By TONY MOBILIFONITIS
HOTELIER Trevor Andrews at Echuca on the Victorian side of the Murray River knows something is seriously wrong when a state government orders thousands of small businesses to shut down while leaving the big corporate businesses open.

On July 17th, after the fifth lockdown of Victoria was announced by the lawless, corrupt dictator Dan Andrews and his circle of COVID con artists, Trevor Andrews decided it was time to take a public stand on behalf of the small businesses sector, the economic lifeblood of the state, and announced on his social media that his Pastoral Hotel was staying fully open for business. In earlier lockdowns he also refused to shut the doors.

Locals were only too happy to support Andrews and rocked up for meals and drinks. Word soon spread and 12 local cops and three health inspectors from Melbourne arrived at the hotel. Andrews was handcuffed and taken away to the local station. He was subsequently charged and bailed on a good behaviour bond to appear before a magistrate on December 14th.

The local cops also leaned on the locals who supported the “open for business” hotel and fined 50 of them $1817 for failing to comply with a health order. Cairns News understands most, if not all of the fines will be challenged. Many fines against Melbourne people for disobeying so-called health orders or directives were thrown out because of various legal flaws.

Andrews was reluctant to speak to Cairns News because of his good behaviour bond, but insisted someone had to take a stand for the states decimated small businesses. He believes he can raise constitutional arguments against his $22,000 fines and has taken on legal advice. He said the reports that he would use Section 51 23(a) of the Constitution were not quite correct and he was looking at other provisions. A GoFundMe page has been set up to cover the costs of an expected legal fight against the fines.

The Pastoral Hotel is just one of 3000 licensed premises in Victoria, and two other hotels in the state reportedly opened up in support of Andrews. “I was hoping other businesses in town would open up as well. I guess I’m the one taking the rotten tomatoes but I’m glad I did it anyway,” he said. “If these COVID cases were deaths on a daily basis we’d have something to be worried about.”

“Coles and Woolies can have 100 people go through their supermarkets just in an hour. But you won’t even get 100 people in some of these small businesses in a week,” he said. He also noted there had been no reported case of COVID-19 in Echuca, although official reports had 10 “cases” in the Campaspe Shire with none “active” on July 29.

Trevor Andrews is not the only small business operator in Victoria to defy the unjust and fraudulent lockdown orders. Cairns News has heard of others around the state doing or considering doing the same, but many more are needed to join the resistance to make it effective.