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Australia Expecting $5.2 Million in COVID-19 Fines by Seizing Defaulters’ Homes, Bank Accounts, and Licenses

Victor Westerkamp
Victor resides in the Netherlands and writes about freedom and governmental and social changes to the democratic form of nations.
Published: November 9, 2021
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Anti-vaccination and lockdown protesters hold a rally at the gates at the Flemington racecourse in Melbourne on November 2, 2021. (Image WILLIAM WEST/AFP via Getty Images)

Queensland Health Services has assigned the State Penalties Enforcement Register (SPER) to collect $5.2 million worth of outstanding COVID-19 fines on people who flouted pandemic rules, the Brisbane Times reported.

As of late September, a caseload of over 3,000 unpaid penalty notices and repayments corresponding to some 2,755 individuals and businesses still requires to be processed. SPER is going after 18.4 percent of these cases worth approximately $1 million, and authorities are employing “active enforcement” which, “may include garnishing bank accounts or wages, registering charges over property, or suspending driver licenses,” a spokesperson familiar with the matter said.

READ MORE: Excessive COVID-19 Lockdowns Have Australia Verging on Authoritarianism

Another 25.2 percent of the cases are still pending or still open to payment, while the remaining 56.4 percent are cases where a payment arrangement has already been settled.

Queensland Health ordered SPER to go after more than 2,000 overdue hotel quarantine bills, worth $5.7 million stemming from 2,045 significantly overdue invoices for the state-imposed hotel quarantining of citizens.

“Queenslanders rightly expect travelers will pay for their hotel quarantine stays and not leave taxpayers to foot the bill,” a Queensland Health spokesperson said, to justify the measure in what Zero Hedge reporter Tyler Durden dubbed as “Orwellian newspeak of Covid enforcement lunacy.”

No Jab, No Job

Meanwhile, Aussies are exceedingly being pushed out of their jobs if they refuse to comply with mandatory vaccination orders.

In Western Australia, Premier Mark McGowan has been expanding the state’s vaccine mandate allowing it to “cover the majority of occupations and workforces within WA,” HRD noted.

“The policy strengthens current mandates and covers the next groups of industries to be mandated, as well as a requirement for other critical workers to be vaccinated to be permitted to work in the event of a lockdown or similar restrictions,” said McGowan.

The regulation would involve some 75 percent or 1.1 million workers, ABC calculated.

McGowan explained the vaccination mandate would be rolled out in different phases for different types of workers. 

The first group consists of employees in border and air transport occupations. Staff working or entering remote Aboriginal communities also fall under this group in addition to residential and non-residential community care services, corrective services, WA police, fire and emergency services (excluding volunteers), and abattoirs and meat processing employees. Employees are mandated to get their first vaccine by December 1 and to receive their second shot by December 31. 

Another extremely broad group of employees includes workers at supermarkets, groceries, bakeries, restaurants, pubs, bars, and cafés. Also included are employees of post offices, hardware stores, childcare or family daycare, and financial institutions. Employees of petrol stations, truck stops, and roadhouses including employees of public and commercial transport, and port operations are also swept up by the mandate. 

In addition, employees of accommodation services working in hotels, motels, and other accommodation facilities, funeral or mortuary services, building, maintenance, or construction are also subject to the mandate. They will have to get their first dose by December 31 and the second by January 31.

“If relevant, employers that have unvaccinated staff working after the deadline run the risk of being fined up to $100,000,” McGowan said. “Individual employees could also face a fine of up to $20,000,” he added.

Get the Jab, or Else…

Queensland’s premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, admonished the unvaccinated stating they have one last chance to get their shot, “This is your last chance to get vaccinated,” or else, critics, like Aussie Cossack suspects, a stay in one of Australia’s quarantine facilities awaits them.

In an interview with the Australian news channel SunRise, Palaszczuk indeed explains, “I think regional quarantine facilities are going to be needed in the future. We’ll also need it for unvaccinated people.”