In an Australian context at least, COVID has absolutely nothing to do with this. The Federal Government in Australia has passed more surveillance and ostensibly “anti-terrorism” laws (funnily enough they’re mostly used on whistleblowers) since 9/11 than any other country, despite basically never having a “real” terrorist attack on our soil. The laws started getting worse and the bills more frequent when a certain politician was given a cabinet portfolio with massive power a few years pre-COVID (Home Affairs, a cobbled together super-department with little oversight that is incompetently run).

On the other hand, COVID related restrictions are directives that only have authority all under a temporary declared ‘state of emergency’ in each state, by the State Governments. They literally have no on-going effect once those state of emergencies end, unlike the 86 or so permanent surveillance/ “anti-terror” laws the Federal Governments have passed over the last 20 years (which is why I’m really hoping to get the opposition into minority Government next election so the minor parties can push for repeals and reworking of the whole mess).