bilby, do you have many covid denier protestors over there?
Some.
They're not getting much traction.
Mostly it seems to be the usual anti-vax suspects.
Australians don't tend to bother too much about freedom as a concept or self-contained ideological stance, though we do have a lot of leakage of these things from American culture. Our modern nation was founded as a prison, so we pretty much expect that everything that's not mandatory will be prohibited.
In my state, an arrested person has two legal rights: To be told the name, rank, and police station of their arresting officer; And to be provided with a detailed list of any charges against them, if and when charges are laid.
That's it. There are no others. Miranda certainly doesn't apply, and a police 'caution' typically consists of "You are under arrest, get in the van". Asking for a lawyer or phone call might well get you one. Demanding them probably won't.
Oddly, in day to day life, (white) Australians are about the most free people on Earth, having worked out that the only way to handle our draconian and all pervading laws is to ignore any that don't seem to make sense, or don't seem likely to be enforced. She'll be right, mate.
Complaining about being denied your rights isn't particularly effective when you never had any rights to deny. If the government is forcing you to wear a mask, then so what? They're forcing you to do a metric shit-ton of other stuff too, and it's not worth arcing up about it - just ignore it unless everyone else is obeying. Being the odd one out might get you fined. So Australians tend to go along with the crowd, rather than worrying about what the actual rules are. It's incredibly democratic.
Right now, the highly unofficial democratic will of the people seems to be 'wear your bloody mask'.
