Search
Recent comments
- waste of cash....
23 min ago - marles' bluster....
44 min 27 sec ago - fascism français....
48 min 32 sec ago - russian subs in swedish waters....
1 hour 27 min ago - more polling....
56 min 1 sec ago - they know....
5 hours 44 min ago - past readings....
6 hours 43 min ago - jihadist bob.....
6 hours 49 min ago - macronicon.....
8 hours 44 min ago - fascist liberals....
8 hours 45 min ago
Democracy Links
Member's Off-site Blogs
as a keen gardener of bookshelves and as bigoted amateur of turdinias, brandis hated fair pretty blossoms...
It might be thought that if people were really interested in freedom of speechthen why aren’t they mightily upset with section 31 of the “uniform” Defamation Act which deals with the defence of honest opinion and is so bound in technicalities and abstractions that it rarely, if ever, works for people wanting to defend an opinion in court.
There’s never a squeak about section 31 from the self-appointed protectors of free speech. Nor is anything said about the barrowloads of other laws that inhibit citizens from protesting, that undermine the principle of open courts and open justice, that prevent access to government information, and hide the truth about the welfare of people jailed in offshore detention centres.
It is utterly delusional to suggest that speech will be “freerer” in Australia once 18C has been sliced and diced. The tirade about 18C is a massive piece of fakery, a culture war conceit. The proponents of change are not really interested in the wider horizons of free speech, other than loosening inhibitions on bigotry and racial nastiness.
read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2016/nov/14/the...
- By Gus Leonisky at 14 Nov 2016 - 9:31pm
- Gus Leonisky's blog
- Login or register to post comments
bigots in search of insults...
Politicians who regard Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act as a serious threat to “free speech” are again pursuing a range of strategies to discredit and repeal or water-down Australia’s national racial vilification law.
Earlier this month, senator David Leyonhjelm lodged a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission, alleging he had been the target of conduct that breached 18C. And, just this week, Liberal senator Cory Bernardi has led a push to introduce a private member’s bill that would curtail 18C.
So what is 18C? And why does it make people like Bernardi and Leyonhjelm so agitated?
readmore:
http://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-section-18c-and-why-do-some...
did bookshelves brandis try to rob the ATO of $300 million?
According to a report in The West Australian, when those concerns were raised by a creditor in the High Court earlier this year, Senator Brandis instructed his then solicitor-general Justin Gleeson against running a particular argument effectively in support of those concerns.
But the deal was reportedly scuttled by Mr Gleeson, who wrote a scathing submission to the court on behalf of the ATO.
Australian Greens justice spokesman Nick McKim said if the claims about the Attorney-General were correct, it was a very serious matter.
Allegations are ‘the most serious’ that Brandis has faced“We’ve got a situation where if the reports are true, George Brandis has effectively instructed former solicitor-general Justin Gleeson to run dead in the High Court, and the effect of that of course would have been to deny the Commonwealth potentially up to $300 million of revenue that was due to the Australian Taxation Office,” he said.
read more:
http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2016/11/27/greens-call-parliamen...