Welcome to Freedom Day! Oh, hang on, this isn’t Freedom Day. If it were, everyone would be free with no conditions. But that’s not what this is. This version of “freedom” day is defined by “freedoms” only for those who comply with government orders. Maybe we should call it Compliance Day. But no, there’s a much more apt term to describe what is now taking place in what was once the great nation of Australia.  

Welcome to Segregation Day. 

As New South Wales opens up today, it does so only to those who are fully vaccinated with one of the provisionally approved Covid-19 vaccines. If you have not had the jab, you are still under lock and key at home, with at least another seven and a half weeks to go. Thus, two separate classes have been created – the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. And with this, segregation has found its way into Australia. 

People may get upset at me for using the word “segregation” to describe what is now occurring, but it is an accurate descriptor. Segregation is defined as “the action or state of setting someone or something apart from others”. In this case, unvaccinated people are being set apart from the vaccinated.

Just days ago, Australian actress Sam Frost was vilified on social media after posting a video labelling this splitting up of society based on vaccination status as segregation, expressing her concerns about the direction society is taking, and expressing her choice not to take the vaccine. The outrage at what was a reasonable message was shocking. The bullying was so immense that it drove Frost to delete her social media accounts, something that the Covid manic mob celebrated. The irony? The very same people who told Frost to be quiet and keep her views to herself have been plastering their infantile vaccine selfies all over social media for months on end. Their lack of self-awareness is eminent. 

But there is far more than just hypocrisy in the mob. There are people in the fully vaccinated crowd who are openly supporting medical segregation. Some have said they don’t want to mix with the unvaccinated because they are concerned about getting the virus from them. Yet just because someone is unvaccinated does not mean they are infected. It also begs the question, why are they so worried about getting the virus if they are fully vaxxed? Do they have such little faith in the vaccine to protect them?

Sure, maybe this is founded given the vaccine does not prevent infection nor transmission (which, you have to admit, is odd for what has been touted as a revolutionary advance in science). But that means that the vaccinated can also spread it amongst themselves. So if the case numbers increase when only the fully vaxxed are out and about, what backwards logic will they come up with to defend their almighty vaccine?  

Some of the vaccinated have also shown support for splitting up society based on the notion that they should be rewarded for “doing the right thing”. But isn’t being vaccinated and protected against the virus reward enough? We should not be excluding a certain group of people from society just to make you feel special. 

Speaking of backwards logic, there is plenty to go around. Take, for instance, the following: From today, vaccinated and unvaccinated people will be able to mix in “essential” stores like Woolworths and Coles, where they can all touch fresh fruit and vegetables and a multitude of other products, but only vaccinated people can enter Kmart and Big W, which have, until now been “essential” stores. Take it a step further: if you’re unvaccinated, you can enter a shopping centre to go to Coles, but you cannot go to Kmart in the very same shopping centre. This defies all common sense. 

But it gets even more insane. What many could do yesterday, only a select group can do today. For example, last week anyone, vaccinated or unvaccinated, could go to the pool for a swim. Now, only fully vaxxed individuals can partake in such an activity. And with the advent of vaccine passports segregating society, regional areas that were not under stay-at-home orders to this point are now essentially in lockdown for those who have chosen not to take the vaccine. Again, this flies in the face of all logic. 

In fact, it doesn’t just merely defy logic. Logic has left the building, walked down the street, and jumped off a bridge.  

From today, NSW enters the long-predicted stage of “papers, please”. Just a year ago, this was all one giant “conspiracy theory”. Now, it’s a forlorn reality which demonstrates just how far society has fallen. At the beginning of 2021, Scott Morrison changed a line of the Australian National Anthem from “we are young and free” to “we are one and free”. It is ironic given that, since then, Australia has become more divided and less free with each passing day. 

What we are witnessing right now is something that never should have been allowed to occur. But a society that has been progressively dumbed down into subservience by power-obsessed politicians, to the point where many now worship those who rule over them, has permitted it to pervade. That this nation is now one where segregation runs rife practically without question is a blight on what it once was. Australia is no longer “one and free”.  

This is not Freedom Day. To claim this to be true is to have a lack of understanding of what freedom truly is. True freedom is not conditional; it is not bound by restrictions. Today, only those who are fully vaccinated, who have given in to the threats and coercive control of those in power, are getting their freedoms partially returned to them. This is a dark day in Australian history, one where the good Australian name is blackened by medical apartheid. 

We are not free until we are all free.  

Joel Agius is an independent writer. If you would like to read more of his work, you can do so at JJ’s Outlook.