ATTACK ON FREE SPEECH

Jan 31, 2018

After the Storm

The Australia of 2018 was already a withered place, but nonetheless the government continued to mount its attack on free speech.

It was a democracy in name only.

The military morons who ruled the place through through the secretive and unaccountable "national security" agencies were frightened and distrustful of the public.

The more totalitarian a government, the more frightened they were of people, and more frightened they were of freedom of expression.

Which was exactly this place, this government.

It was discussed, sometimes openly, but the oligarchs and the totalitarians never missed a beat.

This was a country which had lost the ability to tell its own story. Instead the populace were fed a steady diet of celebrity gossip, sport and overseas dribble.

The politicians, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the Murdoch press, were entirely complicit.

Caroline Overington, now one of the senior editors at The Australian, his old alma mater, den of shite, hut of hell, The Evil Empire as the long suffering denizens described it with barely a wry offhand tilt, was one of the few journalists who spoke out about the issue.

She was an "operator", the highest compliment one journalist could pay to another, and had survived, thrived, in the tough environment of News Limited.

She told a television audience last night, from memory: "There are hundreds, thousands of things every journalist knows they cannot tell the public. My inbox fills up with suppression orders every day."

Odd, perhaps, that one of the key public personalities representing perhaps the most conservative publication in Australia was the one who spoke up on the issue, while the left remained largely, if not completely, silent on the issue.

The totalitarian left. Which could brook no opposition. No divergent view. Which regarded the views of ordinary people with contempt.

The useful fools had gripped control of every major institution, and the results were everywhere, for everyone to see. Sad.

Some of the things arguably the worst government in Australian history, led by arguably the worst Prime Minister in Australian history Malcolm Turnbull were proposing, unilaterally, led not by the people's interest but their own, and had no intention of discussing in a rational or democratic way:

Fred Barnett, who was deputy secretary in the Department of Defence during the Hawke government, warned that the $3.8 billion in taxpayer funds committed to supporting defence exports was likely to be wasted. "Every nation in the world struggles with the same problem: how to maintain an in-country defence industrial capacity, when its own needs for production are spasmodic, subject to the fickle availability of funds and the constant demand to update technology. "Exports of defence equipment are subsidised, backed with diplomatic pressure, lubricated with consulting fees, agents' fees and other forms of international bribery."It is perhaps the most fiercely contested of all markets and the one most subject to manipulation by national governments. To believe Australian firms ca,n succeed in this market in the face of the decline of our manufacturing sector under the pressure of relatively high energy and labour costs, a strong currency and adversarial industrial relations is to believe in a fairy tale."David Uren, The Australian, 31 January, 2018.

The most arrogant. The most ignorant. The greediest and most amoral. These were the people who were leading the country heading straight into its own Dark Ages.

A nation which could not tell its own story. A nation where its own journalists had become targets for national security agencies, entrapped in legislation, passed by this government, which was the worst assault on freedom of speech in the nation's history.

The country as a whole, in this bland, neutered environment, where there was no genuine public debate about any of the major issues of the day, would ultimately pay a very high price for having allowed the totalitarian, military mindset of protected, taxpayer funded lunatics to prevail.

Miranda Devine, whose father Frank Devine Old Alex had known, a now passed figure from the era of the long lunch, when journalists saw themselves as princes of the intellectual life of the country, was not always right. But she was right about this one:

It's pretty hard to say you're against "integrity" or for corruption.It's far more complicated to tell the truth, that a federal ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) will be a further totalitarian encroachment on our liberties.It will be like the NSW ICAC, a secretive and unaccountable star chamber that has usurped the usual democratic checks and balances. ICAC sullies people's reputations with casual abandon, and yet even when its over-reach and Stasi-style tactics occasionally have been exposed in proper courts of law, there is no apology or restitution. Devine, Miranda, The Daily Telegraph, 31 January, 2018.

This was a failing government which had resorted to every offhand, devious trick to hide its own multitudinous failings.

Gay marriage had poisoned the public square for a good nine months, more like a year, but was over now with the Yes vote having won. What else to talk about? To fill the media space? Falling standards of living? The worst internet in the world? The highest housing prices? The collapse of country towns? The highest electricity costs in the world? Chronic government mismanagement? The massive salaries and perks an ever expanding and unrepresentative bureaucracy gifted themselves at everybody else's expense?

The government - and the courts - had much to hide, and the last thing they wanted was a free press.

The security agencies, most notably ASIO, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, which had an appalling history of manipulating the social, cultural and media life of the country in the name of eliminating subversion, whatever it deemed to be wrong thinking, was no doubt well in play.

A vetting here. A security report there. A rumour. An undermining. A word in someone's ear. All of it was meant to eliminate dissent. To destroy what had once been a creative country. To create the bland out. The military mindset. Yes Sir!!!

The worst thing we could do was think for ourselves.

THE BIGGER STORY:

Australia's largest media organisations have warned the Federal Government its foreign interference laws could undermine freedom of the press and see journalists thrown in jail.

Key points:

Media organisations and unions say they cannot support bill unless exemptions made for journalists
Claim existing security laws already undermine media's role in informing Australians
Brandis described announcement as most significant overhaul of espionage laws in decades

New laws announced by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in December would expand the definition of espionage to include possessing classified information, rather than the current definition which only outlaws communicating it.

The 15 companies — including the ABC, Fairfax and News Corp — have told the Government they cannot support the bill unless specific exemptions are made for journalists.

Their joint submission to a parliamentary committee claims existing security laws already undermine the media's ability to keep Australians informed about national affairs.

The companies warn the proposed laws would criminalise all steps of news reporting and put journalists at a "significant risk" of jail time for possessing information that is in the public interest.

"The result is that fair scrutiny and public interest reporting is increasingly difficult and there is a real risk that journalists could go to jail for doing their jobs," the submission said.

The laws were announced amid growing concerns within the intelligence community about the influence of foreign agents and political donations.

When they were announced, former attorney-general George Brandis said they represented the most significant overhaul of espionage and intelligence laws in decades.

"The core concept of espionage will not change but the breadth of behaviours defined will change," Senator Brandis said.The media companies argue the proposed laws are too broad and would have unintended consequences for journalists.

The companies include the ABC, AAP, Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association, Bauer Media Group, Commercial Radio Australia, Community Broadcasting Association of Australia, Fairfax Media, Free TV Australia, HT&E, MEAA, News Corp Australia, NewsMediaWorks, SBS and The West Australian.

The laws will be debated in Federal Parliament in coming months.

“Free speech” is often raised as a defence in the court of public opinion, particularly when people are called out by their ideological opponents. “You’re attacking my right to free speech!” However, either through forgetfulness or ignorance, many Australians don’t appear to realise free speech is not a legal right they hold.

Australia Does Not Have A Bill Of Rights

The right to free speech has come up frequently in recent times, as the political climate both in Australia and abroad continues to draw heated debate. In the US, individuals often cite their First Amendment rights when they feel they have been censored. Setting aside an analysis of US law, Australia does not have any equivalent. Unlike the US, Australia does not have a bill of rights, and in fact is the only Western liberal democracy not to have one.

There has been some debate regarding whether Australia needs a bill of rights. Arguments for a bill include that by having a reference point, people will be able to more effectively enforce their rights. Arguments against a bill include that by defining rights we would by nature be limiting them. In Kruger v The Commonwealth (1997) 190 CLR 1, Dawson J stated, “The framers [of the Constitution] preferred to place their faith in the democratic process for the protection of individual rights.”

The Australian Constitution does not expressly guarantee many rights or freedoms, though it does guarantee a small handful (such as freedom of trade between the states in s 92). Freedom of speech is not one of them.

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