It beggars belief. After two and a half years in which a cohort of left-leaning politicians, elite bureaucrats, over-zealous health officials and opportunistic drug manufacturers cajoled, harangued, bullied and used police brutality to force many of us into locking ourselves down for months on end in our homes, closing our children’s schools, abandoning our elderly and frail relatives to suffer alone without family affection, losing our jobs, bankrupting our businesses, trashing our investments, compromising our mental health, wearing largely pointless masks and taking unproven medical treatments frequently against our better judgement, those most responsible for the authoritarian excesses and abuses of the Covid-19 era now wish to further encourage such activities with a World Health Organisation Global Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response Treaty. 194 nations, including our own, are said to intend ratifying a series of Biden administration ‘amendments’ supporting such a treaty at a special meeting of the World Health Assembly this week in Geneva.

This was brought to Australia’s notice this week on TV by the editor of this magazine and in a searing piece by the editor of our online magazine Flat White. Prime Minister Scott Morrison was quick to rubbish the story as ‘untrue’ and to insist his government would never sign up to such a treaty. Let’s hope he wins the election and keeps his word. As for if Labor wins….

If the Covid-19 pandemic did any good whatsoever, it was that it alerted many in the West to just how corrupted and compromised the major global health institutions have become. Could there be anything more disturbing than the attempt by one vaccine manufacturer to keep secret its adverse research findings for the next 75 years? A decision mercifully overturned by the courts. Future scholars will scratch their heads in disbelief at the way in which not only did governments and health bureaucrats ignore and dismiss national pandemic plans that had been in place for decades, but also the absurd way in which they kept changing official health advice.

Worse, let us never forget the WHO’s own woeful track record of mistakes and false information, not to mention its habit of cosying up to China. A habit perfected by former Marxist Dr Tedros.

The pandemic and its aftermath have taught us one invaluable lesson: too much power in the hands of unelected officials and unaccountable bureaucracies only results in bad, even deadly, decision-making. It is increasingly clear that nations such as Sweden and states such as Florida which took a more sceptical or nuanced approach to implementing strict Covid restrictions – trusting in the choices of individuals rather than imposing draconian, one-size-fits-all measures from on high – have fared certainly no worse and sometimes even better than others. On excess mortalities over the Covid period, for example, Sweden sits near the bottom of the European tally.

Here in Australia, it is likely that history will show that the swift action by the Morrison government in closing down our international borders in early 2020 combined with basic and sensible social distancing measures in our major cities (banning large sporting crowds, etc.) is what prevented the virus wreaking havoc prior to the arrival of the vaccines. But pretty much every other measure, including the vaccine mandates, was over-egged or even counter-productive. And to be clear, it was these measures – as opposed to the virus itself – that led to the job losses and trillion dollars’ worth of self-inflicted economic damage to our businesses and our lives.

Liberal Senator Alex Antic has written to Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne, pointing out that ‘… the Global Pandemic Treaty threaten(s) our sovereignty by allowing the WHO to declare pandemics, impose lockdowns, and enforce treatments against the will of the Australian people’.

The understandable fear of many is that if the aspirations of those behind this treaty and its amendments are realised – gifting the WHO the legal power to impose at will pandemic restrictions of their own design upon any nation, state or community – then when the next pandemic comes around we could be looking at Dan Andrews-style lockdowns and police brutality being imposed on us willy-nilly by an unelected global authority.

It was The Spectator Australia that first brought to light the insidious Global Compact on Migration, which Peter Dutton subsequently refused to sign us up to. It was The Speccie that ignited the media storm surrounding the proposed WHO treaty this week.

Let’s trust it meets the same fate.