Free Speech Union of Australia

Stop Conversion Therapy Censorship in Victoria - write to the Victorian Law Reform Commission today!

When a national tragedy struck, we were told the tap had to be turned off. So 4.7 million social media accounts disappeared overnight. Emergency plumbing, they said. Necessary work. Just for now. But what followed wasn’t a temporary shut-off — it was a redesign of the entire system. Pipes were widened. New junctions quietly installed. Pressure controls moved out of sight. And standing proudly in front of it all were government and the eSafety Commissioner, smiling like proud renovators. Now comes the exposure draft — hate speech, misinformation, “online harms.” Not a new house. Not a fresh debate. Just more fixtures connected to the same hidden plumbing. This is how civil liberties are lost in modern democracies: Not with a knock at the door, but with infrastructure. No single law says “silence millions.” No single official signs off on censorship at scale. Instead, discretion replaces rights, automation replaces judgment, and accountability evaporates into “process.” The public only notices when the water stops flowing — when voices vanish, platforms comply, and no one can explain who decided, on what basis, or how to appeal. Once you redesign the plumbing, every future restriction becomes a matter of pressure — not principle. And the people doing the redesign keep smiling, because they’re no longer accountable for outcomes — only for maintaining the system. That should worry everyone and if it does not, it’s only a matter of time before you realise what you didn’t say when you should have.