For UnHerd: Australia has shown the way on free speech

Has it thrown off its penchant for technocracy?

I’ve just written a piece for UnHerd about Australia’s rather miraculous defiance of the global “anti-misinformation” cartel, and what it might mean for the global free speech movement.

Excerpt below, full article at https://unherd.com/2024/11/australia-has-won-the-fight-for-free-speech/

In what might be a world first, the Australian parliament has just dealt a death blow to counter-disinformation legislation that threatened to fundamentally reshape the country’s free speech landscape. The bill, which would have created a two-tier system of speech rights, was comprehensively rejected — and the story of its defeat reveals much about the evolving dynamics of political discourse in the post-pandemic world.

Originally initiated by the previous Conservative government and championed by the centre-left Labor Party, the legislation promised to be a watershed moment in Australian media regulation. It proposed stringent controls on information sharing, with a curious twist: some, including legacy media and academics, would be exempt from the most restrictive provisions, while the hoi polloi would face intense scrutiny and potential censorship.

What makes this defeat truly remarkable is the broad coalition that emerged to block the bill. In the senate, an uncanny alliance formed — conservative opposition, the Greens, and Left-wing independent senators all united in rejecting the proposed legislation. This cross-political alignment suggests a growing recognition of the dangers inherent in state-controlled information management.

Progressive media outlets such as The Guardian, which would have been sheltered from the bill’s most severe provisions, were full-throated in their support for the legislation, dismissing opposition as a “scare campaign”. But the fractures within progressive circles proved to be the most intriguing development.

The bill’s trajectory exposes a deeper narrative about how contemporary progressive culture has inadvertently become a vehicle for speech control. While I believe the core global actors pushing speech control are centrist, contemporary Left-wing culture has provided an excellent Trojan horse, via its collectivist concerns about public health, identity politics, online bullying and environmental issues. These fears have been systematically leveraged to advance increasingly restrictive information management strategies. Despite our reputation as living among snakes, spiders and emus, Australians have long been a coddled and fragile bunch, tucked into cul-de-sac suburbs, afraid of both the sun and our own shadows. Our Covid response was so remarked upon for this reason. A brutalist contrast between self-image and stark reality.

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Continued at https://unherd.com/2024/11/australia-has-won-the-fight-for-free-speech/