The John-Henry Westen Show - 'It's a police state!' Australia's crackdown on freedoms during COVID similar to 1960s Berlin

00:00:00.000 Melbourne, Australia has gone from one of the most desired places to visit or live on the planet

00:00:06.100 to one of the scariest places even to view from afar

00:00:10.200 with unimagined police brutality becoming a feature of daily life

00:00:15.120 with political leaders giving their backing to displays of violence

00:00:19.240 that would have made heads roll elsewhere. 0.82

00:00:22.520 We're speaking today with two guests right in the middle of this nightmare

00:00:27.020 from the heart of Melbourne and the state of Victoria

00:00:30.180 where police who did little to nothing about Black Lives Matter protests

00:00:34.700 have launched an enforcement of lockdown protests

00:00:38.040 the severity of which is reminiscent of China and North Korea.

00:00:42.720 With an already harmed reputation

00:00:46.260 given their unjust pursuit of false charges against Cardinal George Pell

00:00:50.280 the Melbourne police only made things worse

00:00:53.700 with the selling of face masks with a Freemasonic symbol on them.

00:00:59.260 We're joined today by two residents of the state of Victoria in Australia

00:01:03.180 John McCauley, a businessman currently based in rural regional Victoria

00:01:07.080 and Bella Debrera, a journalist and author living in central Melbourne

00:01:12.480 where the restrictions are the most draconian.

00:01:16.380 You're going to want to stay tuned for this episode of the John Henry Weston Show.

00:01:23.700 John and Bella, thank you for joining us on this episode of the John Henry Weston Show

00:01:43.220 and I know that Melbourne and the state of Victoria in which Melbourne lies

00:01:47.160 is in general a special place for the both of you.

00:01:49.960 Can you start off by telling us about that and the recent changes that you've witnessed in your home?

00:01:57.000 Well, if I could kick off, great to be with you, John Henry.

00:02:01.280 Melbourne has been in the top rankings of the world's most livable cities for two decades now

00:02:06.480 usually at the very top.

00:02:09.320 Unfortunately, the livability of that city is now deeply in question

00:02:12.940 because people like Bella, who's down in Melbourne and myself here in rural Victoria,

00:02:18.520 the state that surrounds Melbourne, have very, very heavy restrictions upon us.

00:02:24.480 But I think it's probably Bella who's suffering even worse.

00:02:26.940 She's under a five kilometre restriction by which you can only leave home for four reasons,

00:02:32.700 one of which would include just buying groceries.

00:02:34.660 That's actually better than it was a week ago.

00:02:37.780 I've had only two reasons to leave a week ago and we're only allowed out for an hour.

00:02:41.180 So it's an improvement.

00:02:43.680 Wow.

00:02:45.160 What?

00:02:45.620 Melbourne used to be, look, it used to be a lovely place

00:02:47.640 and it's completely unlivable at the moment.

00:02:50.260 So it's an incredible transformation that we've seen almost overnight.

00:02:55.340 It's impossible.

00:02:56.180 I mean, we're getting images from your neck of the woods that are just,

00:03:01.220 they're horrifying most of the world.

00:03:03.840 And yet this is one of the most picturesque, beautiful places on earth.

00:03:07.440 So this is truly shocking.

00:03:09.380 And obviously the rest of the world is wondering if they're not looking at a horrific premonition

00:03:14.520 of what's coming to us.

00:03:16.840 Now you've seen all that you've experienced in lockdown past six months or so,

00:03:22.300 but what you're describing, when did that start?

00:03:25.140 And there's a very much a new character to this, isn't there?

00:03:28.520 It began with my own deep trust and perhaps mistaken trust in the warnings that were being

00:03:37.640 issued by the World Health Organization at the start of this year.

00:03:41.480 I was actually based in central Sydney, but I was very concerned about the real risk of

00:03:46.540 a pandemic.

00:03:47.240 So I removed myself to the Alpine district here in rural Victoria.

00:03:51.260 It turned out to be the biggest mistake, not just because of what we've endured for the

00:03:55.640 past six months and the fact that I can't get back across the border to Sydney, but because

00:04:01.340 the Victorian parliament has just passed laws that will extend the state of emergency for

00:04:07.020 another six months.

00:04:08.440 So my naive trust in trying to do the right thing has now meant that I could be up to a year.

00:04:16.380 And that's a small concern because I'm a businessman.

00:04:19.720 What about parents who have not been able to have their children baptised for six months now?

00:04:25.660 And with the current restrictions potentially being extended for up to another six months,

00:04:30.900 we could be looking at one-year-olds, children turning one year of age that have not had the

00:04:35.940 opportunity to be baptised because all of our churches are locked.

00:04:39.640 Well, they can baptise their children in emergency, though, obviously.

00:04:44.380 Okay.

00:04:44.940 I would encourage them in such circumstances and given the high priority of baptism to do it

00:04:51.300 themselves if they can then commit to raise the child in the faith and have the baptism entered

00:04:56.820 in the church, that baptismal record once the churches are reopened.

00:05:01.860 But in the meantime, before the Victorian parliament is an omnibus bill giving police

00:05:06.420 the power to arrest Victorian citizens who may potentially breach COVID restrictions.

00:05:14.540 So this is now a bill before parliament to criminalise intentions and thoughts

00:05:20.800 before there's ever even an event.

00:05:23.320 So the Victorian police and the Victorian political establishment is as oppressive as anything you'd

00:05:29.460 find in Eastern Europe.

00:05:30.920 Wow.

00:05:31.280 Now, Bella, we've seen images of police car hitting a man, going for that man, stomping on his head.

00:05:39.440 We've seen a pregnant lady who posted a Facebook post about a lockdown protest get arrested in 0.98

00:05:48.380 her home in front of her children, begging that she could just, please, let me just take down

00:05:53.080 the post.

00:05:53.600 Let me just take down the post.

00:05:55.460 Afterward, in an interview, she was too afraid to do anything more in the subject.

00:06:00.300 We've seen police with shields marching through a little market square, shoving people out.

00:06:06.840 But this is all happening very close to you, is it not?

00:06:10.640 Actually, frighteningly close.

00:06:12.260 I live near the seaside and we had riot police at the end of my street on Saturday morning

00:06:17.020 and a police helicopter circling above for an hour and a half.

00:06:20.680 And I can't believe the police state that I'm now living in.

00:06:25.420 And I was saying on a program yesterday that I feel like I've woken up in 1961 on the wrong

00:06:32.680 side of Berlin, mostly because I don't know if your viewers know that Victoria is locked

00:06:39.940 down completely.

00:06:41.180 I'm not only locked in my suburb, but I'm also locked out of rural Victoria and I'm locked

00:06:45.380 out of other states. 0.98

00:06:47.380 So one of the most frightening things is that our premier, who is a socialist and a liar and 0.98

00:06:55.380 corrupt, is now talking about how he's built a ring of steel around Melbournians. 0.97

00:07:00.640 So he's using communist language. 0.82

00:07:02.940 He's talking about an iron curtain.

00:07:04.940 And I don't know whether that's intentional or he's channeling, you know, he's channeling

00:07:11.500 the 1960s Berlin.

00:07:13.260 But it certainly feels, it doesn't feel like a police state, but it is actually a police

00:07:17.360 state.

00:07:18.100 And John mentioned the omnibus bill where I can now be arrested for something that I

00:07:22.640 might do in the future.

00:07:23.980 And they mask the language as a coronavirus, as a conspiracy theorist.

00:07:29.040 So it's terrifying.

00:07:30.960 If I can stick with you for a second, Bella.

00:07:33.520 Now, this situation is in modern day not seen anywhere.

00:07:38.740 Yes, in the past we can see this in Nazi Germany, but today we've seen it, yes, maybe in China

00:07:45.860 or in North Korea, but in nowhere in the civilized world, what used to be called the civilized

00:07:50.780 world.

00:07:51.260 But yet we're seeing it right there and we're seeing it with such brutality that what is

00:07:57.300 the feeling of families in their homes, your own and others of your neighbors?

00:08:03.240 What's their sense of things right now?

00:08:05.840 Well, terrifyingly, a lot of people are in agreement with the measures that are being

00:08:10.760 taken.

00:08:11.200 And I think that's the one thing that disturbs me almost as much as the measures that are

00:08:14.680 being imposed on us.

00:08:15.680 There was a poll this morning that showed that the majority of Victorians think that the current

00:08:20.260 government has done the right thing, because people have been genuinely terrified into

00:08:24.580 believing that coronavirus is equal to the plague or equal to the Spanish flu, which we 0.99

00:08:29.960 know now that it's not.

00:08:31.600 You know, John was saying earlier, he fled to Sydney because he believed that this was going

00:08:35.400 to be something deadly.

00:08:36.940 It's turned out that it's not.

00:08:38.380 So the feeling is very divided.

00:08:40.500 We are now very much in a divided society, divided Australia.

00:08:45.600 We have the public sector, which is growing during this, and the private sector, which

00:08:50.240 is shrinking.

00:08:50.860 So you have two very, very different opinions.

00:08:52.820 You have the public sector and public sector workers and bureaucrats who are quite fine

00:08:57.260 with it all because they haven't lost their jobs.

00:08:58.620 In fact, in Victoria, they all got pay rises, whereas you've got millions of Australians and

00:09:03.280 the rest of Australia that are losing their jobs, losing their livelihoods.

00:09:05.660 So the feeling is very, very mixed, depending on who you fit.

00:09:09.520 If you're a small business owner like John, you are going to be absolutely struggling.

00:09:14.140 If you're a bureaucrat, you're fine.

00:09:16.560 Personally, it's been very difficult.

00:09:17.780 I've been trapped in my flat since March.

00:09:19.280 I've been working and living in the same place, and it does get, it does, it is very,

00:09:24.200 very difficult.

00:09:25.660 Unbelievable.

00:09:26.440 Unbelievable.

00:09:27.000 Now, also, the police pressure is very real.

00:09:31.400 In fact, they're not even shy or embarrassed having been caught with such brutality.

00:09:37.860 In fact, the police have seemingly said, yep, that's what it's called for, and we're

00:09:43.360 going to be doing more of it.

00:09:44.380 John, if you can explain that for us.

00:09:46.300 John Henry, the very definition of a police state is surely the line beyond which if law

00:09:54.180 abiding citizens are summarily pulled over and their details are demanded of them, their

00:09:59.660 particulars, their spelling of their surname, and that these things are entered into the

00:10:04.940 police officers' copybook so that he can, as happened to me only a week ago, so that he

00:10:11.360 can then go back to his station and start profiling me.

00:10:15.260 Now, I was on a nightly walk around the local lake, as I do every evening, and I was summarily

00:10:21.760 stopped.

00:10:22.300 All my details were demanded of me.

00:10:25.220 I asked the officer if I'd done anything wrong, officer, and he said, no, and I said, then

00:10:29.360 can I move on?

00:10:30.160 And he said, no, you cannot move on.

00:10:32.180 So that's effectively a form of arrest.

00:10:34.600 He went on to demand my details without there being any basis for him to do that, and I

00:10:39.200 then had him looking me up and doing slow drive-bys, getting my license plate from the

00:10:43.980 car in my driveway.

00:10:46.080 It's very disturbing.

00:10:46.960 Someone like me who's never had any dealings with the police at all.

00:10:50.560 And as he left, he then said to me, you better not be from around here.

00:10:54.840 And I thought there was a certain irony that I was receiving a menace from the very police

00:10:59.420 force that should serve and protect, that I'd better not be around here, despite the

00:11:03.020 fact that I don't have much of a choice in the matter.

00:11:04.900 We're all locked down.

00:11:06.820 But it was very much a case of which we have crossed that line.

00:11:09.960 The moment the police can stop and start questioning and detain people who are otherwise

00:11:15.540 law-abiding citizens is very much proof positive that the state of Victoria here in the south

00:11:20.820 of Australia is a police state.

00:11:22.780 It's not becoming one.

00:11:24.040 It is already a police state.

00:11:26.720 Absolutely.

00:11:27.380 And they were boasting, the police themselves, boasting about smashing windows on cars if

00:11:34.540 people aren't offering their details when demanded by police.

00:11:38.100 Let's have a look at that clip.

00:11:39.100 In the last week, we've seen a trend, an emergence, if you like, of groups of people,

00:11:45.940 small groups, but nonetheless concerning groups who classify themselves as sovereign citizens,

00:11:52.260 whatever that might mean, people who don't think the law applies to them.

00:11:56.920 We've seen them at checkpoints, baiting police, not providing their name and address.

00:12:02.280 On at least three or four occasions in the past week, we've had to smash the windows of

00:12:06.740 people in cars and pull them out of there so they could provide their details because

00:12:11.000 they weren't telling us where they were going.

00:12:12.980 They weren't adhering to the chief health officer guidelines.

00:12:16.500 They weren't providing their name and their address.

00:12:19.480 We don't want to be doing that.

00:12:20.640 But people have to absolutely understand there are consequences for your actions.

00:12:25.720 And if you're not doing the right thing, we will not hesitate to issue infringements,

00:12:30.780 to arrest you, to detain you where it's appropriate.

00:12:34.280 As I say, it's not something we want to be doing, but it is what we will do.

00:12:38.360 And it has been occurring in the last week.

00:12:40.920 So if you could give me a reaction to what we've just seen.

00:12:44.020 Bella, maybe we'll start with you.

00:12:45.200 Look, this is scenes that we're seeing daily almost.

00:12:50.780 So at the beginning, I was shocked and horrified.

00:12:53.300 And strangely enough, I'm getting used to it, which is a terrifying thing in itself.

00:12:58.620 But it is, as John was saying, it is a police state.

00:13:01.340 And it is actually scary to go outside.

00:13:05.200 And every time I see a police car, I'm afraid this is being treated.

00:13:09.340 We're all being treated like criminals.

00:13:11.220 And this is not what policing is about.

00:13:12.660 We're meant to be being protected from the criminals, not treated as criminals.

00:13:16.800 And the police, you know, I'm sure there's a lot of good policemen who are hating the fact

00:13:20.940 that they have to treat ordinary citizens like common criminals and arrest people for not

00:13:27.640 wearing masks and handcuff them and arrest them to the ground.

00:13:29.640 But there's a lot of them who are enjoying it and who are enjoying the power.

00:13:33.840 And every afternoon in these terrible, diabolical press conferences that our premier has,

00:13:39.020 our dear leader, there's always a policeman that gets up and talks about how people are

00:13:43.940 crazy if they break the law.

00:13:45.620 And of course, we've got the terrible double standards.

00:13:47.280 You can have a Black Lives Matter protest, but you cannot have a protest about the complete 1.00

00:13:53.840 loss of your freedoms and the draconian law.

00:13:55.640 And the police are completely convinced that they're, they seem to be convinced that this

00:13:59.900 is what Victorians need. 0.89

00:14:01.020 They need to be crushed. 0.99

00:14:02.480 And the screws need to be tightened and they need to be treated like criminals. 0.84

00:14:06.200 Now, let's go to that discrepancy because that discrepancy is absolutely massive.

00:14:12.020 If this is all honestly about a virus and the danger of a virus, how is the virus discriminating

00:14:19.220 between Black Lives Matter protests and lockdown protests?

00:14:23.160 And yet that's exactly the way the police are treating it.

00:14:26.480 John, if you could comment on that for us, please.

00:14:28.400 The virus is quite a wily beast, it would seem, because it's not only discriminating with

00:14:34.000 regards to the Afghani community who've had a recent outbreak, but they were not penalised

00:14:38.880 despite breaking the lockdown rules.

00:14:41.500 Whereas my 81-year-old mother on her one-hour allowed walk around her suburb was given a formal

00:14:50.680 caution.

00:14:52.080 And obviously the virus, it seems to be, it seems to be sufficiently intelligent to discriminate

00:14:57.280 pre-curfew and post-curfew.

00:15:00.420 And that somehow or another, condensing the population to do their shopping before nine

00:15:06.080 o'clock at the local supermarket is to be somehow safer than allowing these supermarkets that were

00:15:11.780 previously open 24-7 and to disperse the population.

00:15:15.060 The very fact that the national parks that surround my cottage here in rural Victoria are all closed,

00:15:21.140 despite it now being school holidays, I would have thought dispersing the population would

00:15:25.580 have been a far better approach.

00:15:28.040 Unbelievable.

00:15:28.880 Unbelievable.

00:15:29.360 So in a way, this doesn't have to do with COVID.

00:15:33.660 It begs what exactly is going on?

00:15:38.140 Have you given, either of you, given any thought to a larger agenda at play?

00:15:42.260 Well, there's, I mean, there must be a larger agenda.

00:15:47.320 There's, the police have admitted that the curfew has nothing to do with the health matter.

00:15:53.260 And actually, there are lawyers looking at whether the curfew has been illegal or not.

00:15:58.500 And it has been because it wasn't imposed on us because of medical reasons.

00:16:02.260 It was just imposed on us because it makes the police's job easier.

00:16:05.400 And they've admitted that.

00:16:07.860 But, you know, it's hard not to see parallels around the world.

00:16:10.640 We're not the only, I mean, we do have the most draconian measures, but we do see very 0.70

00:16:14.100 similar, I saw very similar pictures in Israel yesterday, people being arrested on a freedom

00:16:18.020 march.

00:16:19.320 So it's difficult not to see similarities around the world.

00:16:23.980 And I do feel like Melbourne has been as a test run and a test case to see how you can

00:16:28.900 control a population and how you can manipulate a population.

00:16:31.180 And it's been done absolutely brilliantly.

00:16:33.840 Yeah, it is.

00:16:35.820 That is the most alarming thing, I guess, for a lot of us who are very remote from you,

00:16:40.040 watching what's happening, thinking, oh, Lord, is this coming here?

00:16:43.960 And the strange parts are, too, you've seen, you're seeing the same thing all over the

00:16:48.820 world with Black Lives Matter protests.

00:16:51.940 Oh, that's all fine and good and wonderful, even complimented.

00:16:55.660 There might be some minor fines.

00:16:57.520 I heard there were some minor fines for the leaders of that protest.

00:17:00.060 But the police actually wouldn't charge the participants in the Black Lives Matter protests.

00:17:08.500 No, it's totally total hypocrisy that we've seen again and again with this government. 0.88

00:17:14.340 John mentioned the Afghani community who have been spreading the virus. 0.97

00:17:18.040 They've been breaking all the laws.

00:17:20.860 And yet the government won't find them.

00:17:22.140 But they find the few people who turned up on the weekend to protest about curfew and lack of freedoms. 0.92

00:17:28.360 So it is extremely hypocritical.

00:17:31.840 But again, most people don't seem to notice. 0.88

00:17:35.360 What's going on in terms of the church?

00:17:37.260 I know, John, you mentioned that people can't get to baptisms.

00:17:40.460 And then you mentioned, Bella, unless it was a real emergency.

00:17:43.580 How about Sunday mass attendance or daily mass or any kind of mass attendance?

00:17:47.860 Both of you are Catholics.

00:17:49.860 But any Christian service attendees?

00:17:52.480 What's going on there in terms of the church?

00:17:55.140 A case in point is my own parish.

00:17:58.600 One of the other aspects to a police state is a change in behavior of the citizens in that state.

00:18:06.320 So my priest emerged from offering his private mass the other morning to be confronted, in fact, to be shirt fronted by a group of parishioners who pounced upon him and said,

00:18:19.420 Father, we've finally got proof that you're saying masses and we are going to report you to the local police.

00:18:26.920 They said they'd taken details and positioned another couple who were themselves former members of the parish council

00:18:33.540 and positioned themselves diagonally across from the church to take video recordings.

00:18:38.460 I actually witnessed them on my morning walk surveilling the parish.

00:18:43.400 And then when I was there to drop off some food for the parish food bank, there I saw the sight of my parish priest being confronted and threatened.

00:18:51.800 And ironically, he asked them on what basis they were there, and they declared that they were there as part of the Communications and Transparency Committee of the local district.

00:19:04.220 So these are self-appointed vigilantes trying to stop a priest from fulfilling his obligation to his diocese to say his daily private mass.

00:19:12.980 This is the bizarre behavior that's now emerging throughout Victoria.

00:19:17.540 Wow. Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

00:19:21.760 One of the other things that's been really alarming about Australia particularly, and this has sort of stood out,

00:19:28.060 is the Prime Minister's comments about making the vaccine mandatory, about penalties for not receiving the vaccine once it's available.

00:19:38.620 Can either of you address that?

00:19:41.020 Well, he did make those comments and then back down in the same afternoon and said,

00:19:45.440 Oh, I didn't, when I said, when I meant mandatory, I didn't really mean mandatory.

00:19:49.040 You know, typical sort of politician double speak.

00:19:51.980 But I think, I think it's worldwide where this is, this is touted, isn't it?

00:19:55.300 I mean, this is, I think in Dubai, I put a friend in Dubai who says they're all going to have to have this, this vaccine.

00:20:00.360 They won't be able to live and work there without it.

00:20:01.960 So I don't think Australia is singular in its, in its threat to, to, to vaccinate people.

00:20:09.020 But it's actually gone a bit quiet.

00:20:11.900 He, I don't know, John, have you read anything else about the, the possibility of the vaccine being mandatory?

00:20:17.640 Sadly, it's just been legislated in, in Western Australia, giving police the powers to facilitate the process by which clinicians can mandatorily impose vaccines.

00:20:29.940 Now, that's, again, something that hasn't hit the headlines.

00:20:32.340 Often it's clumsily drafted bills, but they're clumsily passed bills.

00:20:37.100 And so it's now statute law in one part of Australia.

00:20:40.200 And this is a place where there are no cases.

00:20:41.980 There are no cases in Western Australia.

00:20:44.060 None.

00:20:44.580 Precisely.

00:20:46.100 Wow.

00:20:46.540 Wow.

00:20:47.120 Yeah.

00:20:48.660 Unbelievable.

00:20:49.540 I mean, this is, this is so, this is so crazy.

00:20:52.400 But one of the things that, that is, I think, unique, and perhaps not, but it, they've spelled out some of the penalties that will be there.

00:21:02.160 Restrictions on travel, restrictions on schooling.

00:21:04.600 And this is already in the, you know, this is towards making it mandatory.

00:21:09.040 So it's not mandatory in the sense that we're going to hold you down and, and vaccinate you and your children in front of you.

00:21:14.560 You can't do anything about it.

00:21:15.540 But we'll just restrict all things until you consent.

00:21:19.280 We're in an interesting position, John Henry.

00:21:23.300 Here in Australia, the leader of the Greek Orthodox Church is himself a bioethicist.

00:21:30.560 The primatial Archbishop of Australia, Anthony Fisher in Sydney, is a leading bioethicist.

00:21:36.420 They, with the Anglican primate of Australia issued a response to the prime minister on mandatory vaccinations.

00:21:44.060 But it was a rather ham-fisted attempt because despite their stature and expertise, Archbishop Anthony Fisher in interview immediately went on to say he would have no problem himself taking a, this Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, which has not just dubious, but downright immoral genesis in the use of aborted fetuses.

00:22:08.140 So it was a ham-fisted form of leadership to suggest that there's enough of a problem to push back against this and to do the rare thing of three archbishops coming together to make a joint statement.

00:22:21.980 And then to perceive that he personally would have no problem taking this vaccine.

00:22:27.320 So, again, the passage of time between what appeared like a bold statement and a backdown is usually about three hours in Australia.

00:22:35.320 That's the degree of pressure.

00:22:37.040 That's the amount of opprobrium and public hatred that will be visited upon anyone who dares to stand up to the zeitgeist.

00:22:44.820 Wow.

00:22:45.940 Wow.

00:22:46.260 But we have seen something.

00:22:47.800 We've saw those 13 doctors who did speak out publicly against the lockdown crisis.

00:22:54.600 Do you have lots of voices like that in the state of Australia, in Melbourne?

00:22:58.840 Or is that a rare thing?

00:23:00.480 And what's happened to them since?

00:23:02.860 Dr. Eamon Matheson, who led the charge, I know him through the Catholic Doctors Association.

00:23:10.160 He's a wonderful man and his signature has been joined now by many, many more doctors.

00:23:18.820 All of them have put themselves on the hit list.

00:23:21.840 All of them have jeopardised their careers.

00:23:25.580 Few of them now are left with much of a prospect of promotion.

00:23:28.880 So all strength to their arm in having courage from an objective clinical perspective to dare to question the heavy-handed healthcare response.

00:23:42.000 So we'd love it if there are more voices that could join a petition like the one that Eamon's put together.

00:23:48.220 It's a good start.

00:23:49.220 That he'll certainly be isolated and targeted, as is anybody who dares to question the proportionality of the response.

00:23:59.080 Right.

00:24:00.300 Bella, let me start with you in terms of what really troubles you the most about what's going on in your native land right now.

00:24:09.440 Well, I suppose there's so many things that trouble me.

00:24:11.840 It's seeing it unfold so rapidly, and it's seeing the powerlessness that you suddenly realise that you have against what feels like a diabolical force, really, masked with this looming totalitarianism.

00:24:29.120 We were talking about the churches being closed.

00:24:30.900 It's always that the religion is always the thing to go, isn't it? 0.99

00:24:33.580 There's never any mention of opening the church doors again.

00:24:36.560 People just don't even talk about it.

00:24:38.000 You know, there's the social cost, there's the economic cost, that what we're heading to is just awful.

00:24:48.220 We've already had 13.5% unemployment in Victoria.

00:24:51.400 Thousands of people have lost their jobs.

00:24:53.340 In Australia, it's 1 million people.

00:24:55.100 If we keep the lockdown restrictions going, it's going to be 1.7 million extra unemployed.

00:24:59.860 And that's livelihoods lost.

00:25:01.120 There's the suicides that now outnumber the deaths of coronavirus of young people with their lives ahead of them who have just given into complete despair and taken their own lives, which, as a Catholic, is just horrifying.

00:25:16.340 And so I think it's bad now, but I am worrying about what is coming, and it's very difficult to see how it's going to get any better.

00:25:28.080 I just don't think it will, and I think this is where you really have to hope that Christ is going to intervene at some point, or we're on the right side, we're on the side of Christ, because that's the only thing that can get you through this, I think.

00:25:40.520 Wow.

00:25:41.460 Wow.

00:25:41.700 It sounds very dramatic, but I'm afraid that's what we're facing.

00:25:46.180 It doesn't sound dramatic compared to what we're seeing, because what we're seeing certainly, certainly is dramatic.

00:25:52.420 John, we're going to close out with you.

00:25:55.380 Do you see a way back for Australia, for Victoria right now?

00:26:00.700 It'll be an intergenerational project, John Henry.

00:26:04.120 I think one of the first victims will be the generations that have been saddled with enormous debt.

00:26:11.800 Australia has a rather visionary National Health and Disability Insurance Scheme, which allows high levels of care for the most vulnerable in our community, people with disabilities and chronic illnesses.

00:26:26.640 We've now been saddled with the equivalent debt of our annual GDP.

00:26:30.940 That's a project that will take generations to pay off.

00:26:35.020 And sadly, I actually think it's healthcare funding and the NDIS Disability Insurance Scheme that will be the first to have to be removed from public sector spending, because it will take not small businesses like mine.

00:26:48.920 Again, it'll take generations across the entire economy to rehabilitate the destruction that's befallen us since the start of this year.

00:26:59.100 Unbelievable.

00:26:59.940 Unbelievable.

00:27:00.640 Any closing words, Bella?

00:27:04.840 I just, look, I hope that this is over soon.

00:27:08.640 And there is light at the end of the tunnel.

00:27:10.320 We do have this so-called roadmap.

00:27:11.880 Things will be opening up by Christmas.

00:27:15.320 But we just have to make sure that when it does go back to normal, we make sure this doesn't happen again.

00:27:21.140 Amen.

00:27:21.860 Amen.

00:27:22.500 We will be praying for you at LifeSite News, and many of our viewers will have you at heart and in their prayers.

00:27:29.000 May God bless you both.

00:27:29.980 And I thank you for joining us in this episode of the John Henry Weston Show.

00:27:33.920 Thank you, John.

00:27:34.440 Thank you so much.

00:27:35.140 Thank you so much.

00:28:05.140 What's happening in your land right now, know too that we are praying for you.

The John-Henry Westen Show - September 22, 2020

'It's a police state!' Australia's crackdown on freedoms during COVID similar to 1960s Berlin

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