Australia is no longer on a top 10 list for world freedom because Covid rules restricted movement and sparked a surge in government spending.
The Cato Institute, an American libertarian think tank, ranked Australia 11th on its Human Freedom Index for 2022, down from 8th spot in its 2021 report.
Australia was marked harshly for its border closures and spending $300billion on Covid measures such as lockdowns, in the annual report analysing personal, civil and economic freedom.
Report author Ian Vásquez, a Cato vice president of international studies, said Covid lockdowns had erased two decades worth of global freedom gains, with 94 per cent of the world’s population losing their freedoms since 2020.
‘The pandemic was a catastrophe for human freedom,’ he said.
‘Time will tell to what extent the world will regain its lost freedoms as the pandemic moderates.’
Australia is no longer on the top 10 list of the world’s freest nations because of the Covid pandemic (pictured are supporters of Australia Day remaining on January 26 in Sydney)
When it came to personal freedom, Australia scored 8.85 out of 10, down from 9.3 out of 10.
On the economic freedom front, Australia scored a lesser 8.04 out of 10, down from 8.2 out of 10.
State border closures saw Australia marked down heavily for civil liberties infringements, with a score of just 3.3 for freedom of movement, a big drop from a perfect 10 out of 10 score.
Australia was also the world’s only developed democracy to ban its citizens from travelling overseas for a holiday.
With $300billion spent on Covid welfare measures, Australia did particularly badly when it came to government spending, scoring a dismal 3.4 out of 10, down from an already bad 4.2 out of 10.
‘The key question in future years is whether governments will fully reverse Covid-related restrictions on freedom as the pandemic moderates or whether some will continue to exert the additional control and spending power,’ the Cato Institute said.
Australia scored a 7.4 out of 10 for the rule of law and 7.5 out of 10 for media freedom, down from 8.9 out of 10.
The Cato Institute, an American libertarian think tank, ranked Australia 11th on its Human Freedom Index for 2022, down from 8th spot in its 2021 report
Switzerland was first overall, followed by New Zealand, Estonia, Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, Iceland, Finland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
Australia, in 11th place, tied with Norway, and beat Canada, Taiwan, Latvia, Japan, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Germany and the United Kingdom.
The United States was in 23rd spot, down from 15th position a year earlier while Myanmar, where a military junta is in power, came 135th, in from 141st.
India, the world’s biggest democracy, was in 112th place, only a few places ahead of Russia in 119th position.
Syria came last among the 165 nations on the list, doing even worse than Yemen, Venezuela, Iran, Egypt, Sudan and Saudi Arabia.
The list didn’t include Afghanistan, where the Taliban has returned to power, or communist North Korea due to insufficient data.
