Don’t take freedoms for granted

COVID, like any crisis that threatens communities directly and over time, has changed us. Perhaps the most concerning way it has done so is in the preparedness of many to allow government a much greater stranglehold over civil society.

Increased surveillance, legislation that bypasses parliamentary scrutiny, severe restrictions on freedom of movement, and preventative detention are tools the state has been prepared to use to “fight” the pandemic.

Loss of liberty and freedom is not simply the catchcry of those on the Republican right in the US who have fallen in love with human rights only because theirs are threatened in the response to Covid.

Here in Tasmania it seems there are also similar concerns about the loss of rights.

Being somewhat disturbed by the large-scale increase in state power over the past two years is fortunately exercising the minds of some in our community.

Last week on these pages Ami Sievwright from the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Social Change revealed results of a survey looking at community attitudes on Covid and the issues that have, and are still, impacting on our community.

According to Dr Sievwright: “Civil liberties and freedoms, viewed from a number of different perspectives, were concerns for people.

“Many people (63 per cent) were not confident that we would ever have the same freedoms.

“In relation to once borders open, concerns were articulated both by people who were worried about losing the liberties associated with being a Covid-free state and those who were concerned that Covid-19 was being used as a platform for government encroachment on citizens’ rights.”

She quoted one participant as observing, one might say with perspicacity: “I am significantly more concerned about excessive government controls than Covid.”

The fact that there is no protection in Tasmania for any person who has their Covid app data accessed by law enforcement or government departments outside of those in public health is frightening. Yes, frightening.

We know that police do abuse their power and access data for “criminal intelligence” purposes.

This is despite government telling us that the Covid data can only be used for health purposes.

Even the deeply conservative West Australian government has legislated to ban police from accessing such data.

But you have no such protection in Tasmania. So if you do not, and you would be wise to hold this view, trust government to behave ethically when it comes to your data (remember the Hodgman government handed over your driver’s licence information to a commonwealth database without telling you) then how can you be sure that the places you visited and where you travelled do not find their way on to some government database? The answer is that you cannot.

And why wouldn’t government in jurisdictions like Tasmania make Covid powers permanent?

In other words, legislate to ensure that bureaucrats and ministers can order people into quarantine, close schools, fine those without masks or who fail or refuse to check in with their Covid app.

Far-fetched? No. In Scotland such a debate is happening. Remember that ministers, bureaucracy and law enforcement are not overly keen on oversight.

The broader issue is that governments in Australia, and Tasmania is not excluded here, have a habit of rolling powers over from one context to another. The frenzied lawmaking after 9/11 resulted in powers such as controls on movement and association without a person even being charged, the ability to detain without a lawyer, and criminalisation of thought and speech.

These concepts are popping up in other areas where government thinks it needs to “crack down”.

So called anti-association laws is an example.

You could well imagine, and in the absence of effective human rights protections in most jurisdictions outside Victoria, the ACT and Queensland which have human rights laws this is a reality, governments deciding that the sorts of powers exercised in the context of Covid would be useful in dealing with another “crisis”.

Of course there have been some positive initiatives emerging from response to Covid. Bringing the legal system into the 21st century with online hearings is one. More flexible working arrangements is another.

Covid is a dream come true for authoritarians and those who think personal liberty is overrated.

The extension of the state through the use, and misuse, of law enforcement powers, the criminalising of those who fail to comply with uncertain rules, and the rise of bureaucratic power is, if not stopped and rolled back now, another step or one hundred on the road to authoritarianism in Australia.

The challenge in emerging from the hermit state we have been forced to exist in over the past two years is to ensure that intrusive and meddling government is not a permanent feature of Tasmanian life, or anywhere else for that matter.

Never take liberty and freedom for granted.

Hobart barrister Greg Barns SC is a human rights lawyer who has advised federal and state Liberal governments

Increased surveillance, legislation that bypasses parliamentary scrutiny, severe restrictions on freedom of movement, and preventative detention are tools the state has been prepared to use to ‘fight’ the pandemic.