EMERGENCY POWERS, COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS & MANDATORY VACCINATION
A ‘RULE-OF-LAW’ PERSPECTIVE
Augusto Zimmermann
Gabriël Moens AM
Paperback, 140 pages, $29.95
ISBN: 9781922449948
January 2022 Release
The main argument of this book is
that vaccine mandates facilitate the creation of a fundamentally unfair and
unequal society where vaccinated people are privileged and the unvaccinated
become second-class citizens who are excluded from most activities of normal
life and are regarded as lepers in their own country. In this context, this book discusses the concept of
legality known as the ‘rule of law’, and the use of emergency powers in
Australia. It also focuses on the unconstitutionality of mandatory vaccination,
and it examines the possible use of the external affairs power in the
Constitution to combat mandatory vaccination. Also discussed in this book is
the role that civil disobedience can play when protesting the imposition of
vaccine mandates and other draconian measures. Finally, the reader is invited
to ponder how the use of emergency powers is historically
used as a means of suppressing fundamental rights and dramatically increasing
the power of the State.
Augusto Zimmermann is
professor and head of Law at the Sheridan Institute of Higher Education, and also
adjunct professor of law at the University of Notre Dame Australia (Sydney
Campus).From 2012 to 2017, he served as a Law Reform Commissioner in Western Australia. While teaching (and coordinating) constitutional law and legal theory at Murdoch University, he was awarded the 2012 Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research, as well as two Law School Dean’s Research Awards, in 2010 and 2011. He is also the author/co-author/editor/co-editor of numerous academic
articles and books, including Fundamental Rights in the Age of Covid-19
(Connor Court Publishing, 2020).
Gabriël Moens AM is emeritus professor of law at the
University of Queensland and served as pro vice-chancellor and dean of the
School of Law at Murdoch University. In 2003, Moens was awarded the Australian
Centenary Medal by the prime minister for services to education. He has taught
extensively across Australia, Asia, Europe, and the United States. Moens has
recently published two novels A Twisted Choice (Boolarong Press, 2020)
and The Coincidence (Connor Court Publishing, 2021).
Quotes from the book:
“The
health orders issued by Australia’s governments have the effect of violating
the concept of legality known as ‘the rule of law’. These governments have
adopted extra-constitutional measures that undermine the doctrine of separation
of powers and the principle of equality before the law, as well as the basic
right of citizens to object to any form of medical treatment, including
mandatory vaccinations, which are now increasingly imposed by the government”.
“Mandatory
vaccination, which is now steadily underway in Australia to combat the spread
of COVID-19, sits uncomfortably with the jurisprudence of the High Court and
our traditions of constitutional government. One would expect the Court to
acknowledge these basic traditions, and that discrimination on the grounds of
vaccination amounts to a violation of the spirit of the Australian
Constitution”.
“The
rise to dominance of the authoritarian leader in Australia is a confirmation of
the massive shift of power away from parliament, or the legislative arm of
government, to the executive or cabinet. This process not only effectively
allows the Premier and his cabinet to arbitrarily decide on legislative
measures but also to intervene on every single aspect of our lives”.
“The
deep unease and fear that saturate Australia’s society have created a
population disposed to government whose insatiable thirst for power and control
leads to authoritarian measures. To avoid the growing concern of human rights
violations and outright suppression of the constitutional order, the political
establishment has learned about the importance of manipulating public
perceptions to win support of what normally would be rejected as oppressive and
undemocratic measures”.
“The
experience of contemporary Australia vividly exemplifies a disguised form of
authoritarianism under the façade of temporary measures to combat an alleged
health crisis. Rather than openly violating the constitutional order,
governmental accountability is dangerously weakened by insulating the political
ruler from scrutiny and a functional system of checks and balances”.
“In
theory, the use of emergency powers by the ruling elites should be a temporary
departure from constitutional rule, in which a political leader might need to
rule by decree until the emergency ceases to exist. The Australian political
establishment, however, may never intend these measures to be temporary, thus
seeking to conveniently maintain its extraordinary powers indefinitely. As
such, convincing the population of a perpetual state of emergency gives the
ruling elite broad discretionary authority to govern at the margin of the
democratic process, unconstrained by legal-institutional accountability”.
“The
use of emergency powers in Australia certainly results in the abuse of power by
arbitrary measures that profoundly undermine the rule of law; this can become
more permanent in time. Presently, Australian authorities are enacting measures
that consolidate statism and allow informers to assist authorities in tracing
and incarcerating citizens without warrants on the grounds of prospective
conduct. Any person in this country can now be arrested when the authority
assumes that they have failed to comply with these directions. As such, basic
legal principles inherited from the common law and our tradition of
constitutional government (including due process and recourse to the writ of
habeas corpus) are seriously undermined”.
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