Thankyou Andrew! Great work. I have been terribly worried about this Bill...the WORST in our history I say..Boy oh boy...what a relief! But I think we need to stay very vigilant
Even though it is Labor that are the baddies in this story, I had a strong feeling during the 2022 election that having the Liberals out of power would be generally good for freedom on the internet, and this last year-and-a-half fighting this bill has confirmed it.
In power, the Liberals would have proposed probably a much worse bill (as their communications minister at the time Paul Fletcher was threatening). The Labor party in opposition would have been spineless as usual and let a Liberal party-proposed mis/disinfo bill sail through as they did with all the other freedom-stifling legislation the Liberals proposed when they were in power (eSafety, TOLA/Access & Intercept, Metadata Retention).
I had a feeling that in opposition the Liberals would take some inspiration from the anti-censorship movement in the US and return to their roots on the topic of censorship & this has mostly been confirmed.
I worry about the election next year that if the Liberals are returned to power that they will revert to their pre-2022 stance and we will be left without proper opposition on internet freedom legislation.
Thankfully in Australia there is preferential voting, and so we can vote for minor parties that are better on these issues (e.g. the Libertarian party) in the hope they can be a spoiler in the Senate, while still having a say in the outcome if they don't get up.
Re: “There is also a swathe of other free speech-related bills that have either been passed or are pending, including the child social media ban, digital ID, doxxing, and the eSafety Act, to name just a few. 2024 has seen a massive attack on the free internet in Australia. Done and dusted with the attacks on digital civil liberties we are not.”
What a dire situation we are in…
Unable to trust ‘our’ elected representatives, we have to be constantly alert and reactive to the never-ending stream of legislation being imposed to constrain us.
These seat warmers in the parliaments appear to be rubber stampers for the agenda of global tyrants - how do we effectively stop this torrent of tyranny and establish governments that serve the best interests of the people?
Thankyou Andrew! Great work. I have been terribly worried about this Bill...the WORST in our history I say..Boy oh boy...what a relief! But I think we need to stay very vigilant
Even though it is Labor that are the baddies in this story, I had a strong feeling during the 2022 election that having the Liberals out of power would be generally good for freedom on the internet, and this last year-and-a-half fighting this bill has confirmed it.
In power, the Liberals would have proposed probably a much worse bill (as their communications minister at the time Paul Fletcher was threatening). The Labor party in opposition would have been spineless as usual and let a Liberal party-proposed mis/disinfo bill sail through as they did with all the other freedom-stifling legislation the Liberals proposed when they were in power (eSafety, TOLA/Access & Intercept, Metadata Retention).
I had a feeling that in opposition the Liberals would take some inspiration from the anti-censorship movement in the US and return to their roots on the topic of censorship & this has mostly been confirmed.
I worry about the election next year that if the Liberals are returned to power that they will revert to their pre-2022 stance and we will be left without proper opposition on internet freedom legislation.
Thankfully in Australia there is preferential voting, and so we can vote for minor parties that are better on these issues (e.g. the Libertarian party) in the hope they can be a spoiler in the Senate, while still having a say in the outcome if they don't get up.
Re: “There is also a swathe of other free speech-related bills that have either been passed or are pending, including the child social media ban, digital ID, doxxing, and the eSafety Act, to name just a few. 2024 has seen a massive attack on the free internet in Australia. Done and dusted with the attacks on digital civil liberties we are not.”
What a dire situation we are in…
Unable to trust ‘our’ elected representatives, we have to be constantly alert and reactive to the never-ending stream of legislation being imposed to constrain us.
These seat warmers in the parliaments appear to be rubber stampers for the agenda of global tyrants - how do we effectively stop this torrent of tyranny and establish governments that serve the best interests of the people?
This is such great news. My faith in the Australian's common sense is being renewed. Still worried Victoria is heading the same way as the UK though.
Glad to see socialists coming out against something instead of fellating it and injecting it and smearing people standing against it for a change.
What were all these senators stances in 2021?