En Passant

Australia does not have a right to free speech. However the High Court has ruled that there is implied in the Constitution a right to political communication. Like all things constitutional, written or implied, this is subject to the Court’s interpretation.  I think it fair to say it is a fairly narrow right, and one […]

The Israel Folau case worries me. Rugby Australia sacked Folau for his proselytising post that said: WARNING Drunks, Homosexuals, Adulterers, Liars, Fornicators, Thieves, Atheists, Idolaters HELL AWAITS YOU Repent! Only Jesus Saves. Despite Folau’s claim this is a quote from the Bible, the actual passage from Corinthians 6:9-10 makes no mention of hell. It says […]

Am I living in a police state? On Tuesday the Australian Federal Police raided the home of News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst. On Wednesday it was the turn of journalists in the Sydney offices of the ABC. They were looking for information that they could use to prosecute whistle-blowers who provided the information to journalists. […]

As readers would know, I have no love for Julian Assange. I want him sent to Sweden to face inquiries and possible prosecution over allegations of sexual misconduct (e.g. rape.) I oppose sending him to the United States for any reason. The reality is the ruling class there want to imprison, if not execute, Assange […]

Independent Australia’s Canberra correspondent John Passant finds himself on the wrong side of Facebook’s “community standards”. To read the article click here

Any debate about free speech in our society is really about free speech for the ruling class, I write in Independent Australia

To read the whole article click here. Top class! Free speech is a fundamental right … but only for the ruling right

To me the Australian police raids on Senator Conroy and his staff look very much like a gross abuse of process and an attempt to undermine democracy and one of its outlets, parliamentary privilege. They are also I suspect an attempt to silence any future whistleblowers who might reveal inconvenient truths about this or other governments. We are losing our freedoms over time and the NBN police raids on Conroy and his staff are just another striking example of that loss.

This dark environment at Universities is the consequence of the ongoing and deepening commodification of higher education, a process both major parties have been deeply involved in. When your Grundnorm is profit, ideas which challenge that, however expressed, are a threat to the very essence of the machine that is now the University sector. That machine is destroying the University as the seeming bastion of difference and the dissemination of often currently unconventional and unpopular ideas. To defend academic freedom we must defend Martin Hirst.

  In Independent Australia today, I discuss the suppression of free speech behind the recent suspension of academic Roz Ward. I say among other things: ‘Ward has clearly adversely affected the university but only if your criteria for judgement is a reactionary newspaper like The Australian. The Vice-Chancellor’s actions are entirely consistent with a profit model […]

Facebook’s ‘community standards’ are the ‘standards’ of rich white men who find women’s bodies offensive if they aren’t titillating them. The power Facebook has is overwhelming. This abuse of its power reflects the dominant ruling class paradigms of misogyny, racism and sexism. Facebook’s decision to censor a photo of traditional Aboriginal women and ban Celeste Liddle is Donald Trump writ small. Where is our Chicago in response?