Government-sponsored censorship: You are making your voice be heard

This post is too long for email so please click through to read it all. Thank you to everyone who has sent me copies of your submissions. Please keep them coming!

These are reprinted here in no particular order and keep in mind that some of them are long and contain a great deal of information which is fantastic - but if you don’t have time to write that much, a paragraph is absolutely fine. Feel free to use the information in these submissions to inform your own but don’t reprint them in whole because they will be ignored. Below is the link where you can read more about this proposed legislation and also make your submission.

I am constantly amazed and gratified by the intelligence and creativity in our community! You will feel the same when you’ve read some of these posts!

Photo by Priscilla Gyamfi on Unsplash

 

My submission against the “Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023.” 

I think it is ridiculous that the federal government is wasting taxpayer’s time and money on this bill. How Orwellian to have a Ministry of Truth! I thought Australia voted in politicians who live in the real world, not some sort of dystopia…? Because if this Bill is passed, then we will most definitely be living in a dystopia! 

Surely the last 3+ years have already determined that the government got it VERY wrong with covid, as plenty of excess deaths and scientific papers will attest to? To allow the federal government, especially the tyrant government headed by Albanese (where he got the Governor General (GG) to swear him in with but 20% of the vote counted, so he could fly off to that Quadrilateral meeting in Japan), to try to determine the truth for this country, when truth, honesty and integrity are not even ON their list of credentials, is ludicrous. 

We have a Referendum coming up later this year and it should be pointed out that the government ONLY wants us to vote YES and doesn’t want to give us the other side of the story! But that is not the government’s job. They need to give us pros and cons for it and let we the people decide. Otherwise we’re living in a tyranny (which could be closer than you think when one looks at how Albanese took the Prime Ministership: he & the GG didn’t think they needed to worry about what 80% of the voters thought!). Even for the Republic referendum years ago, we were at least given the same number of pages each of pro vs con for that one. 

So, after 2-3 years of the governments saying ‘safe and effective’ for a ‘vaccine’ that is evidently not that at all, illegally taking the reins of the prime-ministership, actively trying to stop anyone speaking out about The Voice (and denigrating them if they do), we now come to this interesting bill titled “Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023.” 

Do I think a bill like this is going to miraculously make people speak the truth? No. 

Do I think the government should have such wide powers based on the wording in this Bill? No. 

Do I think that an almost $7 million fine is appropriate for having something posted wrong? No. 

Do I think the government should be going after the digital platforms rather than the individuals/companies who have written certain news articles etc? No. 

BUT, do I think this Bill will bring much fear? Yes. 

Do I think the word “truth” will start to mean “truth as the government determines it to be at the time”? Yes. 

Do I think this is one of the most stupid and dangerous Bills ever to come out of a government? Yes. 

To allow the government to shut down ANY digital platform means Australia could turn into China, where the government can determine what we do – and don’t – have access to. How are people going to learn anything if they’re kept in the dark? How are going to thrive as a country? We won’t. We can’t. We’ll be thrust back to the Dark Ages! 

Already it’s hard enough to learn how to be a decent health professional, because Universities have been ripping pages out of lecturer’s notes for years, but it’s getting very difficult to speak the truth to your patients as a health professional, because places like AHPRA have been taken over by paper-pushing bureaucrats who have no idea how the real world works, and wish to limit us so we say only what THEY want us to say. Now we have the federal government wanting to drag us further into darkness with this new Bill. There is too much darkness in Australia to stand idly by and let Bills like these be passed! 

This Bill is not merely a waste of space and a waste of money. It has been specifically designed to demand adherence to whatever the government wants and is a truly chilling bill. It has NOTHING to do with the truth, or even combatting ‘misinformation’ – just things the government doesn’t want us discussing! And anyway, whatever happened to open discussions?! Why must things be outlawed instead of discussed?! What’s wrong with agreeing to disagree? 

This is NOT the sort of Bill that deserves a place in a democracy. I am sick and tired – even angry – of all this power-grabbing. What about focussing on legislation that the people really need right now, like how to address their health issues or their financial problems? People don’t need Bills like the “Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023.” No-one does. Only a Totalitarian society needs a Bill like this, and that is exactly what we will become if this is passed. This Bill MUST be stopped. 

Submission To ACMA                                                                                                    27.6.23

I am a highly experienced Chemical Engineer and have worked in Research as a Research Engineer, and so know how to read and interpret research and papers detailing this research.

Throughout history many scientific discoveries that have been made have been made by dedicated people going against the prevailing thought – and in nearly all cases their theories would have been classed as “misinformation” at that time.

And it is truly astonishing, and worrying, that legislation is being proposing to suppress “misinformation” yet much of this so called misinformation has a very solid scientific basis. I will firstly cite some examples from very recent history, here in Australia, during the Covid era where government policy was mostly complete misinformation, and tragically many have been sickened, maimed and killed as a result of these recklessly wrong policies, which were unjustified and are now acknowledged by many as misinformation.

There is every reason to believe that if this legislation is passed that our government will again silence those putting out “misinformation” whilst all the while actually misinforming and misleading, and as a result wrecking livelihoods, hurting, damaging or worse the Australian people.

Some relevant recent examples.

Masking

Masking was pushed by all levels of government across this country during the covid period, yet there is no randomised control trial showing masks effective against viruses, but plenty that show they are not. There are also plenty of peer reviewed studies I can point to which show all sorts of harms coming from masking in terms of significant reduction in concentration (yet people were urged to drive whilst masked…), headaches and reduced oxygen impacting on the immune system.

When I posted this peer reviewed science and questioned the prevailing (wrong) government policy I was removed from a social media site as I was “misinforming” people. It is now a matter of record that in fact I and others citing the same research were completely correct, and the government totally wrong to enforce this ineffective and dangerous policy. 

Lockdowns

With lockdowns it was similar where study after study showed them ineffective and highly damaging, yet to question lockdowns during the covid era was “misinformation”. My posts at a leading newspaper website, citing this peer reviewed research were constantly removed. Then the Shergold enquiry in 2022 laid bare that lockdowns and border closures were of little to no effect on covid 19 , yet devastating to countless businesses, and wasted hundreds of billions of tax payer dollars on unjustified policies.

Again, here we have the government itself ignoring countless scientific studies and peddling misinformation and in the process ruining countless businesses and creating a tsunami of mental health issues, all the while claiming that those, like myself, who questioned lockdowns were the problem.

Some older examples.

Albert Einstein, one of the pre-eminent scientists of the modern age was in his early days in Germany ridiculed and his theories continuously attacked. No doubt many of those attacking him would have accused him of peddling “misinformation” with his theory of relativity. In fact the book “One Hundred Authors against Einstein” was published in 1931, denouncing Einstein and his theories.

Nowadays it is totally clear that these “experts” who accused Einstein of misinforming people were in fact completely wrong, yet at the time it was the prevailing wisdom that Einstein was misguided and pushed falsehoods.  

Michael Crichton, the late famous author and also qualified medical doctor, was well known for his concerns about the “consensus of science” which is a term which is getting increasing currency these days. This has been particularly used by government bureaucrats and politicians when pushing policies which all too frequently are unjustified and where there is little actual basis. Those who question these govt policies are accused of “misinformation”

In 2003 Crichton gave a lecture on “consensus” in science where he cited many examples in history of where the prevailing scientific notions throughout history were frequently dangerously wrong, and those who sought to overturn them with clear evidence were often ridiculed and accused of misinformation.

The examples he gave were nearly all in the medical area and two examples were that firstly that in 1795 it was discovered that women dying in childbirth were dying of infections. The discoverer could treat women and avoid these needless deaths, but he was pilloried and attacked, yet it was slowly realised that in fact his “misinformation” was in fact totally correct and millions of womens lives have been saved as a result.

A second example related to pellagra, a disease that impacted on tens of thousands of Americans in the 1920s. At the time it was claimed it was an infection, but a researcher showed that it was linked to poor diet. He was accused of peddling misinformation, and it took years to realise that he was in fact correct, and nowadays we know that a niacin deficiency causes pellagra, not an infectious disease. Many lives and much suffering is now avoided.

One further example from today. It was only up until recently that homosexuals were regarded very negatively and government policies backed this up. Homosexuals were thought of as dangerous and frequently physically attacked, with little action against the perpetrators taken. Those who spoke out against this were shunned and would probably have been accused of “misinformation”. Fortunately we have moved away from those benighted times, but just remember that if the proposed legislation was in place the movement out of that era would have been far more difficult, and may not have occurred.

In closing, we have the very recent examples in the covid era, and I can provide even more examples, if necessary, of wrong policy in that era that was in fact misinformation. Then we have, as Michael Crichton touches on, many many examples throughout history where those questioning established policy, often pushed by governments, are accused of misinformation, when in fact they were correct.

The proposed legislation is extremely dangerous as it will stifle needed debate on government and other policy. The fact that this will put significant government resources into removing voices frequently citing sound science and demonstrating good research is a disaster as this will entrench bad policies and make it far more difficult for us to make our way out of problems created by reckless and wrong government policy. 

As we saw with covid, this wrong policy has ruined many lives, wasted huge sums of money and if entrenched by this legislation it is very likely this will occur yet again.

The answer here is that we do not need to have those questioning to be labelled as peddlers of misinformation and silenced. We need to actively welcome debate and differing opinions. Wrong ideas, when aired and properly discussed, will be seen for what they are and wither naturally.

We need freedom of speech, not some government-entrenched censorship as proposed by this legislation.

It is with the utmost concern that I write concerning the proposed Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023.

It appears to me that this is a severe overreach of authority and a restriction of free speech such as we are akin to believing is the case in soviet style Russia, in North Korea or under the militarized junta of the CCP.

Recent history has proven that such information as western styled governments including our own have chosen to suppress as conspiratorial or as misinformation have in fact proven to be both truthful and factual and that such suppression has been clearly wrong. Witness the stories concerning the origin of the SARS CoV2 epidemic or the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story in that bastion of democracy, the USA. Here in Australia our Federal Government applied pressure to social media platforms to suppress stories concerning the Covid lockdowns, alternative treatments and questions arising out of the efficacy of the Mrna vaccines. Senator Antic of South Australia using freedom of information requests has brought to light over two thousand instances of this interference during the Covid pandemic. I, myself was sanctioned by social media for writing and posting a poem which someone somewhere considered to be misinformative. It seems to me that Government and vested interest is already overreaching and to legislate power to do so flies in the face of free speech and if a person is not free to speak, then he is not free at all and our decent into slavery is complete.

Back in 1956 when George Orwell’s 1984 was made into a movie, those of us old enough to have seen it recoiled in horror as to the possibility of this dystopian society ever emerging. Now, here we are ready to embrace a ‘ministry of truth’. Surely it is time to trust people to make their own decisions concerning truth and untruth, that which makes sense and that which does not and to decide for themselves that which is factual and that which is propaganda!

I am making my consider objection to the proposed Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023 which is essentially a quasi-dictatorial censorship. I based my considered objection upon what is now publicly accepted facts about the CV19 pandemic management despite the "trusted outlets" considered they had the correct approach when clearly they did not yet continued with the implementation of their plan without review and adjustment and yet somehow a good number of us knew this before the experts.
I also object in particular with regards to alternate therapies that the "trusted outlets" - which ironically this proposed Bill intends to further empower - that originally hounded and outlawed any other narrative via a ruthless campaign of media saturation and use of other agencies services to enforce it.
A proper and thorough Royal Commission should be held before any Bill such as this, is rushed into being without proper consultation and or a referendum at the least such is the level of importance that freedom of expressing thought via speech and other mediums holds dear to me and most other Australians.   

What did our diggers die for? So some unqualified stooge criminals can shut down every avenue of free speech that doesn't agree with the current government.

How many lies has the government told over the past few years and how often was the TRUTH censored?

Now you are attacking the platforms because you can't shut us up completely enough for appease the corporations.

One one hand you push "THE VOICE" claiming a minority group needs to have 'their say, while on the other hand you sensor EVERY WORD you and your ignorant staff don't want people to even consider.

The government censored David Ike because he spoke the truth. Not allowing him into the country was disgraceful, but he managed to speak out on digital platforms, so you want to shut those down as well.

Anyone who doesn't agree with the current government is the enemy.

If you continue to push your corrupt censorship, your RACIST voice and all the other agendas designed to destroy our country, then I hope THE SPIRITS OF THE DIGGERS DRAG YOU OFF TO THE PITS OF HELL IN YOUR SLEEP.

You don't deserve to control a row boat, let alone a country that used to pride itself on FREEDOM.

Instead, you people allocate one day to show respect for those who gave their lives for this country, while you allocate PRIDE MONTH for rainbows shoved down our throats.

What happened to your integrity Mr Prime Minister - where these not your words:

"As prime minister, it is my government's responsibility to bring home an Australian citizen who is clearly the victim of a great, vindictive injustice: a man who has been persecuted for the kind of journalism that is a true public service, a man who has not lied, or deceived -- like so many of his counterfeit in the media, but has told people the truth about how the world is run."

You are worse than the criminals in the US government who are trying to destroy someone who TOLD THE TRUTH.

Wake up to yourself and do the right things for this country.

Give up your corporate ass kissing.

Give up your RACIST VOICE.

Give this country back its self respect.

If you want to censor anything look at what the 'colorful' behavior of one of our Senators is doing to our reputation with her colorfully atrocious language, colorful conduct un-befitting even a biker groupie and often intent on causing civil unrest, yet you allow this conduct to go unchallenged as you are too busy pulling down truthful people.

This entire legislation is a disgrace.

The money allocated for the referendum to ask if we want Apartheid in this country could go towards repairing the damage you & Morrison have done to this country.

DO THE RIGHT THING for a change.

I am ashamed of the way this country is going and being dragged along by people whose loyalty is to their wallets and big corporations.

This proposed legislation is OUTRAGEOUS and must be exposed for the heinous act against the freedoms of the Australian people that it is.

Just one example [and there are many others] is the claims made by  ‘so called’ experts, which the government supported during the Covid pandemic.  Based on information  [now known to be manipulated] by pharmaceutical companies and corrupt media, as to the benefits of their experimental vaccines,  government officials including health authorities made claims that were false and misguided while at the same time condemning those who ‘knew better’ as being  “anti vax; misinformation spreaders and conspiracy theorists”.

These ‘so-called’ misinformation spreaders and conspiracy theorists included microbiologists, vaccine producers, scientists, medical practitioners and other health professionals, as well as cautious members of the public, who were not prepared to become ‘guinea pigs’ in an experimental vaccine program.

Time has shown that they were right to speak out about their concerns as deaths and adverse effects from vaccines continue to mount and will continue to do so for many years to come.

Before you point the finger at “misinformation” as coming from “out there”, take a good look at yourselves!!!!

Misinformation and disinformation pose a threat to the safety and wellbeing of Australians, as well as to our democracy, society and economy.

This sentence is the exact opposite of reality and shows you don't have any faith in ordinary people to separate fact from fiction or do any of their own research or reach any of their own conclusions. This law will mean that Australia is not a democracy because free speech is at the heart of every democratic country. Keep your controls on people inciting physical violence or child abuse and leave the rest to people to work out for themselves. We must be allowed to have different ideas and make our own way through life.

While I support the drive to improve on information and 'truth' on digital platforms, who is the one to decide what is truth and what is not?  Truth is subjective, when you really look at it.  Maybe it's not so much truth, as a morality issue that should drive this integrity enquiry.  

Post covid, many people seem to have lost their moral compasses, not their ability to stand up for their truth.  This has been building for many decades, even centuries, and we are now seeing the fallout of that excessive control and greed that has guided this breakdown globally and the powers that be are now struggling to control a status quo of their own making - maybe because they know the truth is surfacing and they could be toast.

Social media has lost its innocent novelty value, and is now the avenue for the true face of human nature when it's not held to account for what is said - and we have had decades of misinformation and social conditioning by these powerful conglomerates and other leadership, which is now resulting in a kind of anarchy, as the 'truth' becomes apparent at the coal-face.

I can also see there is a need to evaluate and/or try to guide those who are acting out their deepest issues under the guise of some popular agenda, that brings them attention and 'likes'.  BUT WHO HAS THE RIGHT TO DECIDE what is true or not for another person? 

This became most obvious during Covid, and the vaccination subject but is not exclusive to it.

The coercion, panic and over-reach of governments, business and personally has shown its own form of truth.  But this didn't just happen with covid and its vaccines, I think it was the rise of billionaires, division of the masses and false 'true' information which has become the issue.  The people are now taking back their truth, whatever that may be and governments are falling because of this.  It is the truth about the poor leadership that has come forward, the greed and power that has for too long been insidiously taking over our lives, burning workers out, making money and capitalism their God.  Who led us to this point??

I have experienced the notion of 'conspiracy theory/ist' for many decades after my son had a severe vaccine reaction.

No one can tell me my child didn't have this reaction, I was there and witnessed the whole thing from go to the present day.  The GP I consulted 'couldn't help him', but he also disclosed that he didn't vaccinate his 6 children 'because I know what goes in them'.  When asked why he hadn't informed me of the side effects, I was told 'I'm not allowed to'.  A vaccination nurse dismissed the reaction, as 'collateral damage'.    A friend once screamed at me in a cafe stating my son's situation 'didn't happen' - even though she had not been in our lives through any of that time.  I didn't mind that she believed in vaccination, but she, as a doctor's daughter, clearly felt threatened knowing that something she believed in, might have truth to the contrary.  And I recently ended a 50yr friendship, because this friend refused me entry to her home because I would have to vaccinate to be welcome, even after offerring a PCR, RAT test and social distancing just to have coffee and chat.  She stated 'I believe in vaccination'.  There's that word again.

I don't think I'm the hysterical one in any of these cases.  After so many years of being judged, I couldn't care less if a person is vaccinated or not.

And this is where the problem lies with the vax subject - people have been led to believe in something that has shown to be false repeatedly, but the message of 'safe and effective' was cleverly marketed and experienced, the actual 'truth-tellers' and facts derided, pariahed...and then there was covid, where the vaccines have proven to be flawed, but still the lack of accountability as the truth surfaces, and the true diehards, continue the belief, fed by scientific 'research' and pharmaceutical 'proof', which is in fact second hand information peddled by a willing doctor, who gets incentivised to promote a procedure.  

We saw much more of what we believed, not just on vaccines, start to crumble during covid and the people having been speaking up ever since.

So are we experiencing truths, conspiracy theories or a fight for a moral compass through better leadership and personal accountability??  Vaccination is not the one area where this takes place, it is one of many.  

You tell me. It looks to me like the misinformation of the past is now merging with the truth of the present, and we are in chaos.

My story is only one, and I have been abused, attacked, derided, ignored and dismissed for years for it, most of it on social media - but I stand with resolve, knowing this was a truth, an undeniable experience of misleading, even perhaps well-intentioned, information that lead to my son's incident, with no accountability from the people who caused it to be.

I appreciate the good intent but who is going to be the truth-teller - the one given the right to decide, with all their biases and misinformation?  The one peddling an agenda?  Or the one who had the experience?

This level of governance is becoming quite ridiculous to the point of dangerous - please, we need to send a heap of our laws and regulations to the cutting room floor not bring in more.

It seems you would like to set up one group of people to become the arbiter of truth, which is just not possible. Difference of opinion is extremely healthy, debate is healthy and is what stimulates invention - people need to grow up and take responsibility for their own physical and mental health and switch off media if it offends their sensibilities. We've become far too protectionist as a society and seem to need the government to do our thinking and protecting for us. 

Think of all the amazing people who were considered to be wrong and crazy yet cut us a path to where we are today - under something like this we'd probably censor Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers, the inventors of taxis and coffee and heart valves etc depending on who decides what is reasonable and truthful on any given day. This reeks of totalitarian control and a complete lack of faith in the ordinary Australian to sort through for themselves truth from lies and live with their own decisions if they've believed a lie or refused to sign on to 'government truth'. 

If this is going to be applied to people posting online it needs also to be applied to government 'advertising'. We have been fed a 'safe and effective' propaganda message for years now that has shown itself to be blatantly untrue and yet those highly qualified people warning against this message, even in a reasonable and scientific manner, were de-platformed along with those who were clearly in need of mental health assistance. 

We cannot allow anyone to become an arbiter of truth and decide what is and is not safe messaging. De-platform only obvious and absolute hate, that which incites to violence and hatred, statements that are absolutely proven to be untrue not just 'might be' or 'could' make people not do what the government wants. 

For goodness sake, we managed to ban a medication that was listed on the WHO list of most important drugs and have people believe it to only be 'horse paste' because of this idiocy and it seems a misplaced belief in media being truthful. Media companies should not have this level of control over the ordinary person. 

Australia seems to be heading down the path of totalitarianism and communism, it is sad to see what's happening in our country and these sorts of policies just lead us further into that territory, which I'm starting to sadly think must be deliberate. This type of policy is going to cause a large number of people to hold even less trust in the government than they do now. Many of us have very little trust in government anymore due to the last few years of poorly handled management of so called 'truth' and 'the science'. This type of policy will only make things worse in the long term, it seems the government would like us to become mindless believers of only one side of any debate. 

Just stop it, enough is enough, you're wasting my taxpayer dollars.

"No government of Australia can be trusted to be the final arbiter of what is truth. In the last 3 years we have multiple examples of the truth according to the government changing from week to week according to political motivations. This bill is censorship of free speech plain and simple and has no place in a country that claims to be a democracy. There are better ways to improve the cohesiveness of our society than the censorship currently being planned by our government. Please do not pass this bill into law."

‘There is always two sides to every story’ - every individual has different perspectives in life in relation of their upbringings, and should be able to have the right to verbally express their own personal views, debate, and engage in conversations with others on topics of their interests to acknowledge, learn, & respect perspectives of others.

“We are a democracy, we are not living in an oppressive communist state.  Free speech is FREE SPEECH.   There is no such thing as a balance of free speech.  It is either free speech or it is not.   If someone is defaming someone else, the law allows for the defamed to act through litigation.  Free speech must remain if we are still to call Australia a Democracy”. 

 SUBMISSION 

Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023. 

• Always will be lies and deceptions in ANY society. 

• Paramount in a free society are the means to Free speech and argument to counteract. 

• Truth will prevail not from a Government appointed arbiter and more regulations, but by non-interference. 

• It is NOT the roll of any government or entity to interfere with free speech – irrespective if “offense” might be caused. 

• Establishing a so called “eSafety Commissioner,” and inevitably a large, expensive supporting bureaucracy to be the truth arbiter … is both dangerous* and utterly biased. 

• In public circles, any anointed truth can result only after censorship. 

• In government at ALL levels, the same processes and penalties must apply to politicians and Bureaucrats to always be wholly truthful without omission. 

• Same for mainstream media, but must NOT be applied to the carriers of public discourse, as they supply the vehicle, but not responsible for how it is used. 

• If that principle of equality is not applied, then this entire effort must be terminated. 

• Therefore, if this assault on liberty is to proceed, will the same scrutiny and censorship (and with severest of penalties) be applied to the professional liars and manipulators – Politicians and Bureaucrats and Mainstream Media? 

So, who decides what is misinformation or disinformation? What is the difference? These would be the same people who have been making the stupid decisions about the Panic Virus for the past 3 years+. They are also the same people who have form for stupid decisions for many more than the past 3 years.

Description of these people - just stupid, ignorant and arrogant vermin.

The population has been bombarded by misinformation, disinformation, psychological propaganda and constant lies by obviously corrupt governments and bureaucrats who have paid the media to maintain the false narratives peddled by these criminals, yes criminals who are responsible for the deaths and permanent injuries of thousands of Australians. Now these same criminals want to impose total censorship, the first step towards controlling the minds of citizens before they permanently impose the totalitarian government that was practised from 2020-23. The censorship is being promoted by these criminals to avoid detection of their crimes and to silence their critics and opposition. To accept the massive deception committed by these criminals, is to be resigned to being ruled by communist government from this point forward.