The government is in authoritarian mode and now is not the time for complacency

Deputy prime minister Michael McCormack’s attack on “raving inner-city lunatics” who believe in climate science may just seem a bit unhinged but it is part of a broader government strategy to quell political dissent that is hiding in full sight.

Australian PM Scott Morrison (left) and deputy PM
Michael McCormack. ‘As we watch the US
and Europe fall under the spell of democratically
 elected autocrats we need to confront the fact
that there is more than a passing chance we
are now on the same journey ourselves.’

As fires burn across eastern Australia, the government is in textbook authoritarian mode, deliberately inflaming division and manufacturing outrage towards its critics in an attempt to divert from its own manifest failure to protect the regions.

It’s ugly civics, but far more insidious than the rhetoric is a raft of laws and regulations that have the prospect to fundamentally recast Australia’s democracy.

Read the opinion piece by Peter Lewis from The Guardian - “The government is in authoritarian mode and now is not the time for complacency”.