Australia is a brave new world since the covid years. Although there were scores of politicians, bureaucrats, and CEOs here and across the world who expressed their concern and grief at the effects of the pandemic, sensible people realise that secretly, many of these powerful people were thrilled it happened. Politicians were especially thrilled, as covid enabled them to sell fear instead of love to cajole the population into compliance.

Fear is a politician’s most valuable tool. It’s much easier to terrify people into doing what you want than to methodically convince them with reason and good ideas. An additional perceived threat to people’s health and safety makes it a perfect storm.

While many Australians opposed the covid narrative spun by our state and federal governments (and propped up by oppositions), a majority of the population bought these government scare tactics. Terrified for their health, the unfortunate masses happily complied with lockdowns, border closures, and vaccine mandates.

The question on the minds of many people internationally was why did so many Australians buy the government propaganda? Possibly it’s because Australians, for all our reputed larrikinism, have a toxic relationship with government. As most of us have lived in a welfare state all our lives, we’re used to government involvement in our day-to-day affairs.

This, coupled with the fact we don’t have a bill of rights, leads most Australians to believe our fundamental rights are the government’s to hand out and take away, rather than inherent to who we are. The reality is, governments cannot give out and take away rights; they can only defend or violate them. Most Australians are ignorant of this, which has put our country in a dangerous position.

Cast your mind back to the state of the world in late 2001. In the wake of the 9/11 Islamic terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre, governments the world over introduced stringent and often seemingly pointless security measures for travelling on planes. Twenty-three years later, these security measures still exist.

Absurd and inconvenient as they appear, people largely accept them, because world leaders capitalised on people’s terror and grief at the horrifying 2001 terrorist attack to push further surveillance on the population. Fast forward to Australia in 2024, and we are seeing a redo of this tactic; this time under the guise of health as well as safety.

This explains Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s obsession with Australians’ activities on the internet. The advent of the internet and social media has been a curse for politicians, as it provides an easy, quick platform for political dissidents to express their views and rally support.

It was almost impossible to post a dissenting opinion about covid online, given big tech companies joined forces with the state to suppress antigovernment narratives. However, dissidents still managed to broadcast their message on social media, and people listened. Post-covid, our politicians just can’t have that again, not while they’re trying to use Australian’s newly vamped comfort with ‘State Daddy’-style government to introduce new surveillance measures.

This brings us to the looming digital ID bill, which is all part of a government plot to monitor the speech and activities of Australians, in an attempt to ensure everybody is toeing the establishment line. To disguise this ulterior motive, politicians will sell the digital ID under the banner of ‘convenience’. After all, nobody likes fishing around in their wallet constantly for their driver’s license, credit cards, and all the rest.

This selling point must be countered with the reminder that politicians should not be trusted with even more of our data than they already have. They don’t deserve our trust; they proved comprehensively during the covid years they don’t care about maintaining the privacy and civil liberties of Australians. Allowing the government access to all our vital information in one place is not dissimilar to chickens willingly waddling into KFC.

The digital ID will also be sold by the government as voluntary, but don’t be fooled. Yes, it will be “voluntary” in the fact there will be no law forcing our hand. However, much like the covid vaccine, it will be made excruciatingly inconvenient for us not to have a digital ID, because company after company will refuse to take the patronage of any citizen without one. Even the most stoic of Australians will eventually be forced by the private sector to cave in.

In the face of this creeping government tyranny, Australians must remember the government is not our parent. We do not owe politicians our data, and they do not own our rights. Government should be treated by citizens with at best, suspicion, and at worth, outright disdain.

One important lesson too many Australians need to learn is this; if you treat the government like your parent, the government will treat you like a child. Let’s hope the shellacking Australians experienced at the hands of big government during the covid era was lesson enough.