the 3 km Bourke St main city strip. Drone footage interposed with computer analysis put crowd numbers around some 120,000 at its peak.

And where do these Covid rebels come from? Mobile phone tracking analysis identifies the bulk of them from Melbourne’s outer ring of suburbs. These are the homes of the mortgage strugglers and low-income earners, says the analysis. They are heavily the self-employed hairdressers, personal trainers, tradies, and more.

These are the people who’ve carried the financial burden of the Covid lockdowns. Anyone on the financial teat of a heavily indebted, harsh, authoritarian Victorian Covid government has financially sailed through. Here is where the Covid government played the politics of dividing the community; to oppose the Covid policies was – and is – to be considered as scum.

Such was the story also of colonial Victoria. The Colonial Governor ran the line that the Eureka rebels threatened the very safety of the colony and the population.

Both the colonial and Covid Victorian governments resorted to harsh, even brutal police action. The Eureka Stockade massacre was the end product of increasingly brutal police tactics in enforcing the diggers’ licence. The firing of rubber bullets by Victoria’s anti-terrorists squad into the backs of fleeing Covid demonstrators was the end product of months of police activity arresting demonstrators for not ‘locking down’.

In 2020, Victoria police arrested a pregnant mother for ‘sedition’ because she expressed her anti-Covid policy opinion on Facebook. Thirteen of the Eureka ‘rebels’ were likewise charged with sedition and High Treason. All 13 rebels were found not guilty at trial. Common to both the colonial and Covid Victorian governments was the affront they took toward anyone seen to be defying their authority.

Sedition is the ‘crime’ of inciting people to rebel against authority. So obsessed were both governments with enforcing their authority that they blinded themselves to their own massive mismanagement that caused the defiance.

The colonial Governor repeatedly insisted on enforcing the diggers’ licence even after many deputations warned him of the consequences. The ‘Covid Premier’ Daniel Andrews oversaw a months-long disastrous hotel quarantine program that lead to 801 deaths and then reacted by imposing the world’s harshest and longest lockdown.

The Victorian Colonial Governor’s own inquiry found that it was the government’s maladministration caused the Eureka disaster. Similarly, the Victorian Covid government’s inquiry also found that it was government maladministration of hotel quarantine that lead to the initial wave of 801 deaths in 2020.

It is these similarities between the Eureka and Covid rebellions that stand out most in giving the Covid ‘rebels’ the right to wave the Eureka flag. Such similarities overpower unions, Leftists, and republicans who also claim a right to use the flag.

In 2004, on the 150^th anniversary of Eureka, Eureka author John Molony stated, ‘Democracy is much more than a system. It is an ideal and a spirit born day by day in those who believe in it.’ How true.

Perhaps it is a strange quirk of Australian history that the core of both the Eureka and Covid rebellions is in Victoria. The starkest reason is that with Eureka and Covid, the Australian state with the harshest, most authoritarian, unyielding, manipulative, and even violent government occurred in Victoria. Strange indeed.

The Colonial Governor and government had a military victory in crushing the Eureka rebellion. Within a short year or so the government’s authority amongst the people had crashed and the Governor resigned. By 1859, along with a wave of democratic reform, Victoria had the vote for all males in a new Legislative Assembly. (Women had to wait another 50 years!) But the dominance of the landed elite was suppressed, spelling the death of a looming landed gentry class.

The Victorian Covid government seemingly won the lockdown battles of 2020-21. But history is yet to play out as to whether their authoritarianism prevails over a living day-by-day democracy.

Xmas is here—Goodness. A quick update and Season’s Greetings!

December 22, 2021 by Self-Employed Australia

Suddenly Xmas is upon us. What a year! Season’s Greetings to all our members and followers! We wish you the very best for a ‘non-lockdown,’ ‘sudden rules change’ Xmas and holiday season.

Here’s a quick pre-Xmas update for you on our two main campaign activities.

Victorian Government OHS prosecution campaign

The fund-raising response has been outstanding. We’re looking solid in achieving our funding target for the legal campaign. We try and ring people to say thanks for contributions but the numbers have become a bit overwhelming. Please accept our thanks if we haven’t rung you.

The funding is so solid that we’ve started the process of spending serious money on lawyers. The full legal team had a long and highly productive Zoom conference early last week. Tasks have been allocated, research into the finer details of legal issues is occurring, and preparation of court papers has begun. We’ll keep you updated during January. I won’t go into the details at this stage.

We’ve had quite a few queries around the fact that WorkSafe is prosecuting the Victorian Health Department and what this means. I’ve prepared another short video explaining that the prosecution of Health doesn’t change the fact that individuals also need to be investigated with a view to prosecution.

Here’s the YouTube video :

Reform of the Australian Taxation Office

Our decade-long campaign to reform the ATO rules governing how it is required to treat small businesses continues. Yes, we’ve been on this case for 10 years. Yes, we are persistent.

Here’s the ABC coverage of what we’re seeking:

You’ll be pleased to hear that we are in discussions with the ATO on our Taxpayers Rights Agenda based on the USA model for regulating the IRS. The ATO is showing genuine interest and seems to want to understand. That’s good. We’ll continue the discussions.

Other major issues

The new Federal ‘pay on time’ laws are now in full implementation. This is hugely important for small business people and a great Xmas present. We’ll provide some updates in the New Year.
The beefing up of Unfair Contract laws is slower than we’d like. The new Federal Bill has across-the-board support but seems to be caught up in an overloaded Parliamentary backlog of Bills. We hope it proceeds before the next Federal election. We’ll certainly push for this.

So again. Season’s Greetings to everyone. Let’s all trust that planned holidays, long overdue family gatherings and some well-deserved relaxation occurs without Covid-reactive government interference.

Should the Victorian Premier face prosecution? A key question!

December 7, 2021 by Self-Employed Australia

We’re pleased to report that our fund-raising efforts to enable us to take WorkSafe Victoria to court is going really well. Again, our huge thanks to everyone who’s put in. Last week, new contributions kept coming in, everything from $5 and up. We’re well on track to raise the needed money. If you haven’t read our legal strategy, here’s the link to the summary.

We’ve put together another short video that asks the question: are we picking on the Victorian Premier? I explain that it’s about the rule of law. Everyone should be subject to the same rules. No-one should be above the law. And I also explain the basics of the work safety breaches that we say require prosecution.

Here’s the video (4′ 28″):

The issue is not just a Victorian issue. It’s an issue at the heart of every democracy and the ‘rule of law’ in societies. We’re pushing on a local Victorian situation, but it’s about a principle that applies to all ‘civilised’ societies. There should never be ‘one rule for the rulers and a different rule for the ruled’.

We can tell you that our legal team has now started working on the specifics of the required court papers. It’s a big job so it will take some time. But we’ll keep you up to date.

And we’re starting a new round of radio ads. Here’s the latest 30-second ad:

We need to keep the money arriving of course. We’d appreciate it if you could pass on our information to people you know who may be interested.

Here’s the link to the contribution page.

Huge response to the call for our WorkSafe legal action support

November 29, 2021 by Self-Employed Australia

Last week we let you know that we are ready to go to court. And we asked for your support.

We’ve had a massive response and thank everyone who has contributed.

This is to bring you up to date on some more info.

Today we started radio ads on Melbourne talk back radio 3AW.
The response has been huge!
The ad runs all week.
Here’s the 30-second ad:

We’re producing a series of short videos explaining why WorkSafe must do its job and why prosecution of individuals should occur. The Victorian hotel quarantine disaster in 2020 led to 801 deaths and cannot be ignored.

Here’s the first video (2.58s):

We explain why WorkSafe Victoria must prosecute government departments and individuals. Our Not Above the Law campaign is calling on WorkSafe to do its job. No-one should be above the law.

We are ready to go to Court. Now we need the money! 801 Deaths should not be ignored or forgotten!

November 21, 2021 by Self-Employed Australia

Our efforts to require WorkSafe to prosecute Victorian government agencies and individuals over the 2020 hotel quarantine disaster and 801 deaths bore fruit in late September (7 weeks ago).

WorkSafe announced that it is prosecuting the Department of Health! This prosecution demonstrates that our one-year-plus campaign was totally correct. Without our campaign the prosecution would almost certainly not be occurring.

But WorkSafe claims it doesn’t need to do anything else. It is refusing to prosecute responsible individuals, such as the Victorian Premier.

We say WorkSafe has a legal obligation to take the next steps. It must refer the investigations to the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions. WorkSafe refuses. It has said to us “…WorkSafe is not required to provide reasons …” and told us that we “…may wish to seek independent legal advice…” We will soon make this and other correspondence public.

Court action

We now have no option but to take WorkSafe to Court. We have organised a top legal team. The legal strategy is set. But let’s be clear. This will be a hard and expensive legal battle. The cost will be huge in legal fees. Now we must raise the money.

We need your $ contribution.

Thanks to the huge support from everyone so far. But this is now the BIG game. Every $ is important. Please let your friends know.

Contribute as a campaign member here. Contact me if you’d like to discuss making a contribution: 0412 393 692

Legal strategy

Our legal strategy and course of action has been carefully thought through. Here’s a briefing on the legal strategy. It explains our specific legal options before the Courts.

What’s the end result?

We’re simply wanting WorkSafe to do its job. That is, to investigate the following individuals, at least, and prosecute as and where required:

Daniel Andrews, The Premier of Victoria
Jenny Mikakos, The former Health Minister
Kym Peake, Secretary for Health and Human Services
Melissa Skilbeck, DHHS, Deputy Secretary, Regulation, Health Protection and Emergency Management
Andrea Spiteri, DHHS, Executive Director, Emergency Management
Jason Helps, DHHS, Deputy Director, Emergency Management
Brett Sutton, Chief Health Officer
Annaliese van Dieman, Deputy Chief Health Officer
Michelle Giles, Deputy Public Health Commander
Simon Crouch, DHHS, Senior Medical Adviser, Acting Deputy Chief Health Officer
Noel Cleaves, DHHS, Manager Environmental Health, Regulation and Compliance

This is about justice and the rule of law. No-one is or should be above the law.

Contribute as a campaign member here.

Sutton’s decisions to remove staff was “shocking”. To prosecute or ignore?

November 17, 2021 by Self-Employed Australia

The Victorian hotel quarantine disaster of 2020 lead to 801 deaths, mostly in aged care homes. The Victorian government blamed those aged care deaths on the Commonwealth. ‘It’s not our fault’ was the message from the Victorian Premier’s media-manipulation team. But now the facts and truth are coming out.

This week a coronial inquest into the 50 deaths at St Basil’s aged care home began. The evidence from just the opening day is startling.

According to media coverage a report from an independent expert in disaster and emergency health said that a lack of coordination between state and federal health departments was a “root cause of the tragedy at St Basil’s”. This shows a shared responsibility between the Victorian and Commonwealth departments.

But there were not large numbers of aged care deaths in other states. So why Victoria?

The coronial inquest gives a better understanding. The inquest heard that Victoria’s Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton, ordered the removal of St Basil’s staff. Victoria’s health department, Commonwealth health officials and local medical staffed called this decision a “shocking idea”.

The head lawyer assisting the coroner said that this decision by Brett Sutton was made “…despite all present apparently being aware of a risk that the replacement workforce may be inadequate to meet the statutory care standards”. And this is what happened.

The new workforce, hastily bought in, were understaffed, not familiar with the patients’ needs and overwhelmed. The situation is described as “shocking” with staff in tears, “… positive and negative patients mingling freely, PPE not being cleared…” and more. The consequence was the deaths.

The head lawyer said the staff “…were operating within a wholly inadequate governance and management structure.”

This is consistent with the finding of the Coate Inquiry into the 2020 Hotel Quarantine disaster where the “…disaster that tragically came to be…” was caused by “…lack of proper leadership and oversight…”

That is, it was the inept, incompetent, chaotic management shambles by the Victorian government that resulted in the virus escaping the quarantine hotels. The coroner’s inquiry is pointing to the same managerial incompetence resulting in the deaths at St Basil’s aged care home. The Victorian government was intimately involved at each step. Brett Sutton was a top, key decision-maker at each step.

WorkSafe Victoria is prosecuting the Victorian Health Department over the quarantine disaster. They are not prosecuting any individuals. We continue our push to require WorkSafe to prosecute responsible individuals. WorkSafe’s prosecution of the Health Department demonstrates that our 18-month campaign (to date) is valid.

We are in deep strategic discussions with lawyers. ‘Robust’ correspondence with WorkSafe continues. We hope to let you know of next steps in the near future.

Justice means prosecuting individuals – Where is WorkSafe?

October 27, 2021 by Self-Employed Australia

It’s a couple of weeks since we updated you on the Not Above The Law campaign over the 801 Victorian Hotel Quarantine deaths in 2020. Here’s some info.

Prosecution of Health

You may likely be aware that, on Wednesday 29 September, WorkSafe announced that it is prosecuting the Department of Health (but not responsible individuals). The announcement caused a storm of media coverage.

29 September was one year to the day that we sent our 131 application; the legal trigger that required WorkSafe to investigate with a view to prosecuting. The prosecution totally validates our campaign, demonstrating the correctness of both the issue and our pressure activity. The major media channels now view our campaign as significantly serious.

Magistrate hearing: Last Friday 22 October was the first Court hearing, a procedural matter where the date was set for the start of the serious legal process (10 March 2022).

Plead guilty? There is speculation that Health may plead guilty and pay a ‘round robin’ fine – that is, the government fines itself which means (effectively) no fine. The media have been on to this with commentary viewing this as a ‘con’.

Next stage – Our campaign focus – prosecute individuals

Our campaign is now focused on pushing heavily for prosecution of the responsible individuals – that is, the Premier, Minister and government officials. This doesn’t mean that we say they are guilty, but rather that the evidence requires prosecution. I explained this in a 3AW radio interview (6 minutes) on 22 October:

TV advert #2 (30 seconds): Following the Health prosecution announcement, we have relaunched our TV advert on social media. See the refocused ad here. This is being supported by a hard-hitting on-line social media campaign (on Facebook & Google).

Radio adverts (30 seconds): A new radio advert is running this week on Melbourne 3AW, 7am to 10am with several repeats in each time slot:

NATL website: A dedicated Not Above The Law website was launched mid-September which has had strong traffic. Here’s the site: https://notabovethelaw.com.au/

Legal campaign

To date we’ve had a big impact without needing court action. There have been 38 pieces of correspondence between Self-Employed Australia and WorkSafe over the last year. In addition, during September we wrote to the Attorney-General, Shadow Attorney-General, WorkSafe Minister, Shadow WorkSafe Minister, Ombudsman and the Solicitor-General. There has been careful legal guidance at every step. See information here.

We anticipate news about next steps in the near future.

What does the Covid modelling say?

You might be interested in some tracking of the predictions about the spread of Covid-19 since the last Victorian heavy lockdown started. The Table below shows what the Burnet Institute predicted would be the Covid impact during the heavy lockdown.

They said that (see page 7, Table 4, of their document)

The number of infections would peak at 4,543 per day.
The actual peak so far is 2,297.

Hospital demand would peak at 3,150 per day.
The actual peak so far is 851.

ICU demand would peak at 706 per day.
The actual peak so far is 163.

Ummmm?