Antinuclear

Australia’s Liberal Party wants “free speech” – for corporations, anyway

Let’s stop pretending the Liberal Party believes in free speech The Monthly, By RICHARD COOKE Friday, 20th December 2013  You’d need a heart of stone not to laugh at right-wing think-tanker Tim Wilson becoming a Human Rights Commissioner. Whatever the merits of his appointment, it’s an ace piece of industrial strength trolling by George Brandis, parachuting a culture warrior right behind enemy lines like that. As Twitter outrage reached DEFCON 1, you could almost write the Australian editorial yourself. “Noisy echo chamber… the squeals of the left… bien pensant… soy latte”… etc. But amid all the good times, there was a danger of the real punchline being lost. Because the midlife crisis-style reinvention of the Coalition as the standard bearer for ‘freedom of speech’ really does take the biscuit……….
until now, the Liberals have made zero effort to nourish the nation’s stunted legislative or cultural protections for free speech. If the Puritans are suddenly putting on libertarian party hats, we should be suspicious………

It’s worrying when Tim Wilson says he will “advance the Government’s freedom agenda”, because it doesn’t have one. Not one that’s applied as a broad principle anyway, and that’s explicit – Brandis’ freedom audit of Australian law will “specifically focus on commercial and corporate regulation, environmental regulation and workplace relations.”

The principle mouthed is universal, but the passion is for corporate personhood and Andrew Bolt……..http://www.themonthly.com.au/blog/richard-cooke/2013/12/20/1387513596/let-s-stop-pretending-liberal-party-believes-free-speech

December 27, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | General News