The state of South Australia has developed an app to enforce home quarantines. As a news report explains, “The app will contact people at random asking them to provide proof of their location within 15 minutes.” If they fail to do so, the health department will notify the police, who will send officers to check on the malefactor.

Unrestricted travel is a hallmark of a free society, but Australians can barely leave the country. Travel has been cut off between states, creating an arbitrary patchwork of states trying to isolate themselves from COVID cases elsewhere.

Tens of thousands of Australians have been trapped overseas, unable to come back home because of monthly limits on how many people can return.

All of this economic and social disruption and coercion hasn’t been enough to stamp out the Delta variant, which is outrunning the government controls. Federal premier Scott Morrison finally admitted the obvious the other day: “This is not a sustainable way to live in this country.”