There was much hysteria this week over the news that former prime minister Scott Morrison had secretly sworn himself in to take control of a grab-bag of the best ministerial portfolios under ‘fear of Covid’. Malcolm Turnbull weighed in, proclaiming the news ‘sinister’ whilst it has given Prime Minister Anthony Albanese the opportunity to carry on with his never-ending campaign against the bloke ‘who wouldn’t hold a hose’. Albo is beginning to resemble Joe Biden in more ways than one – abruptly walking out of press conferences, disappearing to his equivalent of a basement at some holiday destination or other and refusing to let go of the schtick that got him elected in the first place, trashing the reputation of his predecessor.

Yes, there is certainly something comical and peculiar about Mr Morrison’s power grab. The PM is supposed to be ‘first among equals’, but that’s taking it to extremes. How many hats can one man wear? But as for ‘sinister’, that description really only applies to one portfolio – resources. Although this has been lobbed in with the other portfolios that Mr Morrison felt the need to empower himself with, there is a very clear distinction.

Mr Morrison never ‘triggered’ those other powers, as he was at pains to point out to Ben Fordham on Sydney’s 2GB, so the whole argument about him holding them is fairly academic. But with regards to the resources portfolio, Mr Morrison  used them to over-rule his resources minister, Keith Pitt, and to cancel an important gas project purely in order to satisfy the bleating bedwetters and climate cultists within the Liberal party. This goes to the heart of Mr Morrison’s capitulation to the climate cult at Cop 26 in Glasgow and his embrace of the insane net zero mantra. Done in desperation to appease the leftists within the Liberal party, all of whom (deservedly) lost their seats during the election. This was a futile attempt, driven wholly by the flawed findings of focus group researchers, to curry favour with inner-city renewables investors and their ilk.

But putting that to one side, there is a far bigger story that has been broadly over-looked by the chattering classes, primarily because they too were in it up to their necks. And that is the grotesque abuse and misuse of democratic power during Covid, at all levels of state and federal governments, from the prime minister right down to the unctious officials who treated ordinary citizens with contempt and disdain. Apart from during the very early weeks of 2020, when there were genuine fears that a truly terrifying epidemic had been unleashed from a bowl of bat soup, it became pretty clear fairly quickly that much of the hype was overblown and the restrictions being imposed were unnecessarily harsh and authoritarian. Indeed, alone amongst virtually all the media in Australia (and much of the Western world), The Spectator Australia refused to be bullied or cowed into toeing the corporate/Big Pharma/government line. In article after article by Rebecca Weisser, Ramesh Thakur and others, we applied common sense and conservative principles to analysing the madness that was taking place all around.

In almost every instance, the stories and opinions within these pages on Covid fear-mongering have been shown to be correct.

If there was a major journalism prize for Covid realism and keeping a cool head when all others were losing theirs, it would surely go to Rebecca and Ramesh.

Indeed, this week, again, Ms Weisser spills the beans on the way the authorities are finally admitting that the vaccines do not prevent transmission of the virus. Remember – that claim was the entire basis for mandatory vaccination, vaccine passports and the loss of thousands of people’s jobs and even careers.

Unfortunately the rot runs deep and across both major political parties, across nearly all large corporations, and throughout the media and is embedded deep within the multitude of bureaucracies that control so many aspects of our lives.

A royal commission into the abuse and misuse of political power during Covid is  urgently called for. Never again should we have to see our freedoms and rights forfeited and crushed under the tyranny of ‘health’ bureaucrats. The damage inflicted not only upon individuals and small businesses, but upon our democratic freedoms has been immense. Time will tell if those who so abused us ever face any deserved legal repercussions. Democracy, let us not forget, does indeed require permanent vigilance.