Guest post by Alec Rawls
Andrew Bolt has been blogging for the past week about the totalitarian tendencies in the just released “Media Inquiry” commissioned by Australia’s Labor government.
This “Finkelstein Report” advocates unlimited regulation of virtually all published and broadcast speech in Australia.
The actual proposal can be scanned in a few minutes (pages 290-300 here). It would set up a 21 member News Media Council, charged to enforce at least some level of oversight:
While the setting of standards should be left to the News Media Council, they should incorporate certain minimum standards, such as fairness and accuracy [§ 11.52, p. 291].
But there is no corresponding limit on how much the Council is allowed to regulate. Just the opposite, the Report explicitly declares that protecting freedom of speech is not part of the Council’s mission! §11.55, p. 292:
The News Media Council requires clearly defined functions. It is not recommended that one of them be the promotion of free speech. There are ample bodies and persons in the community who do that more than adequately.
Really? In a country that has no constitutional or statutory protection for speech, how are non-governmental “bodies and persons in the community” more than adequate to protect speech from a governmental body that is endowed with unlimited power to regulate speech?
The report explicitly calls for opinion to be regulated along with news (§11.64, p. 294) , and while low-readership blogs would possibly be exempted, Bolt notes that the suggested threshold for regulation would cover any blog that averaged even one reader a day, and even that would be at the complete discretion of the Council (§11.59, p. 293).
In addition to making whatever rules they want, the Media Council will also sit in judgment (§11.70, p. 296):
If not resolved informally, complaints should be dealt with by a complaints panel consisting of one, three or, only in exceptional cases, five members of the News Media Council.
Envisioned remedies (§ 11.74, p. 297-8) include forced corrections, forced withdrawals, and forced publication on the offender’s website of contrary views.
Crime and punishment
Elsewhere the Media Inquiry makes perfectly clear which views are to be corrected: global warming skepticism and criticism of the Labor government.
Skeptics could even be forced to take their own views down and post contrary views in their place. Just impose all the contemplated remedies at once, and why not? There are no stated limits. There are no limits on scope: that political speech is to be granted wide play, or even whether challengers for office must submit to oversight on their claims about the incumbent regime. Neither are any procedural limits imposed. The Council can make up whatever rules it wants. And if people refuse?
Failures to comply (§11.77, p. 298) are to be turned over to existing courts (civil or criminal not specified) which would be called upon to punish non-compliance as contempt of court (i.e. running fines or jail until compliance is forthcoming). In other words, unlimited punishment.
In the name of efficiency there are to be no “internal” or “external” appeals (§278, p. 299), but judges deciding on contempt charges would be allowed to review Council rulings if they feel that their dockets are not full enough already (§11.79, p. 299).
Orwellian “benefits”
§11.86 (p. 300) lists the proclaimed benefits that justify this system of unlimited regulation. Compared to the barbaric system of liberty, where people compete to offer the most convincing arguments, having the government be the arbiter of truth will:
[enable] the public to have confidence that journalistic standards will be upheld and that complaints will be resolved without fear or favour.
Yes, government is well known to never play favorites, and Solomonic power is famous for its even handed wisdom: “Cut the baby in half!” Liberty is way overrated.
Solomon did not actually cut the baby but we can be certain that this 21 member Council, all appointed by a single “independent committee” (like the authors of the Finkelstein report!), would be an abattoir.
“Independent” the report clarifies (§11.46, p. 291), means “Independent from government” (emphasis added), and yet it is to have the power of government. In other words, it is to have unaccountable power, and this independence from accountability is to be conferred upon a well known permanent Labor constituency, Universities Australia, which would get to appoint a majority of the “independent committee.”
Thus the entire enterprise would have the great virtue (from the Labor point of view) that unlike the sitting government, the voters cannot “throw the bums out.” Here the appointing committee and the appointed Council will violate the fundamental principle of republicanism as articulated by Alexander Hamilton, who appealed at the New York Convention that:
The true principle of a republic is, that the people should choose whom they please to govern them.
Too bad the Australian Constitution also lacks a republican guarantee.
The final punctuation mark on Finkelstein’s plan, the last proclaimed benefit of allowing dissidents to be swallowed whole by the Ministry of Truth, is timeless virtue:
Enhancing the public flow of information and the exchange of views.
“War is peace,” and “we’ve always been at war with Eastasia.” As Brendan O’Neill writes in The Australian:
…we’re witnessing the unravelling of many of the values and virtues of the modern era.
All in a knee-jerk snit over the fact that the left-dominated media does not yet have a complete publishing monopoly. Dissenting voices can still be heard, and Finkelstein finds that very disturbing.
Negative liberty: non-existent in Australia and in peril in America
To an American, what is most striking about the Australian plan is the complete absence of any statement of negative rights, or freedom from restrictions on speech. Our entire concept of free speech is framed in negative terms: “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech.” The Australians have no constitutional protection for speech, but it is still astounding to see how readily the left would overthrow this pillar of Western liberty in exchange for partisan advantage.
The same totalitarian ambitions are at work in America too. They face greater legal obstacles here, but key actors are powerfully placed. Obama’s “regulatory czar” Cass Sunstein wants to use the system of “notice and takedown” from copyright law to shut down “conspiracy theories.” As an example, he wants to suppress claims that:
the theory of global warming is a deliberate fraud.
If SOPA had passed then all of the necessary machinery would have been in place, ready to expand from copyright infringement to the suppression of conspiracy theories at the drop of a one-line rider on any bill. At that point our freedom to speak our minds would lie in the hands of Sunstein booster Elena Kagan (who brought Sunstein to Harvard, calling him “the preeminent legal scholar of our time”); the racist Sonya Sotomayor (a long-time member of La Raza, or “the race“); and a borderline Court-majority of similar un-worthies.
We dodged a bullet and it looks like Australia will too, given how well the Finkelstein report is being received down under, but dodging bullets is a precarious business. If we don’t somehow manage to effect a fundamental retrenchment of liberty it won’t be long before we lose it.
Here’s an example of your free speech, Jim.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Arthur_massacre_%28Australia%29
And to borrow a line from Jay above :
Go F**K yourself with your AK47.
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Enjoy your tyranny! It will be well deserved. Oh and way to go blaming societies’ ills on an inanimate object, you dolt.
SPM says:
March 15, 2012 at 8:10 pm
jim says:
March 15, 2012 at 6:29 pm
My Dad passed last year. His favorite t-shirt had a picture of a pile of guns on it. You know, the ones the aussies confiscated about ten years ago…..
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Here’s an example of your free speech, Jim.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Arthur_massacre_%28Australia%29
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Ours in Texas was a heck of a lot worse. It included 76 people including more than 20 children, two pregnant women,. The only problem was it was the G.D. FEDS who responsible!
cui bono says:
March 15, 2012 at 5:15 pm
Doug UK says (March 15, 2012 at 4:49 pm)
“that our ozzy friends consider making sure that your head of State can step in and get rid of the muppets.”
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Um, I seem to recall that happening in 1974, and it didn’t go down too well. :-)”
On the contrary cui bono, It went down very well with the majority as they clearly demonstrated in the next general election having gratefully been given an early chance, when they absolutely decimated the failed Whitlam Labor Government!
We only wish it could happen now as our current lot are going to cause more long-term damage than ever contemplated under Whitlam! However, to call the G-G stepping in extremely unlikely is to understate the position as our current Governor-General is the mother-in-law of Labor MP Bill Shorten, touted by many as the next leader of the Labor Party and Prime Ministerial material!
We unfortunately have to bide our time until the next election unless matters become completely intolerable, which they may well do when the true costs of the carbon dioxide tax really start to bite and the reality of the attempt to censor and/or silence critics hits home!
We are already finding out that as well as mining and power generation companies, it appears that Julia Gillard’s Top 500 “derdy polluders” (as she calls them) who are going be slugged with this useless tax also include Hospitals, Health Care providers, Churches, Universities, Butchers, Food Producers, Supermarkets and many other retailers,Theme Parks, Entertainment, Hospitality and Tourism companies, Transport and Freight of all kinds, Shipping, Airlines, Airport Owners
Property Groups, CSIRO etc., etc.,. In short, there is scarcely a category that won’t be hit and will have to pass on those increases.
http://www.climatechange.gov.au/government/initiatives/national-greenhouse-energy-reporting/publication-of-data/nger-greenhouse-energy-information-2010-11.aspx
It’s not only the actual cost of the carbon dioxide tax but the added costs of each firm in having to employ people to wade through the mountain of regulations and reporting requirements in order to comply with all the red tape which will be attempted to be administered by an army of public servants in several bureaucracies created for just that purpose.
Nearly every “green” scheme this government has introduced has resulted in bureaucratic bungling and waste on a massive scale, characterised by woeful supervision, mismanagement and bedevilled by shysters who have revelled in finding ways to rort and rip off “the system”, this destructive carbon dioxide tax will do little for the environment and is likely to never have any measurable effect on either the weather or the climate.
Given those facts, the coming carbon dioxide tax debacle shows all the signs of being the worst and most expensive stuff-up in Australia’s history!
Talk about the law of “unintended consequences”!
Poor Australia – I am so glad I was able to leave! Brainwashing is alive and well – my 4 yr old granddaughter gave me (verbatim, I suspect) the treatise given to her by the Labor loonie who gave her a Labor balloon and a lecture on how it is environmentally irresponsible to fill balloons with helium these days because if a child should let one go, it will fly away and end up in the sea where it will kill the fishes! This is, of course, in the left loonie national capital which has been in the vanguard for outlawing plastic bags from shops!
God help Australia!
The problem with censorship is ********************
Fortunately, the Interwebs now exist. Dissent can no longer be crushed. It will just pop up somewhere else. Any tech-savvy person can generate thousands of anonymous dissenting posts with only a few hours of effort.
Long live the Interwebs!
[last post (not the censorship one) was moderated into oblivion? was there something contentious in it?]
Chilling stuff, but let us keep our eyes and ears open. The steady tramp of jackboots is being heard in most of the First World at present, not only in Australia. Be prepared to see something only slightly less outrageous put in place, and be prepared for a dirty fight.
I cannot think in my wildest imaginings theat the Aussies will tolerate this kind of thinking. How the hell can a so called democratic country come up with this nonsense, if it was tried in the UK and there are some who would try it, there would be a spot of bother I suggest. It is gently creeping into the UK in areas of PC, however we are free at present to call the Gov’t stupid if we wish to and we can also write it.
Time to move to NZ you Aussies, maybe you get the Gov’t you deserve.
I assume that when Labour gets boot and if Abbott gets the leadership then the warmist’s may be the one’s that get censored ?
Who really thinks that the government in office wouldn’t be able pull the strings of the proposed “News Media Council”.
The madness just doesn’t stop in Australia, speed camera’s, vehicle roadworthy squad’s, the councils all use the eye’s in the sky to watch over the peasants, you can’t even put a for sale sign on your car window in many place’s, there is so many bloody rules and reg’s it make’s your head spin.
Any bets on how long it takes before the “Media Council” gets renamed to somethign like the “Ministry of Propaganda?”
Alberta Slim says:
March 15, 2012 at 7:02 pm
It is time for an Aussie Spring!
How can the Aussie public be so complacent about the eroding of Democracy that the brave men and women fought so bravely for in the past?
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yes! a LOT of us would agree, however unless some nice country will send US guns and ammo to oust the bastards we have sticks stones and maybe a boomerang or two for knocking some sense or senslessness into this ship of fools busy sinking our freedom economy and the very essence of the aussie larrikin who tells it true and shame the devil..
there really WAS a False flag in pt arthur to get our guns..
This is indeed an astonishing development, a full-on ruling-class war on free speech. Coupled with the irony of having a hated Prime Minister that found her way there from the old empire’s home office, the future history books will show this time as a perfect storm. You just can’t make this stuff up! I never ever thought Australia would become Ground Zero in the coming Socialism Wars [©®™] of the 21st Century. But it sure looks like you will be up first.
What a series of brazen attacks by the leftist neo-Communist Socialists, first with the gun outlawing and then the infamous carbon tax and now the real deal, shutting down the enemies voice. You know what? In a less-civilized society the likely antidote would be a military coup taking down this government and sending all the named perps to the hereafter. But in Western societies of course this is frowned upon because someone might just call it fascist or right-wing.
To be sure, this is going to happen everywhere including the UK, USA, Canada (maybe dodged a bullet for a while). I’ve long said that the next wars will be a worldwide war on Socialism once free speech and Internet saturation penetrates sufficiently and people awaken to the enemy within their respective nations. The enemy is those among you that continually press for global government, wealth redistributing, speech censoring and lifestyle dictating. They are the neo-Communist Socialist left, that has foothold of various degrees in all the Western world. They are the seeds that Marx and Lenin planted and will have to be dealt with, or else your descendants will have no chance.
Keep in mind that the SOPA and all other Internet regulations disguised as copyright laws are exactly the same thing – the attempt to get the ruling class edicts and censorship machinery placed inline in between the free citizens along with the ability to stop them from communicating at will. It is real, it is here, and it is happening, now. It is truly a time of ‘do or die’ for free people. Two thousand years ago the threat was public speakers and you could just track them down and nail them to a cross or stick them in a dark tower. That worked for fifteen centuries Then Gutenberg messed up everything for the ruling class and enabled people to mass produce and really spread the written word. Book burning and early censorship laws have been partially effective. But now we are entering the final act. Instantaneous communication is the gravest threat to the Socialist Feudalists along with their pet aristocracies and nobility. This is exactly why the SOPA and related issues are alive today. All the governments are aware of this and they are making moves now. Wake up people. Don’t be stupid and vote for any Socialist any longer regardless of the bribes they offer you. It is game time. It is for keeps.
They want to be the arbiters of truth as described below.
The rank of Arbiter, in the video game Halo 2, is bestowed upon a Covenant Elite (Sangheili) by the High Prophets of Truth, Mercy, and Regret during a time of need.
Their only problem is freedom of speech needs no arbiter to decide truth or even who should speak and be heard.
Gail, you should know full well by now that the Title III Intercepts (listening devices) inside the compound picked up Vernon Wayne Howell issuing the order to ‘light the fires’ that caused those fatalities; autopsies later determined close-quarters self-inflicted gunshot wounds killed Vernon (and his first lieutenant as well.)
There was no way Vernon was going back to jail or face a trial as he had a few years earlier for taking part in a gun battle with the former Branch Davidian ‘leader’ … if one takes careful note, too, the only children released from the compound were the one Vernon did _not_ father …
Final Report to the Deputy AG
.
Oops, my erratum; that last part should read: “[the] children released from the compound were the ones …”
Stop yer whinin’ and start yer shootin’!
We’re in a bit of trouble with our current crop of “leaders”. I agree with the generational analysis someone posted above, this is the hippie generation in power. MKULTRA’s flower children behind the wheel. Though I doubt Jules inhaled. 🙂
“Andrew Bolt should know that. Afterall he was recently smacked on the hand for attempting to discredit people and damage their livelihoods by making up s???t on his blogs.”
You’re not just a Lazy Teenager, you’re a lying one, too.
“We should not be able to manipulate the public and claim that’s Ok since it’s free speech.”
Then stop babbling about how “climate change” dooms us all, Lazy.
Lazy Teen has demonstrated exactly how and why history will repeat itself.
_Jim — citing the whitewash is not convincing. Regardless of how the situation ended, it should not have started the way it did.
As of a couple of days ago if you try to go here:
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/
and do not let them put cookies on you computer or read the cookies on your computer then they send you here:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nocookies
I think that put Robert Bolts comments off the list for anyone that values their privacy, which I’m guessing is a lot of intelligent free thinking people.
NOT whitewash; rather, the facts.
I followed that ‘story’ in real time as events unfolded from the day (closer to “the hour”) it began, and reviewed every available shred of released intel and evidence (including multi-media) including ‘background’ from individuals involved with the players (like Vernon) from prior years; unlike so many who take their info from various ‘artful’ productions (by McNulty and others), websites (various) and books (various) which seek to make ‘mileage’ and hay from that event for their own selfish purposes, or for their view for their cause of ‘uber-patriotism’ (as they see it).
As to how the event precipitated and were handled, that is a WHOLE ‘nother subject and not suitable for this venue (we spent years at FreeRepublic debating this from all sides).
You want to base law and changes therein (or the basis for your or a particular ’cause’) on an aberrant case like Waco (or the Martin Bryant shootings at Port Arthur, Aus), that is your privilege, but at least be cognitive of the known facts.
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“Art and science, research and teachings are free.
The Federal Republic of Germany is a democratic and social Federal State. All government authority proceeds from the people. It becomes from the people in elections and votes and by special organs of the legislation, which carrying out force and the jurisdiction expenditure-practices. The legislation is to the constitutional order, which is carrying out force and the jurisdiction at law and bind right.
Against everyone, which undertakes it to eliminate this order all have German the right to the resistance, if other remedy is not possible.”
(Grundgesetz)
If dancing people in governments are claiming authority and/or power against other people, these people have the right to resist.
Looking for the basics of science, philosophy, it is to be recognized as true, that something cannot be true and in the same time be untrue. Physicians respect this recognition, timeless and alocal, in one order of nature. There is no difference in CO2 molecules from Australia or Iran.
Looking for the basics of science, philosophy, it can be recognized that morality is different to ethics. Morality is a non timeless and local social convention of old man (or exwombman). Ethics is the science of the inalienable dignity of all living substance. From this, morality law is simple incompatible to the timeless and alocal one order of nature; it is in contradiction to the one order of nature. Democracy is not alienable, because it is the inseparable yourself. He, she, who gives his, her voice to politicians, have no voice anymore. Ethics (and science) is linear and not corruptible. Politics is nonlinear and corruptible.
“Acclaimedly, towards the end of Kaliyuga, when righteousness turns into unrighteousness, light into darkness, good into evil, virtues into vices, believers into non-believing profanes, community of man into thieves and evil doers and the faith in God is lost and the Vedas are misinterpreted to serve adharma, Kalki would be born in the house of Vishnuyashas, a Brahmin and the priest of Yajnavalkya, at the village Shambhala.”
(Agni Purana)
Greetings to Anthony ‘Kalki’ Watts.
V.