07-10-2024: The right to free speech, one of the most elementary aspects of basic democratic rights, hangs in the balance in Australia. The Australian Labor Party (ALP) federal government is currently attempting to ram through legislation which is breathtaking in its levels of authoritarianism. The ALP referred the Orwellian named Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2024 (CMAD) to a review committee, giving the public just one week (until September 30) to send a submission.[1] This is an absurdly short period of time for a population to digest this second version of a bill which was submitted last year, but withdrawn after a public outcry. Now the ALP is submitting almost the same bill, with some extremely minor modifications. Last year, even the Australian government funded Human Rights Commission severely criticised the first version of the Bill. At the time, it registered its grave concerns at the danger of allowing any entity – either the government or a social media platform – the power to determine what is and is not censored content. They also pointed out that under the proposed legislation, government information could never be considered misinformation, but public criticism of government policy may well be.[2]

Officials sounding the alarm

The CMAD Bill is such an egregious attack on essential civil liberties that even Dr Nick Coatsworth has written a submission demanding the Bill be withdrawn entirely. Dr Coatsworth was the federal government’s deputy chief medical officer during the fraudulent “Covid pandemic”, and at the time allied with the government in advising a host of scientifically unjustifiable measures of political repression, such as lockdowns and vaccine mandates. Dr Coatsworth still advocates for a vaccine response to alleged viruses, but now admits that vaccine mandates were wrong. Now, Dr Coatsworth states that misinformation causes harm, but the weaponisation of misinformation as a term to shut down debate causes even greater harm.[3] Even as a former government spokesperson himself, Dr Coatsworth seemingly agrees that, in certain times, the government itself can be the main source of “misinformation”. In fact, as some have stated, there is no such thing as “misinformation” – there is only information one accepts, and information one does not accept.

If rammed through the federal parliament, the law would give power to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to impose fines of up to 5% of the annual global turnover of social media platforms that fail to censor “misinformation”.[4] If enacted, 5% of the annual takings of social media giants such as Facebook and X would amount to millions of dollars. As some have commented, a social media mega company could not be fined for censoring the online speech of millions of users, but it could be fined for not censoring enough content. In these extraordinary times, when the literal censorship of “your own” citizens is becoming normalised, X owner Elon Musk has turned into a strange ally of the masses, or at least on this issue. Musk wrote a one-word response – “fascists” – in a post on X in response to the imposition of the CMAD Bill by the Australian government.[5]

Left betrayal

Even though Elon Musk is not an ally of working people on other issues – such as his backing of US imperialism in relation to Israel’s war on Palestine and regime change attempts in Venezuela – it is once again astonishing that the world’s richest man has outflanked the so-called political left on an issue of primal rights. Free speech, or the right to argue for your views in public (which now largely takes place online), is not just vital for democratic rights. Without it, basic social and political discourse would not be possible. In the face of this, one would expect the political left to be up in arms and marching in the streets demanding cardinal rights be protected in law. But the opposite is the case. The political left, or what passes for it, remains silent. Its silence means in practice that it has once again allied itself with the very capitalist state it claims to oppose. This was the case during the extraordinary removal of anything resembling freedom during the horrendous years of 2020 to 2022, under the eminently false guise of “healthcare”. Then, as now, the ostensible left does not at all distinguish itself from the twin parties of liberal Australian imperialism – the ALP and the Greens.

Once again, it is the conservative right-wing which is battling the system in defending what used to be accepted as universal rights, taking up ground which was in past years almost the sole preserve of the progressive left-wing. The Coalition parties (Liberal Party and National Party) are opposing the CMAD Bill outright, which may lead to its defeat if several independents also vote against. However, these conservative parliamentary parties can never be permanent allies, as Liberal Party Senator James Paterson states that they will be offering an alternative Bill which instead labels misinformation spreaders as “foreign state actors”. This version could be even more dangerous, as those legitimately protesting government policy could then be criminalised for acting for a foreign state. In a time of the ongoing threat of a breakout of World War III, one can see how such legislation could be used to prosecute or imprison those with genuine anti-war views. This may be used against the self-described left, despite their allegiance to the government on manufactured “pandemics”.

With the so-called left again unable to even criticise the potential crushing of free speech, this drives more workers to the right and into conservative politics, sometimes even despite their own intentions. Thankfully, there are exceptions, and some on the left can see the necessity of defending and regaining the basic democratic rights that were, not long ago, taken for granted. Of necessity, such groups need to form temporary blocs with those forces who view themselves as conservative. How long leftists remain in such blocs will be determined by other political factors which arise, such as the outbreak of a new war. In short, due to the treachery of the self-proclaimed left, working people will need to form transient “left-right coalitions” until more favourable political conditions arise.

The longer capitalism remains, the more politically repressive the capitalist state must become. It must reverse social conditions it once championed. The old order is rotten, and a new one must be born. The democratic rule of the working class – socialism – must rise to replace a system which now only guarantees censorship, war and a collapse in living standards. What is required is a workers’ party which fights for a workers’ government. DEFEND THE RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH!

Workers League

www.redfireonline.com

E: workersleague@protonmail.com

[1] www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/MisandDisinfobill (02-10-2024)

[2] www.humanrights.gov.au/about/news/opinions/why-misinformation-bill-risks-freedoms-it-aims-protect (02-10-2024)

[3] www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13887877/Dr-Nick-Coatsworth-warning-misinformation.html (02-10-2024)

[4] www.finance.yahoo.com/news/australia-plans-fine-social-media (02-10-2024)

[5] www.inews.co.uk/news/world/elon-musk-calls-australian-government-fascists-over-misinformation-3274687 (02-10-2024)

Image: http://www.ipa.org.au