Thursday, 29 August 2024

Freedom of speech

David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:06): We are in a dire strait in what is often called the Western world. Our governments state and federal are both complicit. I am of course talking about the state of free speech. The United Kingdom was already in trouble under a conservative government, with people being put on a list for sharing a meme or even song lyrics, but now people have been given jail sentences for sharing offensive Facebook comments that someone else made, posting anti-Establishment rhetoric or shouting religiously offensive slogans. They have even threatened to go after foreigners, and the Home Secretary has threatened to come down hard on people who push what they term to be harmful beliefs. Even the United States, which has one of the best free speech cultures in the world, is not safe, with Facebook and Instagram founder Mark Zuckerberg admitting that it caved to pressure from the Biden administration to censor posts about COVID. The Canadian Parliament are also considering a bill that would impose draconian criminal penalties for what they consider to be hate speech. Back home the Victorian and the Australian governments are both considering new speech censorship laws. This is a grave mistake. I urge all governments to follow New Zealand’s example; they were considering similar laws and shelved them.