Stephen Johnson: Why Australia is lukewarm about free speech compared with the United States

Free speech in Australia is now increasingly regarded as an American-style oddity, like the right to own a firearm. The Bondi massacre revealed what can happen when anti-Semitic sentiment is allowed to flourish unchecked. And as a consequence of that violence, everyone’s freedom suffers. Civil liberties are traded away to keep the peace, in the name of multiculturalism. NSW Premier Chris Minns made that clear this week, as Parliament passed legislation banning protests for 14 days following a terrorist attack, with Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon given the option of extending those bans every fortnight for up to three months. The State’s top cop has now banned protests across Sydney for the next fortnight. Banning public assemblies (even the peaceful ones) changes the character of Australia. The contrast with the US, where the constitutionally-enshrined right to free speech is considered sacrosanct, is stark. “I acknowledge that we don’t have the same free speech rules that they have in the United States and I don’t make any apologies for that,” Mr Minns said this week. “We have got a responsibility to knit together our community that comes from different races and religions and places from all over the world.” He effectively acknowledged that limitations on free speech are necessary to maintain community harmony in a multicultural State, where half the population was born overseas or has at least one parent born overseas. Since the Bondi massacre, a 43-year-old British national displaying nazi symbols has been the only deportation. No Islamist hate preachers have yet been kicked out of Australia. The hate speech crackdown will be largely left up to State governments given the Federal Government’s failure to properly vet potential immigrants for extremist sympathies. This failure is a threat to our way of life as we know it. Mainstream, peaceful protests have been infiltrated by extremist elements. Former NSW Labor premier Bob Carr was photographed in August at a Sydney Harbour Bridge rally for Palestine in front of a picture of Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei. Mr Minns pointed to protests like these to justify curtailing the rights of all Australians. “How can it be that a protest can take place in the State and there’s a swastika tattooed on the Star of David on a poster in the middle of the city? Or photos of the Ayatollah, the leader of Iran, or posters or flags of Hezbollah or Hamas?” Mr Minns asked. “Shirts saying, ‘Death to the IDF’. Other shirts that says, ‘All Zionists are neo-nazis’. Words ultimately lead to actions. “How can we say that protests that have these signs have no bearing on either the culture, the temperature, or even extreme actions within our community?” The heavy-handed approach is occurring two years after Islamists marched on Sydney Opera House chanting “where’s the Jews” following the October 7 terrorist attack in Israel. Civil libertarians are planning legal challenges to the protest ban. “It’s the same thing as trying to cure a cold by drinking a glass of bleach. You don’t fix specific reactions by banning all protests for almost a quarter of a year off the cuff,” NSW Council for Civil Liberties president Timothy Roberts told The Nightly. The introduction of multiculturalism 50 years ago also coincided with the Racial Discrimination Act. Section 18C was added in 1995 making it unlawful to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate a group of people based on their race or ethnic origin. Section 18C, which former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott had flagged repealing in 2014 before dropping the idea, was used this year to successfully sue Al Madina Dawah Centre preacher Wissam Haddad for a series of sermons in Bankstown in which he described Jews as “treacherous, vile people”. Haddad has since denied radicalising 24-year-old accused terror gunman Naveed Akram, charged with 59 offences including 15 of murder and 40 of attempted murder at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on December 14. Mr Minns also intends to expand NSW’s hate speech laws to make phrases including “globalise the intifada” unlawful. A parliamentary committee is examining what other phrases could potentially be banned. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution stops Congress from making any law “abridging the freedom of speech” ahead of the Second Amendment which guarantees “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms”. Like the United States, Australia is yet to ban Islamist hate group Hizb ut-Tahrir despite it being prohibited across Europe, in the UK, and in Muslim-majority nations, including Indonesia. This is also a group that has intimidated Jewish students at the University of Sydney by infiltrating pro-Palestinian encampments. Governments in Australia have unfortunately focused on limiting everyone’s right to protest instead of cracking down on hate groups a lot earlier. If multiculturalism doesn’t respect Australian values, we all lose the right to free expression that doesn’t advocate harassment or violence.