24 November 2021
Why Scott Morrison Must Act On Free Speech
Free speech is fundamental but talk is cheap. Mr Morrison, if you REALLY believe in free speech then it’s time to DO SOMETHING about it. It’s time to repeal section 18C.
29 November 2019
There May Be 1300 Reasons This Law Does Not Work
There are potentially 1300 smoking guns pointing to evidence that the Attorney-General’s Department has been using the power of the commonwealth to target conservatives in Australia. It is not acceptable for bureaucrats to be running a covert political operation out of the Attorney-General’s Department to silence Australians because of their political beliefs, but they are able to under the Foreign
6 November 2019
The Secretary Of The Attorney-General’s Department Must Stand Down
“The Secretary of the Attorney-General’s Department, Chris Moraitis, must stand down pending an investigation into how his department abused its power to target Australians because of their political beliefs,” said Daniel Wild, Director of Research at free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs. On Saturday, The Australian reported that Andrew Cooper, the organiser of a conservative political conference
6 November 2019
This Foolish Act Must Be Repealed At Once
Bureaucrats are using Australia’s foreign-influence laws to run a covert political operation out of the Attorney-General’s Department to silence Australians because of their political beliefs, all under the nose of the Coalition government. This is the kind of behaviour one would expect from the Stasi in East Germany in 1961, not in Australia today. On Saturday, The Weekend Australian reported that Andrew
20 July 2018
Finally, Parliament Can Act On Restoring The Right To Free Speech
There is no right not to be offended. Yet dozens of provisions on the commonwealth statute books make it unlawful or illegal to offend. There is a right to freedom of speech, and each of these laws is an attack on that right. The existence of these laws is an embarrassment to Australia as a country that holds itself out
9 February 2018
Turnbull’s 18C On Steroids
Rahm Emmanuel, one-time Chief of Staff in the Obama Administration, once said: ‘You never let a serious crisis go to waste… It’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.’ It would seem that the Turnbull government is using the perceived crisis of ‘foreign influence’ in our political system to tweak federal electoral regulations in its
4 December 2017
Simon Breheny on Q&A – QUT Case
Simon Breheny debates Gillian Triggs over how the AHRC handled the QUT case.
22 November 2017
Religious Freedom Review
“Section 18C must be included in any review of religious freedoms,” said Morgan Begg, research fellow at the free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs. The Coalition government today announced that it has agreed to appoint an expert panel to review to examine whether Australian law adequately protects the human right to religious freedom. “You can’t have freedom
6 October 2017
Tim’s Tawdry Trick
As the saying goes, if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. So naturally, when the Race Discrimination Commissioner, Tim Soutphommasane, decided last week to share his view of Trump, Brexit, and conservative populism, he described it as ‘xenophobic and racist’. In the name of ‘equality and non-discrimination’ and ‘rationality and civility’, the populism that has
28 September 2017
Why Abolish 18C? Consider This Vexatious Complaint’s Threat To Free Speech
When the legal affairs editor of this paper, Chris Merritt, sent a carefully worded reply on March 9 to an email he had received two days earlier, that should have been the end of a matter involving what can fairly be described as a mild-mannered response to abusive hate mail. Instead, the relevant series of emails is about to become
