The COVID pandemic gave voice to a number of conspiracy theories that sought to offer an explanation about what was “really” happening. Some of the more bizarre, and yet persistent, conspiracies involve an inexplicable plan of global depopulation. Or as it is often labelled, “culling”.
A decade before the pandemic, anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists had accused Bill Gates of using vaccines in his own quest to depopulate the planet. That was an intentional distortion of a TED talk Gates had given in which he notes that improved public health correlated with decreased population growth. Over time it became a particularly robust piece of misinformation, commonly spread with the unfounded claim that vaccines cause infertility. Claims of vaccine induced depopulation and infertility found new ground during the pandemic. As the pandemic continued a host of conspiracy theories about vaccines were entertained by antivaxxers in a bizarre ebb and flow fashion modulated by social media.
Another identity associated with the depopulation conspiracy theory to be dusted off during the pandemic was psychiatrist, Dr. Rima Laibow. Rima was referenced on social media in 2021, January 2022 and most recently in March 2023. Laibow’s attraction was due to her appearance on the 2009 programmeConspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura. Motivated by H1N1 (“Swineflu”), anti-vaccine conspiracy theory rhetoric, Laibow claimed during an interview that the World Health Organisation had been working since 1974 to orchestrate global depopulation. She claimed the WHO assessed the world overpopulated by 90% and was using vaccines to create “permanent sterility”. That the population had grown from 4 billion to just under 7 billion from 1974 to 2009 was seemingly lost on her.
April 2023 Instagram post from a now deleted account
Her 2009 appearance with Jesse Ventura was being shared on social media along with commentary suggesting that Laibow had “nailed it” and foreseen both mandatory vaccination and “the great culling“. In the histrionics of conspiracy theory echo chambers this was proof that the WHO was using COVID-19 vaccines to create permanent sterility, and that Laibow had “cautioned us against COVID-19”. It must be stressed that mandatory vaccination either for H1N1 or COVID-19 never eventuated. There has been ample controversy regarding vaccine mandates in certain workplaces during the COVID-19 pandemic, but in no way have Laibow’s claims been realised.
On 26 April 2022 Health Feedback published a fact check of another of Laibow’s accusations in the video. Namely, the claim that squalene in vaccines caused autoimmune disease and Gulf War Syndrome. Unsurprisingly, the verdict was “inaccurate”. Laibow warned of the horror vaccines would unleash, telling Jesse Ventura, “What that means is a genocidal holocaust. Men and women will sicken and die and those who survive will be infertile”. The YouTube video below contains the circulating clip of Rima Laibow, edited to educate the viewer as to Laibow’s relationship with science, the truth and legislation.
Dr. Rima Laibow
Selling Colloidal Silver
During her interview Laibow dramatically remains on the edge of a tarmac lest she need to suddenly escape from the USA to avoid “compulsory vaccination” for H1N1. She did not feel safe living in the USA and tells Ventura she was leaving as soon as the interview was over. However, it appears she managed to overcome her fear to work as “medical director” and trustee of the company, Natural Solutions Foundation, with a website hosted at drrimatruthreports.com. By 2014 Rima Laibow was selling a “cure” for Ebola. The “cure” was 10 PPM Nano Silver, which was in fact colloidal silver, and packaged as “Dr. Rima Recommends Nano Silver”. In September 2014 the US Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission labelled the company “scammers”. A warning letter to the company informed Laibow and a co-trustee that they were in breach of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA).
The correspondence includes examples of strikingly inaccurate claims made on the Natural Solutions Foundation website in which nano silver is described as “safe and non toxic… able to kill every pathogen worldwide against which it has been tested”. Health authorities were of course hiding the truth of this cure and the absence of “declassified research” supporting colloidal silver was proof it is effective. Packaged with a CBD organic chocolate bar, nano silver constituted part of a “protection pack”. Other claims included:
Conventional Antibiotics won’t do much against genetically engineered or resistant organisms… But safe, gentle and effective nano silver kills disease organisms in a different way… This is powerful natural protection you need for yourself ad [sic] your family. Choose the Personal Protection Pack or the Family Protection Pack…
It kills only the organisms that cause disease… similar to the lamps in hospitals that kill deadly germs… and also interferes with the metabolism of the disease organisms in such a way that they cannot become resistant to it.
Laibow responded by altering claims made on the company website. The scheme was heavily criticised on the7 On Your Side TV programme “Don’t Get Taken By Ebola Scams”, in which Laibow reportedly argued the scam label was “ridiculous”. Ebola scams were common in the USA at the time, taking the form of bogus charities and cures. Ebola cases and deaths had occurred on US soil and scam artists were taking advantage of fear and uncertainty.
By 2020 of course, the pandemic was upon us. Did Rima Laibow actually turn to reminding us that she had warned of the WHO depopulation-by-sterilisation using vaccines? Did she flee the US in fear of mandatory vaccination? Well no, because Natural Solutions Foundation immediately got to work selling the very same Nano Silver concoction as a treatment for COVID-19. At the same time COVID conspiracy theories were peddled via the long standing Dr. Rima Truth Reports, and went as far as calling face masks “mind control devices”.
Ultimately, the FDA filed a suit on 13 November 2020 that alleged Natural Solutions Foundation, and its trustees Rima Laibow and Ralph Fucetola, had “sold and distributed a nano silver product that the defendants claim will cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent COVID-19.” It further alleged that they had sold misbranded drugs, as labelling for use was insufficient. As such they had violated the FDCA, and on 28 December 2021 were ordered by a District court to stop distributing the colloidal silver. This was the same product used in breach of the same Act as in 2014, albeit now in exploitation of COVID-19.
‘Dr. Rima Recommends’ nano silver label
Fortunately, this time the outcome was more enduring. The defendants agreed to settle the suit and be bound by a Consent Decree of Permanent Injunction [PDF]. The court entered an order that enjoins the defendants from violating the FDCA. They were ordered to recall all nano silver products sold from 22 January 2020 to 27 December 2021, and destroy any such products in their possession. Before distribution of any drugs in future they must notify the FDA in advance, comply with remedial measures and permit an FDA inspection of their facility and procedures. On 8 March 2023 the FDA published an urgent product recall from the company for the nano silver product, issued as part of the consent decree.
These days Dr. Rima Laibow and Ralph Fucetola of Natural Solutions appear on Open Source Truth [archive] and present a weekly podcast titled The Unmasked Crusaders. The Natural Solutions Foundation website is unchanged from a decade ago and the Dr. Rima Truth Reports continue. They do not, thankfully, sell colloidal silver.
The anti-vaccine, anti-mask, anti-science rhetoric however, is undiminished.
The Medical Board of Australia has placed fifteen limitations on the practice of Dr. Stuart Reece of Highgate Hill QLD. The conditions, enforced on 21 December 2022, have resulted in the temporary closure of the Southcity Medical Centre where Reece practices.
Reece (pictured) is a controversial figure in addiction medicine and a vocal critic of Australia’s successful policy of harm minimisation. He holds no formal qualifications in addiction medicine, but has authored or coauthored extensively on the subject, presently as an adjunct professor at UWA. Almost exclusively, his writings link illicit drug use, methadone and medical cannabis to death and disease.
Experts have refuted certain works as “reefer madness”. Reece has long associated his Christian faith with treating addiction. His book, titled “Let My People Go: A Theology of Addiction”, was published in 2016. His work is favoured by extreme anti-drug pressure group, Drug Free Australia, and frequently cited by them in lobbyist material, media replies and parliamentary submissions.
This is not the first time regulators have acted to ensure the safety of his patients. An article published on this blog in December 2011 examined his use of unapproved naltrexone implants and the deaths of 25 patients who had undergone the treatment. In 2009 Reece was suspended from practice for supplying morphine to opiate dependent patients and falsifying records to disguise the fact. This was because of his ideological opposition to evidence backed methadone maintenance therapy. That suspension was in turn suspended for three years.
The Medical Board of QLD, Health Practitioners Tribunal observed at the time that Reece:
… has a somewhat evangelical approach to this area of medicine and because of that he does appear to lack a degree of insight and objectivity in relation to the treatment of his patients. Furthermore, he seems to feel that the ends justify the means in terms of treatment of patients.
Today, the catalyst for intervention includes the number of patients being bulk billed per hour and quality of care. This is reflected in the limitations on practice (complete list in slideshow below).
1. The Practitioner must not exceed four (4) of patient consultations in any one hour (60 minutes). […]
5. The Practitioner must only practise as a general practitioner when supervised by another registered medical practitioner with knowledge and experience in addiction medicine (the supervisor). For the purposes of this condition, ‘supervised’ is defined as: The Practitioner must consult with the supervisor who is always physically present in the workplace and available to observe and discuss the management of patients and/or performance of the Practitioner when necessary and otherwise at weekly intervals. […]
7. In the event that no approved supervisor is willing or able to provide the supervision required the Practitioner must cease practice immediately and must not resume practice until a new supervisor has been nominated by the Practitioner and approved by the Board.
A search for general practitioners providing services in addiction medicine in the Brisbane area yields modest results. There just isn’t enough practitioners providing these select services across Australia. If one adds the fact that such providers have often taken on all the patients they can, it isn’t beyond comprehension that Dr. Reece is unable to find a supervisor. Reece has loyal supporters amongst his patients, who have a Facebook page here. They have argued in a petition that finding a supervisor is “an impossibility”. The petition, “Reinstate Dr. Stuart Reece Immediately”, contends that the predictable lack of a supervisor indicates that the action taken is about the control of services offered under bulk billing.
AHPRA is also advising that Dr Reece must have another Doctor with him for consultations into the future to oversee his work to their satisfaction. This requirement is an impossibility. AHPRA and Dr Reece both know that this doctor does not exist. There is not a ‘spare doctor’ lying around that is available for this. […]
THIS IS NOT ABOUT PATIENT CARE OR BETTER HEALTH OUTCOMES. THIS APPEARS TO BE ABOUT CONTROL OF THE TYPE OF SERVICES OFFERED TO PATIENTS WHO NEED BULK BILLED DOCTORS.
The petition is a long heartfelt plea seeking to justify the way Reece operates his practice. It makes the point that certain appointments, particularly prescription refills, may require only five minutes. The petition also notes that Reece would be forced to close his doors in part because, “his practice would be limited dramatically by the immediate reduction of the number of patients he is able to see daily…”. Whilst I empathise greatly with these patients and find removal of any addiction treatment services troubling, one cannot escape the fact that such a huge patient load should never have eventuated. Health Practitioner Regulations state, “A Practitioner must NOT exceed four (4) patient consultations in any one hour (60 minutes)”.
There’s no doubt that Medicare is not meeting the needs of Australian General Practitioners. The patient rebate is beyond inadequate, being markedly out of step with the Consumer Price Index (CPI). This manifests in significantly fewer consultations being bulk billed, and in many practices fees now apply to concession card holders. For Australians surviving on the aged or disability support pensions a visit to their GP is now financially prohibitive. The end result is a health system under strain. However there comes a point where increased patient quantity, means decreased quality of care. Let’s remember that the Health Practitioners Tribunal observed in 2009 that when it came to treating patients Reece lacked insight and objectivity, and felt the ends justified the means. The same document notes (point 22):
He does provide care to a large number of detoxifying and drug dependent patients. In June 2009, alone, he had 409 Subutex patients in Queensland and I understand the numbers are larger at the moment. From 2001 to 2007 he was responsible for 8681 registrations of opiate withdrawal registrations in Queensland.
Arguably, Reece is the architect of his own professional distress. As noted above, in November 2009 the practice suspension applied to Reece was itself suspended for three years. Yet less than two years later there was no tone of contrition for falsifying medical records to supply opioid dependent patients with morphine. The occasion was a Senate Inquiry into the Professional Services Review (PSR) Scheme, to which Reece, representing the now defunct Australian Doctors Union, made a submission. Bear in mind Reece has today been saddled with limitations to prevent excessive bulk billing at the expense of Medicare. The PSR “aims to protect the Australian public from the risks and costs associated with inappropriate practice within Medicare…”. Reece began his submission:
Prof. Reece: The Australian Doctors Union is a nascent union which has come together to support each other through the nightmare experience of PSR’s incompetence, lies, intimidation and bullying. In addition to doctors damaged by—
CHAIR: Hang on please. That is making accusations and it is not the way that we take evidence. If you could please refrain from using that sort of language, that would be appreciated.
Reece continued for a full five minutes explaining why he believes the PSR “has been shown to be waging a very successful war against general practice in this country”. He blamed the PSR for doctor suicides, marriage breakdowns, a lowered bulk billing rate, marginalisation of women, being racist, sexist and for damaging “many excellent doctors”. One of these was his ideological colleague, “Dr George O’Neil of naltrexone implant and detox fame”. Despite the fact naltrexone implants are not TGA approved Reece felt O’Neil should have been assisted by Medicare. Perhaps most alarming was when Reece included himself as one of those excellent doctors. Referring to himself in the third person, he humbly submitted:
Associate Professor Stuart Reece, one of the foremost detox doctors in the nation and a world authority on the long-term effects of opiate addiction.
This dear reader, is the crux of the matter. Stuart Reece is not a world authority on the long term effects of opiate addiction. In 2007 he opposed needle-syringe programmes, methadone maintenance therapy and the policy of harm minimisation in general. He informed a parliamentary inquiry that condom use was linked to AIDS deaths. Yet in June 2009 Reece was managing 409 Subutex patients. Buprenorphine is the opioid in Subutex and today it is distributed in combination with naloxone under the brand name Suboxone. It is a successful mainstay of substitution therapy for opioid dependent patients seeking to manage addiction and eventually cease opioid use. It is a key element of harm minimisation.
Exactly how a strident opponent of harm minimisation has today found himself with so many opioid substitution patients that Ahpra require supervision and auditing of him, is baffling. It may however have something to do with the attitude toward Medicare and the PSR Scheme reflected in his 2009 submission. Or his 2012 comment, What is wrong with medicare? (p. 170) bemoaning the PSR and Medicare audits. It may also have something to do with the disdain Reece has for evidence based health policy and genuine, original research. Reece has spent a career convinced he simply knows better. Better than the bulk of his colleagues, better than global research trends and better than health authorities. In short, Stuart Reece is the cause of the dilemma faced by so many of his patients.
Having said that, one cannot deny that Reece and Southcity Medical Centre have been accomodating the needs of a great many patients. An excessive number of patients. However accounts such as this on reddit aren’t isolated. They suggest the practice is busy, waiting times are high but Reece is attentive and compassionate. Google reviews are more varied. According to the petition there are 1100 patients in need of treatment. Over the last 18 days, 224 people have signed. The goal is presently 500.
Ultimately this situation doesn’t bode well for these patients. It is doubly sad that many are not able to see that the cause of their problem is Stuart Reece himself and not Ahpra. Funnelling high numbers of vulnerable in-need, at-risk patients through the surgery is far from acceptable. The only way forward is to abide by the limitations. Anything less is to abandon his patients.
Stuart Reece must accept that the ends do not justify the means. It is time to place patients first.
Medical Board of Australia restrictions imposed on Dr. Stuart Reece
As 2022 got under way Australians were getting used to the idea of a third COVID-19 vaccination and the possibility that the year just might unfold without lockdowns. An endangered economy needed attention. Some began to talk of a “post-COVID” way of living.
Anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists however, were having nothing to do with a post-COVID anything. The pandemic and its consequent lockdowns had given them a reason to refine their identity and fool themselves into assuming a new sense of purpose. They were the self-appointed keepers of freedom. Indeed they had convinced themselves they were freedom fighters, perhaps based on a propensity for conflict at anti-lockdown protests during 2021.
Yet, with the probability 2022 would have scant regard for their well rehearsed narrative, they were faced with a new conflict: the impending likelihood of increasing irrelevance. This gave the (by then) heartily amused and bemused population Down Under the spectacle of the Convoy To Canberra. Inspired by the Canadian anti-lockdown, anti-vaccine mandate Freedom Convoy, the gathering of a reported 10,000 protestors in Canberra [2] was reported by anti-vaxxers on the Australian Vaccination-risks Network Vaxxed bus to be one million, and shortly after 1.8 million in strength.
The Canberra gathering was also populated by religious fundamentalists, sovereign-citizens, self-appointed indigenous activists and those drawn to the United Australia Party. Rather than organise into a coherent group and work toward realistic goals, the event became a shambles where infighting, conspiracy theory ranting, exploitation and violence was the norm. In January, GoFundMe froze A$160,000 in funds raised for the event due to obscurity over how it would be spent, requesting the organiser identify themselves. In February GoFundMe refunded A$179,000 to donors, citing violation of terms of service. Social media accounts organising this and other events, were reported to be based in Bangladesh, India and Canada. Australians had donated almost A$50,000 to the Canadian Freedom Convoy.
Other cookers remained in unhygienic camps in Canberra, regularly posting videos of their unhealthy plight. They warned the vaccinated of impending doom thanks to circulating COVID vaccine ingredients, and even promised boosters would cause a positive test result for HIV/AIDS. In early March the AVN filed their case against Brendan Murphy and the TGA with the Federal Court of Australia. They of course wanted money. Shortly after, sensible Australians were unmoved to learn that the AVN Vaxxed bus had been seriously damaged in the NSW floods. It was a write off. They of course wanted money. Around the same time dual Bent Spoon winner Pete Evans, joined a social media conga line of cookers citing this study, to claim “mRNA could alter human DNA”, even quoting from the paper whilst adding his own caps lock to warn that it “may potentially mediate GENOTOXIC SIDE EFFECTS”. But er, no.
The floods revealed some of the conduct of cooker and anti-vaxxer Dave Oneegs, and his intentions in founding the group Aussie Helping Hands (AHH). Crikey reported in mid March that questions were being asked relating to legitimacy. Following obvious deception, false advertising and exploitation of distribution centres, the Office of Fair Trading QLD, the Department of Fair Trading NSW and NSW Police began investigations. $330,000 had been raised and Oneegs bank account was frozen. The same applied to one Dorothy “Dotti” Janssen. In a video, Oneegs alludes to a conspiracy, labelling his plight “a precedent [to] the social credit system which is coming if Australians don’t wake up”. The Northern Rivers Times published an in depth piece on 19 May (Ed. 97, p.6) looking at the players behind AHH including Hayley Birtles-Eades. It is a damning assessment of AHH. Vaxatious Litigant (@ExposingNV) posted an interesting Twitter thread on the matter yesterday, as Oneegs is due in court next month.
Oneegs still pleads innocence
The suave George Christensen was impossible to miss when he animated the zombie antivax myth that relies on the base rate fallacy: highly vaccinated populations have increased cases in those vaccinated. George went as far as claiming a conspiracy between “power elites and the media” was in play. I’ve looked at that fallacy here before and fact checkers have patiently explained time and again just why it is a non-event. However this graphic, tweeted by @MarcRummy, is one of the best I’ve seen that quickly and clearly reveals the fallacy. Of course, reporting of fatalities never stopped as George had claimed. Rather, they were never there. Also never there, were the serious adverse reactions to the Pfizer mRNA vaccine that led Craig Kelly to tweet:
Adverse effects, what adverse effects
Disgusting, nasty🤡🤡who just blindly peddle the PROPAGANDA have blood on their hands
The Pfizer report was also used by Senator Gerard Rennick to spook Australians with respect to vaccine safety. The problem with their approach goes deeper than Kelly’s unfortunate citation of Children’s Health Defense. Just like VAERS and the UK Yellow Card reporting system the Pfizer document relies on passive reporting. Causally speaking the data are unverified. However, again like VAERS and the UK Yellow Card system, the reports will be taken seriously and followed up if events occur more frequently than before the vaccine was distributed. As if on cue to reinforce this point came the absurd claims of Japanese Encephalitis actually being a side effect of the Pfizer vaccine (see p.32 for original).
In late March the AVN and fellow plaintiff Mr. Mark Neugebauer were found in the Federal Court of Australia to lack legal standing necessary to bring their case against the Department of Health to cease COVID-19 vaccination of Australians. Neither satisfied the requirement of being a “person aggrieved”. Delightfully, Justice Perry found that Meryl Dorey’s evidence contending the AVN “is the peak vaccine organisation in Australia”, is “recognised as a leader” by other similar groups and “is a leading source of information in respect of vaccination”, could be accepted only as a belief held by Dorey. Now is not the time to dig into Dorey’s “evidence”. Suffice it to say this wasn’t just a neat legal description from Justice Perry as to why she would not accept Dorey’s evidence as legal evidence. Perry rightfully considered section 136 of the Evidence Act as requested by the respondent. As one might expect the Act is clear in that a) one cannot simply use opinion or belief as evidence, particularly when b) it is prejudicial and/or misleading.
Nasty tricks continued to target the notion of being vaccinated. A version of this video doctored with captions contended that the QLD CHO was discussing fatalities from myocarditis brought on by vaccination against COVID-19. Yet seen in full context the discussion between himself and a reporter is about deaths at home from COVID-19. One of the lowest COVID conspiracy tricks pulled by Australian politicians related to Malcolm Roberts presenting so-called results from an event titled “Covid Under Question”. His speech to the Senate accused government bodies of hiding deaths and injuries caused by the COVID vaccine rollout. Roberts claimed a “cross-party inquiry” had produced the results. In fact it was a gathering of predictable COVID conspiracy identities. RMIT Fact Check reported:
Notably, it was not a parliamentary inquiry, despite being attended by six state and federal parliamentarians from One Nation, the United Australia Party and the Coalition, including George Christensen, Craig Kelly, Senator Alex Antic and Senator Gerard Rennick.
Among those giving evidence was Dr Peter McCullogh, who has wildly claimed that the pandemic was planned, that COVID-19 infection confers “permanent immunity” and that a Queensland vaccine trial “turned everybody in the trial HIV positive”.
It also featured at least one member of the World Council for Health, a group whose claims about vaccine harms have been debunked by AAP Fact Check, with one expert describing their evidence as a “garbled mixture of misinformation”.
And, of course, unproven COVID-19 treatments received plenty of airtime, with the event featuring, in the words of PolitiFact, “one of the strongestadvocates of ivermectin in the US”.
There was of course a federal election campaign underway. Clive Palmer’s National Press Club address was so dishonest he earned his own Fact Check cheatsheet. This included that very tired misrepresentation of TGA data on COVID-19 vaccination that he and Craig Kelly had begun in 2021. The pandemic had squeezed out a veritable host of overly ambitious parties and candidates working toward their dream of political dominion. It would take Tom Tanuki to so neatly sum up this bevy of Cooked Candidates and Shit Minor Parties. Around election time in Australia, 2022 got the pox. Or rather, monkeypox. All those freshly primed and pumped anti-vaxxers must have been delirious. Well, more delirious than usual, as they swiftly adjusted their narrative to accomodate a cut and paste for monkeypox. We had VAIDS, which although non-existent apparently meant “vaccine-acquired immunodeficiency syndrome”. Interestingly one suggestion was that the COVID-19 vaccine was a tool of the global elite in their quest for world dominion. Not long after Malcolm Roberts tweeted this nonsense about WHO Health Regulations.
UPDATE: The WHO has quietly pulled the amendments to International Health Regulations that would have decimated sovereignty.
They will be back to try it another way, we will continue to monitor and defend against foreign incursions to our way of life. https://t.co/8leWekjcLG
Not only is there no evidence anything was “quietly pulled”, the WHO has no influence on domestic health policy. Public health emergencies of international concern would see the WHO develop and recommend health initiatives. About this time the AVN returned to the Federal Court to hear that it was liable for costs sustained by the Department of Health in the earlier case. The AVN had argued their action was “public interest litigation” and as such costs should be waived. This was rejected. Costs further included those incurred in the dispute of costs and also any costs arising from their application to join with Mr. Neugebauer. The AVN had already received generous donations, with most via GiveSendGo. Rather than settle they continued to make ludicrous claims to members, purporting to have “evidence from some of the most esteemed medical and scientific experts in the world”. They filed to appeal. By now, thanks to insurance and donations, the group also had the ghastly Vaxxed bus back on the road, exploiting vulnerable Australians to peddle the myth of large scale vaccine injuries.
One day after the TGA provisionally approved the Moderna vaccine for children aged six months to five years antivaxxers blamed it for the death of a toddler at a QLD childcare centre. Despite the fact there is significant time between approval and availability, misleading social media posts falsely described the toddler as “fully jabbed”. In fact the importance of COVID-19 vaccination for all ages was brought home days later when toddler Ruby Edwards died after contracting the disease. It triggered Acute Hemorrhagic Leukoencephalitis following inflammation in her brain and spinal cord.
As COVID-19 reinfections gradually increased the anti-vax lobby happily explained the cause via mere temporal correlation. It was the devastation of immune systems caused by COVID-19 vaccines they claimed. This was debunked at the time and a recent study from Denmark confirms effectiveness of vaccination against reinfection with COVID-19, albeit less so with respect to the Omicron variant. Then came the social media claim that a fertility specialist at Brisbane’s Mater hospital had “collected data showing 74% miscarriage post inject (sic)”. Even worse “In an attempt to silence him he was fired last Friday!!”. However the doctor hadn’t worked there for nine months and hospital records gave no indication of such an increase. A spokeswoman for Mater Health responded to queries:
Mater has not observed any change in the rate of miscarriage over the last five years or specifically since the introduction of COVID-19 vaccinations.
Victorian CHO Brett Sutton was accused of admitting COVID-19 vaccination was ineffective, following comparison of two video outtakes. It was a popular trick amongst conspiracy theorists and relied upon comparing health reports specific to different Omicron variants. The dominant strain in Victoria in April was BA.2. By August it was BA.4 and BA.5. Sutton had observed the vaccines were less effective at preventing infection with the latter strains. August also brought the appeal hearing for AVN v Secretary Dept. of Health. Three judges dismissed the appeal as incompetent and ordered the AVN to pay costs. One might suspect that the AVN would get the message. No. On 31 October AVN advised of their intention to pursue further action. Just before Christmas Meryl Dorey announced a refined “babies case” would be filed with the High Court of Australia. They of course want more money and this case has its own GiveSendGo page.
The cooker community continued to fascinate throughout the year. One bemusing feature was the badgering of New Zealand and Australian Governors General by supporters of rabid paedophile conspiracy theorist Karen Brewer. Standing at the G.G. residence gate, and reading from a script they would bellow through a bullhorn that all federal and state parliaments must be dissolved, as they have “lost confidence in the government”. New elections must be held and “all the documents Senator Heffernan produced for royal commission” must be released “unredacted” immediately. This refers to Heffernan’s 2015 speech, which cookers use to help justify the conspiracy theory that the elite run an international paedophile ring. Despite its absurdity this belief is common amongst the “cooker community”. Just to complicate things other cookers, such as retired QANTAS pilot Graham Hood reject it outright, adding to the angst and infighting. For a sample of cooker infighting I heartily recommend this video.
The year trundled into the latter months with a distinct feeling that those intent on spreading COVID-19 misinformation as a means to profit, had in many cases succeeded but had spent the year waning in popularity. Still, this meant many thousands of Australians – and millions of others around the world – remained in echo chambers of misinformation. Monkeypox was now caused by AstraZeneca of course, because it contained a chimpanzee adenovirus. A bogus claim that Robert F. Kennedy had won a US Supreme Court case against pharmaceutical lobbyists, and in doing so confirmed mRNA vaccines cause irreparable damage was denied by Kennedy himself. Australian deaths in 2022 slightly increased, bringing more claims the cause was COVID-19 vaccination. “SHAME. DISGUSTING. CRIMINAL.”, tweeted the almost forgotten Craig Kelly. Meryl Dorey drew a debunking from AAP Fact Check for this very lie. Yet in October the TGA had still reported a pandemic total of only 14 deaths linked to COVID-19 vaccination. Thirteen followed one dose of AstraZeneca. Those figures are unchanged as of today.
Fortunately 5G is unable to manipulate our DNA via graphene oxide injected with COVID-19 vaccines. Nor is graphene oxide destroying our immune systems. It is not a component of the vaccines, or masks, or PCR tests and thus, thankfully won’t be controlled by “electromagnetic 5G sensors”. More to the point such a concept is utter rubbish. One had to feel a little sorry for fact-checkers dutifully refuting this piffle. Social media accounts spreading disinformation had continued to close. Meryl Dorey’s AVN Facebook page, widely known for disinformation, was finally unpublished and her Twitter account, @nocompulsoryvac followed soon after. Monica Smit spent the year fumbling to recreate her prior influence. Time was spent fighting charges brought against her in 2021, reinventing herself and refuting vaccine requirements. Incitement charges were dropped in July and Smit now claims she intends to sue Victoria police. Some good news was that Avi Yemini was denied a Victorian parliamentary press pass and people still mock him.
Malcolm Roberts has continued to work hard all year to ensure his position as an outspoken authority on COVID-19 is the same as his position as an authority on climate change. One tweet which cited Natural News reminded me of the awfully deceptive film Died Suddenly. This was released in an attempt to spread the myth that vast numbers are dropping dead because of the COVID-19 vaccine. A collection of out of context clips and headlines uploaded by rabid conspiracy theorist Stew Peters, it pushes the depopulation theory and has been thoroughly debunked. It relies on decontextualisation to lull the viewer to not consider alternative causes for the images of blood clots and collapsing people. On a sad note it has contributed to the trolling of those who have lost a loved one to sudden death, regardless of the cause.
On the topic of consequences however, Australians were shocked when Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train murdered two young police officers and a neighbour almost certainly as a result of their involvement with, and conduct as, online conspiracy theorists. Their lifestyle indicated they’d chosen to live isolated, and had internalised paranoid beliefs about government intentions. Gareth Train had contributed to different forums where conspiracy theories and sovereign citizen ideology thrive. The pandemic with its consequent restrictions and mandates likely exacerbated his thinking, but Train was no newbie. Click through the sample below:
Unsurprisingly there was sympathetic chatter amongst conspiracy theorists online, some of which occurred on (dodgy flood money guy) Dave Oneegs’ Telegram page. Dave has a long history of believing lockdowns signalled that Australia will be “taken over”. Elsewhere, articles have appeared questioning every reported aspect of the shooting. Why was a welfare check run on a missing person? Why send regular cops? Why not sit and wait it out? Why, why, etc, etc. In short this event is now a conspiracy theory for conspiracy theorists. Sympathisers wanted to identify with the Trains claiming, “he was definitely one of us” and that it was “time to rise up”. A tweeted reply to a well known activist was chilling in its ignorance. “Wearing that title with pride now, look what we can do. Smoked to (sic) 2 pigs. It’s too easy. while you snooze… normie”. If this event has taught us anything it can not only be how a small minority might act. We must accept how a much larger minority is prepared to think and converse and provoke. That is where the problem lives.
As Australia moves into the fourth year of this pandemic we can predict that the enemies of reason and those who profit from disinformation, will ensure plenty of losing in the lucky country. Only a few have been mentioned above. Yet living in this wealthy country at this time in civilisation’s history is still a case of winning the lottery. COVID-19 infections are presently surging and we’re yet to see what strains, if any, will arise from the situation in China. We’ve learnt much about coping with pandemic conditions. 2023 can’t do much more than demand we continue to put that knowledge into practice. Similarly we’ve learnt much more about evidence denial and those that rely on it. 2023 will be an opportunity to immunise against non-critical thinking and to further identify, refute and annoy those who seek to promote it.
It seems longer, but it has been only two and a half months, since we dropped in on Monica Smit and her self-appointed government-in-waiting, absurdly named Reignite Democracy Australia (RDA).
The occasion was their attendance during COVID-19 lockdown at a meal held at Moda Kitchen and Bar in Seddon, in breach of the Victorian Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008. It was all a bit of a chuckle, given that the group effectively outed themselves and the restaurant by boasting about it on social media. The amusement was short lived for Moda however. On 6 August they announced their imminent closure on Instagram and Facebook. Their last meal was 14 August, just 11 weeks after hosting RDA. A representative told Star Weekly that the closure was unrelated to that event.
The representative claimed that mask-wearing mandates and lockdowns had not effected the business, insisting, “To be honest, we’ve never been so busy”. Although the attitude of the establishment to public health regulations was echoed in the observation:
Running a business is hard work and with or without the unlawful restrictions we were ready for a change.
Speaking of unlawful, it should be noted that Moda Kitchen and Bar had made the RDA business listing. The listing provides details of businesses, prepared to exploit loopholes in public health regulations that keep us safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most specifically, this relates to mask-wearing and QR code check-in. There are exemptions to the requirement to wear a face mask. These include breathing difficulties, facial skins problems, intellectual disability, mental illness and having experienced trauma. The Privacy Act 1998, The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and The Equal Opportunity Act ensure that no-one, should they not be wearing a mask, can be asked to provide evidence of such a disability unless their prior consent has been given.
It is thus quite easy for the dishonest to venture out without a mask. This is something we’ve seen as mask-less RDA disciples with phone cameras taunt police. The business listing idea is fluffed up through RDA concern that businesses might not be aware of the risks of discriminating. When it comes to QR code compliance, a business may simply trust patrons to do the right thing. Or perhaps trust them to do what Monica advises; choose to check in with pen and paper and be trusted to leave genuine details. If you happen to be a business that regard essential public health initiatives as “unlawful restrictions”, as Moda did, your RDA business listing is this.
RDA business listing – Moda Kitchen and Bar
ABC Radio Nth QLD
Monica Smit offers unregulated “advice” about public health and wellbeing mandates. On 12 August 2021, Monica was interviewed by Adam Stephens during the Drive programme on ABC North Queensland. The reason for this was RDA “You Can Say No” pamphlet-dropping in Cairns. Dave, a small business owner, was interviewed prior to Smit. He wasn’t impressed and wasn’t fooled.
The flyer tactic backfired, as the only change in his behaviour was to place a sign outside his shop, reinforcing that no mask or no QR code check-in, meant no entry. That Drive programme is archived and Dave and Adam begin their chat at the 45:00 min mark. Next comes Monica Smit, introduced by Adam as Monica Schmitt. Text messages, read out after a news break, were unanimously negative. If you’d prefer the highlights package, grab this mp3 here or listen below.
Cairns resident objects to RDA flyers, Monica Smit (4min), Adam reads text messages (9:40)
RDA recently made the Daily Telegraph’s top ten list of COVID misinformation spreaders in Australia. You may thus wonder why the ABC would give them air time. I would rush to add that the Daily Telegraph (DT) is not equivalent to the US based Centre for Countering Digital Hate. The latter spent significant time and resources, collating information on those they ultimately termed the disinformation dozen. Nonetheless, the central thesis remains intact. Despite clearly fallacious claims that place the community at risk, well-financed groups and individuals manipulate Facebook to their advantage. The DT reported that RDA subscribe to the belief no COVID-19 vaccine has been properly tested, and in fact weaken the immune system.
They also allow their name to back the conspiracy theorist standard that the vaccines are “manufactured by people who openly want population control”. Professor Mary-Louise McLaws specialises in infection prevention and control. She rightly observed those claims were “completely fallacious” and “wickedly inaccurate”. In a welcome development since the DT piece on 6 August, RDA had their page, and shortly after their backup page, unpublished from Facebook. That came on the heels of their aggressive campaign to boycott SPC, after the fruit packing giant mandated COVID-19 vaccination for employees. The boycott campaign resulted in product tampering and threats that presently continue.
Editorial standards?
Adam Stephens did give his reasons for interviewing Smit. He observed that it’s interesting that there are people that hold this view. That there are people in regional QLD who are active members of RDA, as evidenced by pamphlet distribution in Cairns. He continued;
Whether you wanted to hear from Monica or not there are people that are listening to her message, and sometimes it’s… I think worthwhile in actually learning about the motivations of some of these groups in our community, and some of the people that feel strongly enough to actually join groups like this and distribute their information.
I’m aware that listeners took the trouble to contact the ABC to voice concern. Before we examine Monica Smit’s claims, let’s consider the following. Smit was not introduced with sufficient context to advise listeners that they may be misled. It was not stressed that Monica Smit and RDA are not medical or pandemic specialists or that they are not advised by medical experts. It was not explained that their website provides no reputable or evidence-based information. Indeed, it was not stressed that the group has no relevant qualifications specific to the management of COVID-19, or any illness, at all. Finally, there was no public health representative on hand to address the claims made by Smit.
One might then ask, were ABC standards for editorial accuracy satisfactorily met? Granted, a context of sorts was laid down during Stephens’ chat with business owner Dave. Whether this was enough to reinforce that Smit and RDA act in dissonance to both government guidelines and evidence-based health policy, is not merely unclear, but unlikely. Monica Smit brings a firm, if utterly misguided, confidence to her stints behind any microphone. It came to the fore as she insisted that masks were not only useless and causing harm but there is, “so much science out there” to support this.
“Because it’s the truth”
When asked why she is informing people that they don’t have to follow mask mandates or QR code check-ins if they choose, Smit replied, “Well because it’s the truth”. With QR codes she advises to manually sign-in or shop somewhere else.
In effect this would mean finding a shop that has adopted Smit’s loophole advice. As we’ve come to expect from RDA on evading mask wearing, she mentions PTSD, anxiety, depression – the “huge list of exemptions”.
She blames, “the coercion and the scare tactics of the police and the government”, for forcing those with legitimate reasons for exemption, into wearing masks. At no time did Smit offer a legitimate reason as to why Australians without a health condition can refuse mask wearing. Unless of course, you are willing to feign one (I’m not suggesting she advised this). She followed on by claiming long term mask wearing is “really dangerous”.
That word brings to mind the long debunked claim that oxygen is restricted and CO2 intake rises to poisonous levels. Smit gushes that “People have, you know, passed out at work”. A fan of Tucker Carlsen, Smit is likely influenced by the research letter pushed by him about six weeks ago, and now retracted from JAMA Pediatrics. Smit goes one better, claiming there is, “[A] lot of science to say that they cause cognitive issues with teenage children as well, and they’re wearing them eight hours a day”.
Smit might get that notion from an isolated German survey, looking at “complaints from adolescents and children caused by wearing a mask”. This is not “a lot of science”, and comes with an editorial note stressing the absence of a causal link. There is also the genuine concern related to the importance of non verbal facial cues, to children who are learning. These are minimised by face masks. Particularly in the classroom. As fate would have it, or rather, as science would have it, this has been studied pre-pandemic and during the pandemic. CNN published a handy summary here. If you land on the conservative City Journal, you will find arguably emotive material to support Smit’s contention.
Adam Stephens questioned Smit on whether she really did have substantial supporting science, given the evidence-based source material that advises government policy. Smit was glad he asked because in March and April of last year the media, “were saying that a healthy person wearing a mask is an absolute waste of a mask”. She wondered “why the narrative has changed”. In fact that was because of a WHO-funded systematic review and meta-analysis, published in June of 2020 in The Lancet. More so this was clearly conveyed in “the narrative” presented by the media. Consider this non-ambiguous heading in The Guardian: Victorians may be now be told to wear face masks to halt COVID-19 – what’s changed? Then Smit confidently offered another disingenuous and factually wrong line.
The ‘Brett Sutton’ lie
Smit claimed:
I know that Brett Sutton, he’s the Victorian CHO (Chief Health Officer) here, he actually did a full study paper on how useless masks are to stop the spread of disease. So basically the narrative has just changed but the science has not changed and that is that masks are dangerous.
A “full study paper”? Sounds impressive. Also, I happen to agree with Monica here. The science has not changed. Nor has the old tactic of cherry picking and manipulating facts to support disinformation. What we find on checking Sutton’s authorship of research, is a 2001 literature review in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, that he co-authored. At the time Sutton was based at North West Regional Hospital in Burnie, Tasmania. Both he and his co-author worked in the Department of Anaesthesia. The title of the literature review was Do Anaesthetists Need to Wear Surgical Masks in the Operating Theatre? A Literature Review with Evidence-Based Recommendations.
The review text could not be more clear. It was undertaken due to the absence of published data on the unmasking of the anaesthetist alone. In the modern operating theatre, exactly how this would impact post operative wound infection, if at all, needed elucidation. It was noted that surgical masks offer incomplete protection from bacteria and viruses. More so, plastic face shields provide better protection from infection for the anaesthetist. Three compelling studies, led the authors to conclude in part;
These studies provide sound scientifically-based evidence that, in the setting of a modern operating theatre with laminar flow/steriflow systems, surgical masks should no longer be considered mandatory for anaesthetists and non-scrub staff during most surgical procedures.
There is a reason for the extra detail on this review. This claim about Brett Sutton’s past authorship is not just misinformation, already tossed about like a Frisbee at a church picnic. This is hot-off-the-tongue disinformation. A nice fresh lie still in its packaging, delivered over the airwaves for the gullible to snatch up, unwrap and distribute. It has the added connotation that Victoria’s CHO is not only aware that masks are ineffective, but had produced “a full study paper” to this effect. Listeners may wrongly assume this is both recent, and in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Smit studiously avoids admitting the paper is nineteen years old, and that it examines only anaesthetists and non-scrub staff, in operating theatres. Whilst cherry picking, she missed the one that suggested plastic face shields offer better protection.
In July 2020 Brett Sutton presented advice on wearing face masks, in areas experiencing stage three restrictions. At the same time the reasons for the mandating of mask wearing were being thoroughly discussed in mainstream media. It was impossible to miss. To suggest there was just a sudden change in “narrative” is wrong. Adam Stephen put it to Smit that her advice could place people at risk of COVID-19.
Deep breath
Without drawing breath, she responds;
Well I just totally disagree with that because, um, you know I think the government is putting people at risk of serious problems ah, with lockdowns and things like that so, it’s proven around the world that lockdowns don’t work. Australia has the worst lockdowns actually, I think, in the world. We’re being laughed at overseas because of how harsh our lockdowns are. Some, some, some countries have hundreds of thousands of cases daily and they’re still living about their lives, and we get one case and we close borders.
So ah, I would say the government is being a lot more dangerous than we are, and we’re actually empowering people to have critical thinking, which the government doesn’t want. They don’t… the government’s not giving people all the information. And that’s… and we get censored. I just got taken off Facebook. I had sixty six thousand followers and I get censored because my science is apparently not true, but I can back it up. But a lot of the science that’s said on mainstream media can’t be backed up but there’s no censorship for them so it’s really difficult.
It has not been “proven around the world” that lockdowns are ineffective. They remain one of the most effective non-pharmaceutical interventions. Healthy discussion continues about how this effects economies and communities. What is doubly strange about Smit’s approach here is that if masks are as useless as she claims, there is one clear alternative. The very lockdowns she also insists are useless. I doubt she is aware of this. Her approach is to attack all options, and encourage us to abandon them. She has no alternative to offer Victoria.
Stephens raises the question of people who accept the claims on the You Can Say No flyer, being fined. Smit comes back with a prompt that all the resources are on the website, and that;
If you get the flyer you really need to take that extra step to actually do the research because if, you know… know the law and you know your rights, then actually that fine is null and void and it’s actually um… it won’t mean anything.
Adam lets Monica know they’ll leave it there. Smit responds with an eager “No worries!”. Those familiar with Monica Smit might have noticed the big grin-tone in her final words. She had reason to feel smug, as Australians have every right to expect better from our national broadcaster. Smit usually only gets this much air time on Sky News. The reaction on Telegram, the favoured social media platform of COVID conspiracy theorists, was predictable. Discussion was kicked off thirty minutes later by RDA on their Telegram channel, with an announcement headed by a customised graphic.
Telegram
The first post I wrote on Monica Smit and RDA, opened with Monica Smit loves being the centre of attention. That entire topic requires a post on its own. Suffice it to say however, that certain personalities only take. They surround themselves with givers, and ruthlessly ban, delete and expunge those who challenge their bogus view of reality. The result is the unfettered pseudo-worship you see in the small sample above.
Note the suggestion from one, to “destroy those imbeciles”, in reference to Dave the shop keeper. It’s further worth noting RDA didn’t provide Adam Stephens’ interview with Dave, or the dissenting text messages. All that was known is that a shop owner was “appalled” by the flyer. Sophie, who unwittingly outed herself as a Cairns local, and likely a distributer of the flyers, decided that was enough for the destruction of “those imbeciles”.
Still no evidence
The bulk of RDA members on social media, continue to behave as if enjoying a sustained muck up day. This, however, gives an inaccurate view of the groups resources. Their recent advertising truck, growing range of merchandise, and increasingly slick video production suggests donations remain healthy. This has enabled the group to curate their campaign of alienation through misinformation. Their message is for those who prefer to be told what to think, rather than make their own conclusions. Yet this group is convinced they have discovered a unique truth that “sheeple” cannot see.
Although Smit talks of access to science that confirms the RDA position, there is none on their site. The well examined Danish study on mask wearing and transmission of SARS-CoV-2, can be accessed in favourable format. Rather than finding masks do not prevent transmission, the study failed to find, “at least a 50% protection against a SARS-CoV-2 infection given by mask wearing”, as it was designed to do. Fact Check also addressed this nine months ago. In targeting COVID-19 vaccine safety and efficacy, RDA direct readers to the tired example of the estimated study completion date, for the AstraZeneca vaccine. The actual study completion date was 5 March 2021.
Other material is presented in misleading context. Despite Smit’s claim of enabling critical thinking, visitors to the site are shown bias. There are no opportunities to compare contentious information in a critical fashion. The elephant in the room here is that all reputable evidence is against the position held by RDA. The use of “critical thinking” as a buzz term, has become almost commonplace in conspiracy theory circles. It is seemingly confused with contrariness. This is underscored by the fact that constant cries of suppressed freedom, and the exploitation of loopholes, is possible only because of our democratic rights and the legislation that protects them.
Conclusion
There’s little point rambling on much more dear reader. I’m certain the RDA site would be worthy of content analysis. A work similar to the excellent approach employed by Thomas Aechtner, in assessing the Australian Vaccination-risks Network, would be welcome.
Monica Smit is more than just dishonest. In taking advantage of a global pandemic to raise her profile and profits she has proven to be a malignant influencer. What has been demonstrated above, is that everything Monica Smit said during the interview with Adam Stephens, is demonstrably false. More to the point it has long been clear what she stands for.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation needs to be out in front of such people.
The Lancet VOLUME 395, ISSUE 10242, P1973-1987, JUNE 27, 2020. Physical distancing, face masks, and eye protection to prevent person-to-person transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Corona children studies “Co-Ki”: First results of a Germany-wide registry on mouth and nose covering (mask) in children – DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-124394/v3
The present pandemic Australia is experiencing, and successfully managing to the envy of much of the world, has given attention seekers like Smit a spotlight they could previously only dream of. She clearly has no problem denying the scientific evidence and the necessary reality of COVID-19. Rather, Smit sees it as a tool to manipulate the gullible and those already tuned to conspiracy theories to further her own aims.
The COVID opportunity wasn’t lost on other conspiracy theorists around the world, particularly anti-vaccination lobbyists. As Vaxxed producer and CEO of the Informed Consent Action Network, Del Bigtree boasted last year the pandemic was “a dream come true”. It was to be capitalised upon. It was an opportunity to “get people to wake up”. In practice what this really means is convincing people that they have been asleep. A task that became easier when COVID lockdowns and restrictions yielded an attentive social media audience.
Smit’s attention-seeking includes an attempt to get a spot on Australian Survivor in 2017. The audition video is an interesting clip and Smit tells us that, “my willpower will definitely put up a very good fight” to scenes of her balancing on one leg (see below). Monica Smit has demonstrated her will power through the establishment of Reignite Democracy Australia (RDA), a $1 company of which she is the only director and sole shareholder. RDA has over 50,000 supporters with strong wellness, anti-vaccine and conspiracy beliefs.
Smit has also displayed unique energy in her willingness to jump onto any conspiracy theory that is popular amongst anti-lockdown protesters. Her website tells visitors that RDA is a political movement*, not a political party. It’s a clever line. Particularly if hiding your allegiance to political connections. The site also offers a discredited study disputing the efficacy of masks and the now worn out anti-vaccine trope that PCR tests are oversensitive and thus COVID-19 cases are false positives. She would reject conspiracy theory labels and does reject being anti-vaccine.
Smit is attempting a unique balancing act in protesting the anti-vaccine label. In a video on her RDA website today she offered a “recap” of yesterday’s protest at the office of Federal Health Minister, Greg Hunt.
Despite the presence of anti-vaccine protestors, signage and rhetoric Smit rejected media reports of an anti-vaxxer presence and maintained she was “about informed consent”, the standard anti-vaxxer catch cry.
Monica Smit is, unsurprisingly, hard to get a handle on. She can be found online as a freelance journalist, although as we’ll see, this is a role she has apparently abandoned. That site is now focused on attacking Dan Andrews and massaging the fears that link COVID public health measures to an impending death of democracy. The site hosts Smit’s articles covering a range of topics from around the world. Despite claiming she will “only work with positive endings” she manages to find negative subject matter. Caps lock and repeated exclamation marks abound.
She also describes herself as a “Catholic pilgrim”. Following the Journalism menu to Catholic one finds a Regina Coeli Report in PDF featuring an interview with Smit on pilgrimages. Smit talks about God, the devil and evil. She references the fight for the Catholic faith and getting a “clear response from God to my efforts” for which she “wept out loud with joy”. Asked what she would say to convince someone to go on a pilgrimage she answered.
You won’t regret it I promise! Just turn up and God will do the rest! You’ll see!
She would be just perfect for the emerging far right in the Victorian (and Australian) Liberal Party. As she bellowed at a rapturous crowd in Melbourne last weekend the fight she is leading against Bill Gates, Anthony Fauci, Scott Morrison and Dan Andrews is one, “between good and evil and we are the good and good always prevails”. Smit maintains she is independent. Not affiliated with any political party.
Smit’s involvement in attacks on Victorian premier Dan Andrews goes back at least to working for online group Victoria Forward. The group hides its allegiance to the Victorian Liberals claiming to be “bipartisan”. The main identity is Facebook-friendly teen Edward Bourke. As reported byGizmodo Australia Bourke started work as Male Vice-Chair at the Sunbury branch of Victorian Liberals in December 2019. It was one month before Victoria Forward emerged. Bourke is a firm Trump supporter who is proud of his plan to “import US political culture” starting with the launch of Victoria Forward.
In May last year Monica Smit worked with another apparent freelance journalist Stephanie Bastiaan in video production for Victoria Forward. Bastiaan, a member of the Victorian Liberal Party, is co-administrator of Victoria Forward’s Facebook page. Bastiaan is an integral part of the party’s conservative faction associated with branch stacking last year. She is the wife of Marcus Bastiaan who resigned from the Victorian Liberal Party in August last year due to the same branch stacking revelations.
Victoria Forward is anti-Dan Andrews and has capitalised on political sore spots for the Andrews’ government. Anti-lockdown sentiment, the Belt and Road agreement with China, volunteer firefighters and the unfortunate but necessary brumby cull. Opposing the last issue found support from another anti-Dan Andrews group Project Rural which has close links to Victoria Forward. Another website has put time and energy into fighting the Andrews’ government’s planned brumby cull. That of Monica Smit “freelance journalist”, which includes images and the article Racing to save last descendants of WWI ‘waler’ brumbies. Smit and Stephanie Bastiaan were praised for their efforts defending the brumby by member for Western Victoria, Bev McArthur of the Victorian Liberal Party.
Monica Smit is also a darling of Sky News. She was interviewed in October last year during her stint on the Let Us Work bus with the “Sack Andrews” hashtag. With what would become a tactic of Smits during arguments with police at anti-lockdown protests she used her apparent status as a journalist to shirk social distancing restrictions. The bus was the idea of Laurie Pincini, of Rockleigh Tours and the sign was courtesy of another small businessman. Both had lost their businesses to the lockdown impact on movement and Smit used their situation to her advantage. Alan Jones on Sky interviewed Smit after the Stop the sale of Victoria rally last November.
Smit kept drawing attention over 2020 and into 2021. She would attend protests and have herself filmed arguing with police over her right not to wear a mask, because she was a journalist. As noted above yesterday she was vocal at a protest outside the office of Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt. Channel 7 reported on the event. In one bizarre post on the RDA site today is a screenshot of her message that, “It WASN’T and (sic) anti-vax protest just FYI”. In the shot is an image of a woman holding a sign that reads, “It’s a DNA altering poison to change who you are!”.
Her most compelling performance was last Saturday February 20th in the Botanic Gardens Melbourne. The much promoted Millions March Against Mandatory Vaccination. Immediately before she spoke, some organisers appeared to be trying to get the crowd to stay in groups and maintain some semblance of social distancing. Smit jumped onto the podium, grabbed the microphone from the speaker and yelled, “Do what ya want, awright!”, to rousing cheers. [Video: see 1min 15]
Then Smit almost screams, “We are coming!”. More cheers. She puts on a pair of gloves promising it will make sense. She went on to yell that the door that closed was Gates, Fauci, Morrison and Andrews. The window that opened was them. Cheers. The people around are fighting for your future, your children’s future the crowd was told. They would die for this country. Louder cheers. They had tried to do the right thing. Wrote petitions. Nobody opened the email. She stamps her foot, not for the first time. “Guess what? We’re coming for all the marginal seats”, Smit managed to loudly sneer leaning forward jutting out her chin.
She was in her element. Attention, glorious attention. Stuff Australian Survivor. They would never get cheers like this. She goes on firing up the crowd with promised threats to governments, Federal and State. A monster has been awakened and the fire in its belly is so bright it can’t be put out, she yells. “Guess what? We have God on our side… this is a battle between good and evil…”. She continued on leaving no doubt that her plan is revenge through political victory. Anyone who knows her, the crowd was told, would know she has been towing the line, she’s been a reporter (self-appointed freelance journalist), doing everything right. “Well guess what? The gloves are coming off”. She pulls her gloves off and throws them down. Then finishes with another, “We are coming!”. Chants of “Moni-Ka, Moni-Ka” followed.
You can also check Monica Smit’s performance by audio here [MP3 5MB] or listen below. After Smit is a few seconds of the angry crowd chanting at police, “Free Australia, freedom, freedom”. There were twenty arrests.
It was a well planned speech. Monica Smit has no doubt what her next move is. Exactly who she may have offering or even giving support is not clear. Past form would suggest conservative factions of the Victorian Liberal Party. Yet Smit’s conduct would almost convince that she is striving to be an independent liberal. Reality says she will be a conservative. Her attacks on the Morrison government serve to create the impression she has no time for a coalition government and perhaps the Liberal Party.
But impressions can be deceiving. Monica Smit can be deceiving and is likely deceiving her supporters. Time will tell if she has truly abandoned Victorian Liberals. At one point Smit yelled that the most dangerous thing was a person with nothing left to lose. She blamed the government/s for this. The scale of selfishness and recklessness at play in exploiting public health measures necessary in a pandemic, can’t be overestimated. Little wonder there were twenty arrests.
A pressing issue in this light is the growing protest movement and the rise in anti-vaccination traffic on social media. It is concerning that there is little doubt such protests will continue. I recently mused in a comment about this so-called mandatory vaccination march. What fascinates me is that this is going on in the wake of the severe oppression and jailing of Hong Kong protestors who dared publicly say, “Independence for Hong Kong”. At the same time as Myanmar is experiencing a military coup and suppression of democracy. The same time as the actual dictator (not Dan Andrews) Alexandar Lukashenko, crushes anyone who dares object to him stealing the most recent Belarusian presidential election. At the same time as Putin jails many who gather to vocally support opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Who himself was jailed in a penal camp for breaching conditions of a suspended sentence.
It goes to show what a secure and fair democracy Australia is when the utter vacuum of any need to protest leads to the invention of faux suppression. So the privileged bored can role play. COVID-19 vaccines are not mandatory. Nor are they ‘experimental’. But more so, we know much of the anti-vaccine, anti-COVID measures and conspiracy theories have been generated by Russian trolls and bots [BMJ]. So how does Australia treat ex-pat Putin loyalists who regard us as a USA puppet and Western “enemy”? It lets them protest and say whatever they like. To even counter-rally against Ukrainians who are also rallying for their own cause to be independent from Putin’s Russia. Because that’s what this county allows. Democracy.
I imagine protestors will continue to enjoy this game. To pretend their rights are being taken away. To act as if they can’t refuse the vaccine. Pretend vaccines don’t work but instead cause widespread injury. Gather absurd information from social media and accept it as truth. Become hysterical about the Nuremberg code and argue their rights are breached, which they aren’t. Praise the scam artists profiting from their gullibility. Never question how full-time anti-vaxxers – white, financially comfortable and safe, support themselves. Pay no attention to the genuinely oppressed in the world, unless they want to liken their pretend oppression to real suffering.
Australia and its democracy may not be perfect but it has given rise to the bizarre symptom that is faux suppression – the pathetic, selfish obsession with fantasy. These protestors are without a doubt a malignancy born from democratic values. If they can not only invent suppression but afford (financially and socially) to role play as if it were real, no matter what the health cost to the society that props them up, then they certainly live in one of the greatest nations on the planet.
Australia has flaws of course, and our government is far from perfect. But the purported reignited democracy from the likes of Monica Smit who has inane support from the likes of Bernie Finn and Craig Kelly would be truly horrifying.
Well guess what? Reignite Democracy Australia is not coming with anything Australia needs.
* 4 September 2021 – The site now describes RDA as “An advocacy group and aspiring media outlet.”.
Losing In The Lucky Country 