Hutch

Okay. Firstly - I like living here. My family goes back nine generations in Australia and I'm proud to hold an Australian passport. You'll find my relatives names on the Welcome Wall in Sydney and on the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. That said, there are a couple of things about this country that I'd like to point out, that people might not be aware of.

1) There is no right to freedom of speech. To quote the Australian government's own website, "The Australian Constitution does not have any express provision relating to freedom of speech. In theory, therefore, the Commonwealth Parliament may restrict or censor speech through censorship legislation or other laws, as long as they are otherwise within constitutional power." This is actually in direct violation of the 1966 United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Australia is a signatory. In addition, Australia has stringent defamation laws which effectively extend to cover the globe.

2) There is no right to assembly. There is no law guaranteeing this right, rather Australian citizens rely on the absence of comprehensive formal restrictions rather than explicit protection through a constitution. The feebleness of this concept was well demonstrated during the G8 conference and the Catholic Youth Day festival in Sydney when the police were accorded draconian powers to deal with anyone who wore so much as an offensive t-shirt. Powers, it might be added, that they used.

3) Australia is one of the most censored 'Western' style democracies on the planet - and for that matter Queensland is far and away the most censorious state in Australia (QLD banned twice as many books and films as any other state). Legislation currently working its way through government will bring full scale censorship to the Internet placing Australia squarely in the immediate company of North Korea, Burma and China. Australia loves banning video games such as Grand Theft Auto IV.

If you'd like to get involved in the fight against Internet censorship in this country, start here.

Funky Monkey

Hi Hutch.

You may be right but they lack in censorship of the radio IMO some of the language is awful,they are sometimes vile and vulgar here.Also some of the scenes on T.V are pretty bad too, I am not prudish I work on a building site, thanks James .

Scuba Steve

No GTA 4?

Tableland

I agree with this totally and abhore the latest authoritarian attempt to violate our privacy. Much of what you write above by the way can be attributed to the UK which also does not have a written constitution explicitly allowing various rights and freedoms. In fact that's why Aus does not have one. Another reason is that up till recently Aus (and UK) has been so peaceful and stable that these sorts of rights were not required.

I feel that the imminent economic collapse will change all that.

I add in edit that with regards to the internet thing, I have no objections to the banning of criminal sites, etc., but what concerns me is the fact that once this power is installed it could be extended quite easily to any information the authoritarian Labour party don't want us to see. So I don't support it, and I believe it is for parents to look after their children not some anonymous Nanny nightmare accountable to no one.

Also, Hutch, Australia might be going to sit with other totalitarian nightmares like NK, but it will soon be joined by Britain, which is also trying to bring in similar nasties with regards to censorship.

And for anyone who looked at Canada before opting for Australia you might be interested to know that the former has the best record on the planet in terms of protecting the privacy of the citizen against the instrusion of the state, far better than its southern neighbour (US), despite that country bragging so loudly about its freedoms and rights. So shame on Australia for falling so far from the right side of this debate and leaving the company of Ottawa for Pyongyang.

Hutch

Yea, the UK's heading down the same road. In some regards (particularly surveilance of its citizens) it's lightyears ahead of any other country. In the last 20 years there has been a systematic erosion of civil liberties in the name of 'protecting' us. I think that enough is enough.

Tableland

You might think that, and so do I and millions of others, but we have no real voice and we are fighting an unwinnable war. It is defeatist to say so but civil liberties have been trounced by a succession of illiberal governments over the last few decades, and today our link with the old traditions and rights as proclaimed by Locke or Paine seem so tenuous they may as well not exist at all.

This erosion has been expedited mainly by technology, and also by a general malaise which set in at some point after WWII.

spalen

yes you can get GTA IV but they took the kiddy porn out of it, just like they're trying to do with the web.

Jeez itsnot the great firewall of china they're putting up. :curse:

there are more important things to worry about , like the govt spending 10b$ without having understood if it would actually help, the abuse of aboriginals etc.

And the fact the G7 protestors were stopped from having a fight in mcdonalds or burning down their local merchant bank is a good thing. Riotous assembly indeed.

Jim F

I'm from Canada, and I can tell you that there is no "true" freedom of speech there when compared to the U.S. - look up the case of Mark Steyn and the attempted censorship of anything not deemed "politically correct" by unelected Human Rights Commissions (under its Section 13 powers) before you continue on. The mainstream media in Canada (talk radio, TV, newspapers) also has far less viewpoints presented (tilting heavily to the left) compared to what I've seen or heard in the U.S. or other countries.

Written Constitutions with an embedded Charter of Rights is not necessarily great either - it takes away any flexibility and ability by democratically elected parliaments to use common sense, putting power into the hands of un-elected left wing judges with the ability to impose the agenda of special interest groups onto the majority. This has been the case in Canada since their open-ended Charter was imposed in 1982 - I hope Australia never makes the same mistake of putting an open-ended Charter directly into a written Constitution.

chris1386

Strewth!!! Bloody good job its sunny, eh

xzibit

Glad I already bought it over here and will be taking it with me then!!

I couldn't cope without mowing down innocent pedestrians, drug running, and murdering the 5-0!!!

Devlin

You have missed the point entirely. You will regret not standing up for your civil liberties when they are gone. There are obviously always important issues that must be addressed, but that is NOT a reason to allow your civil liberties to be gradually eroded.

DrWho

That's it, I'm going back...

The O'Neills

I agree entirely about protection of our civil liberties, however I can't agree about CCTV surveilance. CCTV has helped the police to identify and convict some violent and dangerous individuals in the UK, and if you stay on the right side of the law then you've got nothing to worry about eh?

In the words of the great citizen Smith ''Power to the People''

Nic

Tableland

I followed the Steyn case and it was an outrage; I am glad you reminded me. I also share your hopes about charters.

Tableland

Singularly the most depressing argument ever made in favour of authoritarianism.