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A Government Accountable to Nobody is Trusted by None

Parliamentarians no longer serve the needs of the people. There are some changes I’ve noticed in the behaviour of the ministers and bureaucrats.

These were brought home to me in the most recent senate estimates. Truth will always win in the long run, and public servants would do well to remember that fact.

Transcript

As a servant to the many different people who make up our one Queensland community, in my criticism of this and previous governments I often use the word ‘accountability’. Here’s why. When I was young, my local member was my electorate’s representative in Canberra. Now my local member is Canberra’s representative in my electorate. Parliamentarians don’t work now for the people; the people work for parliament. In Canberra, decisions are taken in the best interests of the predatory billionaires who are behind every curtain and pulling every string. 

This fundamental change in the nature of parliament was brought home in the most recent Senate estimates. When asking questions on behalf of my constituents, the default position of those opposite was not to answer the question. Public Service speak has devolved into word soup, with no meaning, no accountability and often no truth. I have never seen more obsequious answers from public servants in my life. I’ve never seen ministers more interested in preventing truth from coming out instead of providing truthful oversight, and I have never seen committee chairs dedicating their sessions to supressing truth. 

Senate estimates is a parody of governance—a parody which sounds something like this: ‘Senator: “Minister, the witness is stalling. Please instruct the witness to answer the question.” Minister: “Why would I do that?” Senator: “Because it’s your job to be transparent and truthful to the public.” Minister: “No, Senator, it’s my job to cover up the mistakes of the last government so they will in turn cover up mine.” Committee chair: “Senator, your time is up.”‘ What a farce! What a disgusting display I saw two weeks ago. Shameful. Everyday Australians are facing a huge challenge from insane immigration population growth, cost-of-living pressures and unaffordable mortgages, and this government thinks the answer is to cover up, deflect and lie. Have you forgotten that in the end truth always comes out? 

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Event: Save the Date – Labor’s War on Freedom of Speech

Free Speech Conference

Reserve your seat here: https://www.onenation.org.au/free-speech-bne

Labor’s Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023 is a direct attack on freedom of speech.

With the government taking aim at free speech and threatening the very foundations of our democracy, it’s vital that we stand against this bill. We must fight to protect our fundamental right to express ourselves.

There is a major problem with this bill and it is far more than just a slippery slope for our civil liberties. It is highly subjective in its definition of what constitutes ‘misinformation’ – in fact, ‘misinformation’ will mean whatever the government wants it to mean. That’s why it is being called ‘Orwellian’ with references to ‘The Ministry of Truth’ which featured in the novel ‘1984’ by George Orwell.

The information censorship being sought by this bill could easily include legitimate criticisms of the government, questions about the science underpinning climate change ideology, questions about high immigration, questions about gender dysphoria, and the ‘no’ campaign against the voice to Parliament. When the ‘truth’ becomes a subjective tool for the government of the day, you have to ask, who will be fact-checking the fact-checkers?

Petition (scroll down to sign)

https://www.onenation.org.au/free-speech

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Labor’s War on Freedom of Speech

Labor’s Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023 is a direct attack on freedom of speech.

With the government taking aim at free speech and threatening the very foundations of our democracy, it’s vital that we stand against this bill. We must fight to protect our fundamental right to express ourselves.

There is a major problem with this bill and it is far more than just a slippery slope for our civil liberties. It is highly subjective in its definition of what constitutes ‘misinformation’ – in fact, ‘misinformation’ will mean whatever the government wants it to mean. That’s why it is being called ‘Orwellian’ with references to ‘The Ministry of Truth’ which featured in the novel ‘1984’ by George Orwell.

The information censorship being sought by this bill could easily include legitimate criticisms of the government, questions about the science underpinning climate change ideology, questions about high immigration, questions about gender dysphoria, and the ‘no’ campaign against the voice to Parliament. When the ‘truth’ becomes a subjective tool for the government of the day, you have to ask, who will be fact-checking the fact-checkers?

Petition (scroll down to sign)

https://www.onenation.org.au/free-speech

Free Speech Conference

Reserve your seat here: https://www.onenation.org.au/free-speech-bne

Transcript

Fight Labor’s War on Freedom of Speech.

Freedom of Speech is an essential human right and the fundamental principle of Australian democracy.

Labor’s Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023 is a direct attack on freedom of Speech.

This legislation targets everyday Australians, independent media and non-government political parties while carving out protections for government, mainstream Big Brother media and approved organizations.

It would give the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) draconian powers to silence critics of the government and impose fines up to $6.8 million on social media platforms if, in ACMA’s opinion, they have not done enough to prevent the dissemination of what ACMA considers to be misinformation or disinformation.

The big problem with this bill is its highly subjective definition of what constitutes misinformation. Basically, misinformation will mean whatever the government wants it to mean. This could easily include legitimate criticisms of the government. Questions about the so-called science underpinning climate change ideology, questions about high immigration, questions about gender dysphoria, and statements for the No campaign against the voice to Parliament.

Don’t believe for a second the senior Liberal-Nationals Coalition figures opposing Labor’s bill, because when they were in government the coalition proposed very similar legislation just before the last election. The major party’s hidden agenda is the protection of their two-party system. They’ve watched votes leaked to minor parties and independents over the years and they’re desperate to close down our communication efforts.

If this bill is passed, you could even be saying goodbye to the Please Explain cartoon series.

We must take a stand for freedom of speech, we must fight for it. As Thomas Jefferson said, the tree of liberty must be watered from time to time. Freedom requires constant vigilance.

Making sure that hard won individual freedoms endure in our society requires constant vigilance.

You can help defend freedom of speech in Australia by putting your name to One Nation’s petition against Labor’s anti free speech censorship bill.

We urge you to sign our petition and make this the biggest in Australia’s history, this issue is that serious.

Yet it goes well beyond that. We’re gathering One Nation members of Parliament and esteemed independent speakers from around Australia for a conference in Brisbane on August 26th. More details are to come.

We’re energized and ready to take this to the Liberal-Labor Uni-Party.

Let’s help Pauline Hanson’s One Nation protect the most important of individual human rights.

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