There are a lot of people still asleep in Australia but there is also a growing number of them waking up to some of the agendas being pushed across the globe. It’s at a point now where there is a decentralized informal network of Digital Soldiers who are shining the spotlight on inconvenient facts and calling out some of the shenanigans that our governments have been getting up to. Several recent government initiatives have been thwarted by the propagation of alternative views and the Authoritarians know that they have a bit of a problem. The government here is blaming its recent failures on the spread of Misinformation and it appears that is where one of the next big battles here will be fought.
We’ve already seen this agenda playing out overseas. Former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinta Ardern had infamously claimed "We will continue to be your single source of truth" before falling on her sword (resigning) and then going to the United Nations to Call for a global censorship system last year. In the same year the Americans defeated the Disinformation Task Force which was intended to similarly stifle alternative views. Plus there are a plethora of the usual suspects in the UN, WEF and EU pushing the same same talking points….this agenda is not a new one, but it’s now reached Australia.
Here the government has proposed the Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023 which is pretty much more of the same as we've seen overseas. This one is particularly brazen for a few reasons. Basically the government gets to decide what the “Truth” is and if anyone promotes an alternative or contradictory view then they can be charged with an offence. It gets worse though – There is some explicit clauses in there that make the Government and Big Media exempt from accountability, meaning that they themselves can be free to propagate Misinformation without repercussions. It’s a truly Orwellian piece of legislation that could be used to suppress any kind of dissent. Even the Australian Human Rights Commission has come out against it
To me it looks like this might be the next battle to be fought in Australia and the first step in all of these battles against the Authoritarians is always to build awareness about what they are trying to do. We’ve already defeated a few bad pieces of proposed legislation in recent times and I do think that we can beat this one too, but it’s not a time to be complacent. If you’re an Aussie then please get the word out and if you’re not, be on the lookout for similar moves to stifle dissenting views in your own country.