Our Australian governments -- Liberal or Labor -- are always looking for more ways to restrict free speech. AKA to censor what we say. Because it makes their lives easier. They don’t have to deal with we horrid naysayers. We horrid critics. We horrid heretics.
The latest attempt is the Labor Party's Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023.
It’s a shocker of a Bill. The government can decide what is and is not dis/misinformation and jail you if you don’t cut it out. Meantime, they, the government, are not subject to the Bill. They can never publish disinformation, because.... well, they just can’t. They can’t -- by definition -- publish disinformation. It’s right there in the Bill!
My submission, below. I clicked to make it “Public”.
To make your own Submission, Click here and then click on “Have your say”.
You need to be careful to check if your Submission has actually gone when you click “Submission” as they readily give you an “Error” message which is easy to miss -- in my case because I hadn’t clicked Public or Anonymous -- and I can’t help thinking it’s a ruse to reduce the number of submissions. Because submissions are running pretty much 100% against the Bill from what I’ve read.
My Submission:
I don’t think the government should be in the business of deciding what is “disinformation” or “misinformation”. Full Stop. Not at all.
I saw, with mine own eyes, what happened during Covid, and how much of what was labelled “mis/dis information” turned out to be true. Truth was harmed by not having allowed open and free dialogue.
Free speech is democratic and messy, and people can abuse it. But the alternative - whereby the government decides what is allowable - is far more dangerous.
Stop it! BIN the BILL!
Peter Forsythe
Australian citizen in Hong Kong
Maryanne Demasi: "Australia’s own Ministry of Truth”
ADDED: In the Netflix “Chernobyl” mini-series, a government apparatchik says: “people should simply be told to keep their minds on their labor and leave matters of the State to the State… contain the spread of misinformation, we will all be rewarded for what we do here tonight.”
We know how they were “rewarded”. By a much worse crisis than need have been. With many more dead than need have been. With a melt-down crisis that need not have been.
Down with banning “misinformation”! Down with controlling “disinformation”!
