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The former democracy we call Australia

I wrote earlier this week about the proposal by Australia to age-restrict access to social media and how this was actually more about creating an imperative for all citizens to sign up to the Digital ID that is now being rolled out there.

Well if that wasn't enough to cause concern about the state of Australia's democracy and the freedoms of its citizens, a new bill being promoted by the nation's politicians should really get Aussies worried.

The bill represents a second suck of the sav for those who were originally promoting this legislation designed to clamp down on "online misinformation". The original bill was biffed out so it's been modified and is back but in the eyes of its critics, it's no better than before.

Its provisions represent a huge assault on the right to free speech across the ditch.

In fact, the Institute of Public Affairs described the legislation as “the single biggest attack on freedom of speech in Australia’s peacetime history”.

One only has to browse some of the definitions and provisions of the bill to realise that, if passed into law, this bill would effectively silence anyone who dared to express any opinions that were contrary to the government's own ideologies.

Of course the government's own agencies are exempted from the provisions of this proposed law so they can spout as much disinformation and misinformation as they want with total immunity -- because that's how a totalitarian regime works.

Simlarly, the media, which is increasingly under the thumb of government, and universities which rely on government funding, are also exempted.

However, if you're just one of the great unwashed, this bill would effectively silence your right to voice any level of dissent at what the government is doing or plans to do.

Well, it's actually far worse than that.

The bill makes it an offense to, through the spreading of misinformation or disinformation, cause "serious harm" to: the Australian economy, public confidence in the banking system or financial markets, the integrity of the commonwealth, state, territory or local government, public health (including preventative health measures -- ie: vaxes), critial infrastructure, emergency services, any group identified by race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or disability.

So basically, you can't say anything about anyone and any criticism of the government is deemed to be "disinformation" that might cause "serious harm".

This is some super-scary stuff that one might expect in a third-world facist regime run by some despot dictator -- but not from our mates across the ditch.

We've already seen the spirit of this bill come into effect long before it was even put before parliament. That happened when whistle-blower David McBride was jailed for exposing war crimes committed by Australian troops in Afghanistan. In most first-world countries, whistle-blowers are protected by their government -- but not in Australia, in fact quite the opposite.

It seems that the Australian government are joining the rapidly growing trend towards "don't fix-up, just cover-up" within the ranks of governments and authorities and this new bill would give them immense power to extend that ideology by crushing the right to express dissenting opinion and viewpoints.

Even sadder for our Aussie mates is the fact that Australia seems to be suffering from a "uniparty" political system. This is where both of the major parties share an overwhelmingly similar perspective and policies, such that electing either one of them is the same as electing the other. It's a faux democracy because both main parties are the same just with slightly different wrapping and the smaller parties can't even hope to form a majority.

Of course Australia is simply attempting to codify in law the practices and ideologies that are currently sweeping the Western world. In the UK, scores or perhaps hundreds of people have been arrested and imprisoned simply for exercising their right to free speech in peaceful protests or by posting comments to social media. In Canada, during the lockdowns, Canadian truckers had their bank accounts frozen and other severe censures forced upon them for daring to voice their honestly held opinions.

Many are linking all these facist leanings by Western governments to the influence of the WEF and its plans for a global reset and new world order.

I think that all I do at this point is to say (as Edmund Burke was rumoured to have said):

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing"

Unfortunately politians often use the inertia and apathy of the public to their advantage. This may be one of those cases.

Carpe Diem folks!

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