[RomanPushkin]

There is no freedom in Australia, the government is doing whatever they want to people. Look at how they handled COVID: rolled out restrictions, punishing their own citizen to a degree any "normal" country/government wouldn't do, etc.

[isubasinghe]

"freedom" is entirely subjective though, ultimately the majority of Australians were okay with quarantine (including myself), when it became useless and unpopular in Victoria, all those rules were taken away. I'd bet the current Victorian government gets reelected in November.

May I ask what freedom do you think Australia lacks at the moment?

[glaucon]

Just to put this in context Australia had an election eight weeks ago in which the government was changed. There's any number of reasons for the outcome of the election but this suggests that the governments in Australia are not free to do whatever they want.

[joeman1000]

It’s like switching toothpaste brands. The illusion of choice.

[isubasinghe]

Not really there were anti lockdown parties, but they didn't get much votes.

Australia has preferential voting so you aren't really throwing away your vote if you vote for these niche parties.

[aaaaaaaaata]

Street arrests for imprisonment in quarantine will take a while for me to shake from my memories of AUS.

[t6jvcereio]

Well, if something is deemed to be a law, I'd rather live in a place that enforces them, than not. In my view, you're making Australia look good to me.

If you want a gov that doesn't do anything to stop criminals you should come to Chicago.

[isubasinghe]

If you had to quarantine because you traveled overseas and you broke the law by not doing so, that should have been enforced.

[aaaaaaaaata]

Those were the only people being dragged to quarantine camps?

Are you sure about that?

[isubasinghe]

Firstly your "quarantine camp" is actually a quarantine facility. These were setup because people wanted an alternative to hotel quarantine (because these were ineffective). This facility was for travelers not for random Australians.

We didn't have this facility in Victoria, it was only for NT. We had to quarantine at home. A lot of Victorians weren't happy about not having a similar facility because the hotel quarantine that Victoria had in place wasn't as effective. We would go to zero cases and then a some staff would get covid from the hotel and spread it.

We quarantined at home. My family got sick and guess what, they weren't "dragged off" by the Gestapo, they just stayed at home for 7 days.

Fox News isn't the best source of information fyi.

Regardless, Australia is a democracy (I am not sure if you knew this), if these were unpopular, the parties involved will be voted out. Australia has preferential voting so there is no reason why an anti lockdown party couldn't win.

I can't be arsed explaining this, look here: https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/r9zznn/whats_...