Antipodean anti-vaxxers are learning from America’s far right
TWO HUNDRED and sixty-two days of lockdown are enough to nurture some grievances. Protesters in Melbourne, the world’s most locked-down city, have been marching in opposition to its stringent covid-19 restrictions almost ever since the measures were first imposed. But of late the mood has turned nasty.More than 200 people were arrested at a rally in September for hurling bottles and golf balls at police. This month anti-vaxxers outside the parliament of Victoria, of which Melbourne is the capital, hanged in effigy Daniel Andrews, the state’s premier. An unmasked crowd of some 10,000 unvaccinated Victorians marched through Melbourne on November 20th. Some waved nooses and held placards of Mr Andrews dressed in Nazi gear. He accused “extremists” and “rabid anti-vaxxers” of “making all sorts of threats” against his family.Victoria has one of the world’s highest vaccination rates and recently removed most of its covid restrictions. Yet its government is trying to rush a “pandemic management” law through the state parliament, to grant it extraordinary powers to enforce lockdowns, close businesses and detain citizens. It says the bill is needed because a state of emergency imposed last March is expiring on December 15th, stripping the government of its power to enforce covid rules. The bill is intended to create a transparent legal framework to manage future outbreaks.The bill would give the state’s health minister the authority, upon declaring a pandemic, to issue “any order” which is “reasonably necessary to protect public health”, with a minimum of oversight. The state’s bar association complains that “it authorises extreme limitations of basic liberties of all Victorians.” It would “entrench rule by decree as a long-term norm”, wrote a group of barristers. (The government has agreed to some amendments, but independents, whose support it needs to pass the bill, were pushing for more as this article was published.)Anger about covid restrictions is not limited to Melbourne. Thousands of Australians marched against vaccine mandates in Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney on November 20th. There is no national requirement for Australians to be inoculated, but states are making life hard for those who refuse the jab. Some insist on vaccination for those in high-risk jobs. Others ban the unvaccinated from public places.State measures are becoming a point of contention in the federal Parliament, too: rebel conservatives angry about vaccine mandates are holding up the passage of government legislation in the Senate. In New Zealand, where the government has made vaccines compulsory for 40% of the working population, a similar debate is brewing. Protesters there took to the streets on November 9th waving signs saying “Kiwis are not lab rats.”Anti-vaxxers are only a tiny minority in both countries. More than 85% of over-11s in Australia and New Zealand are fully immunised, compared with 69% in America and 60% in the EU (which is seeing its own violent protests). Most support their governments’ strict handling of the pandemic. But widespread acquiescence may only make the fringe angrier, says Paul Spoonley, a sociologist at Massey University in New Zealand. So will new vaccine mandates, which are coming into force in Queensland and New Zealand as other restrictions are lifted.There are signs that anti-vaxxers in both countries are being radicalised. MPs in New Zealand, where politics is usually pacific, have had to beef up security after a slew of death threats. The minister in charge of its pandemic response, Chris Hipkins, says his office has been “the target of repeated and ongoing attacks”. The authorities in Victoria have brought charges against a man who encouraged protesters to “bring out rifles and shotguns” and shoot the state’s premier. Two men have been charged in the state of Western Australia after they allegedly threatened to behead its premier.Protesters are taking inspiration from America’s far right, says Mr Spoonley. Some wave flags featuring Donald Trump, wear red hats and threaten journalists. They have started calling politicians “traitors” and calling for lynchings. Placards mentioning QAnon, an incoherent conspiracy theory which is taking off in the Antipodes, are increasingly common.Opposition to vaccine mandates is uniting anti-vaxxers with conspiracy theorists and far-right nationalists, says Josh Roose, a researcher at Deakin University in Melbourne. Police in Victoria warn, “Online commentary on covid-19 has provided a recruiting tool for right-wing extremist groups.” A recent paper from Te Punaha Matatini, a research centre in New Zealand, says that vaccinations “are being used as a kind of Trojan Horse for norm-setting of far-right ideologies”. A federal election is due in Australia early next year. A noisy minority will make itself heard. ■Dig deeperAll our stories relating to the pandemic can be found on our coronavirus hub. You can also find trackers showing the global roll-out of vaccines, excess deaths by country and the virus’s spread across Europe.This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Globalising discontent”