Jacinta Nampijinpa@JNampijinpa
STATEMENT: Free speech survives in Australia… for now.
The government has binned the provisions of its proposed legislation that would have criminalised hate speech – laws that ultimately would have been used to restrict truths being told and legitimate criticisms being expressed because someone takes offence.
All those Australians who have stood against this censorious bill are to be commended.
Common sense Australians saw through Anthony Albanese’s agenda.
Leveraging off the Bondi tragedy – and using the justification of combatting antisemitism – the politically expedient Anthony Albanese sought to pass laws curtailing free speech that have been on his mind for a long time.
For domestic political reasons, Anthony Albanese wants to ringfence Islam from any reasonable scrutiny.
And he wants to shut down debate on key policy issues like mass immigration.
None of this comes as any surprise.
Since coming to power, we’ve seen the Albanese government’s socialist inclinations play out.
It’s a government that mistakes control for governing well.
A government that favours a state-directed economy over a free-market economy.
And a government that prefers having power over citizens – who are dependent on the state – to empowering citizens.
The desire to curtail and control speech is exactly what we have come to expect from this Prime Minister – a man who doesn’t believe that the government should serve the will of the people, but instead wants the people to serve the will of the government.
In terms of combatting antisemitism – or any form of hate for that matter – the problem isn’t that existing laws are insufficient.
Rather, the problem is that existing laws haven’t been enforced.
And that’s due to a lack of moral clarity and political leadership from the Albanese government ever since the sordid scenes on the steps of the Sydney Opera House.
Consider all the antisemitic incidents that have plagued our nation since then.
It’s scandalous that, despite so many crimes, there have been so few arrests and so few visas cancelled.
Anthony Albanese has failed to act.
He has failed to come down hard on perpetrators.
He has failed to deter would-be perpetrators.
He has failed to lead.
And now, this arrogant Prime Minister seeks to lay blame for his failures on the opposition.
If Anthony Albanese is serious about combatting the root causes of antisemitism – which include radical Islamism – he would ensure that existing laws are readily enforced.
And that’s exactly what his government must do to deter further acts of antisemitism and terrorism.
