Having looked through this comment thread as it has built up over the past couple of hours, I'd like to point to an article in The Atlantic from earlier today that raises many parallel concerns to some expressed here. The article [1] is headlined Australia Traded Away Too Much Liberty and carries the sub-heading How long can a democracy maintain emergency restrictions and still call itself a free country?

I can't view the article as unbiased (and neither would I expect that from The Atlantic), although it does make some effort to support measures introduced for the public good - especially in times of pandemic. However, for me at any rate, it was worth reading and gave me food for thought. I worked in Australia for nearly three years (2013 to 2016) and wouldn't like to see a shift in its society to the extent feared by the writer.

[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/pandemic-a...