The 46-year-old said he “stood with Australians” who have been protesting over lockdown rules and vaccine mandates for several months, likening quarantine facilities to “internment camps” and calling powers given to police “terrifying”. Anti-lockdown ralliers have come out in force in Melbourne almost weekly for months, but Victoria Premier Dan Andrews’ new pandemic management bill has seen turnouts explode to tens of thousands in the last few weeks.Stream more entertainment news live & on demand with Flash, Australia’s biggest news streaming service. New to Flash? Try 14 days free now >Taking to his YouTube channel and referencing an article from The Grayzone which quoted a man who described his experience in a quarantine facility as “inhumane”, Brand said: “I suppose that the argument is that the coronavirus is so lethal that any measure necessary to protect human life must be taken. “Some people would contest that brings to the forefront question about liberty, potential hypocrisy where we are not so concerned about this in other areas, and of the qualitative aspects of life.”While the comedian acknowledged that regulations put in place throughout the pandemic were “divisive”, he said looking at them through a “lens of human liberty, freedom and democracy” was important. “Playgrounds closed, increased policing, large fines, curfews, restrictions on freedom of movement, being stopped and questioned by police.“Is there any situation you wouldn’t consider that a problem?” he questioned.Over the past two years, Australia’s strict border closures have prevented tens of thousands of people from returning to the country, but this along with lockdown rules also kept illness from the virus to a minimum. Brand’s weekend rant isn’t the first time the star has taken aim at Australia’s response to the pandemic.In September, he courted controversy for sharing advice on how people could avoid Covid safety measures in order to attend his stand-up tour.Taking to social media to address “misunderstandings” in regards to certain venue requirements, he outlined three leading concerns, writing:– NO venue requires you to be double vaccinated.– Most venues do not ask for any certification. Some require proof of a negative test.– If you have tickets to a venue that requires a PCR test and do not want to take one, please email help@russellbrand.com and we will swap your tickets for venues that have no requirements for entry.The post attracted a wave of backlash, with many dubbing Brand “irresponsible” for touting ways to avoid measures to stop the spread of Covid in the UK, which had recorded a seven-day average of more than 31,000 daily cases the week of his message.“I’m going to unfollow now. It’s feeling like RB is getting a cult leader complex. Encouraging pandemic anti-vaxxers is a line in the sand for me,” one user wrote.Another echoed the sentiment, writing: “This is such a joke. You were already teetering on the edge of irrelevancy. I just hope for you and your lawyers sake that nobody dies as a result of this tour.”Worryingly, Brand’s post also attracted a swarm of supporters who dubbed him “Jesus” and “the voice of reason”.Brand was in Australia for a tour during the early stages of the global pandemic, where he was forced to cancel his Perth show after a positive case emerged in the local community in early March, 2020.At the time, he said: “We have to SADLY CANCEL TONIGHT’S SHOW IN #PERTH because there has been a CONFIRMED CASE OF CORONAVIRUS in someone who attended a recent show and I am not happy with risk for me or for any of you.”
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