URGENT: A call to action to oppose Australia’s misinformation bill

GUEST POST: Tony Nikolic, LLM

URGENT: Whilst Australians were focused on the US election, the Australian Labor government introduced a special standing order to fast-track the Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Bill 2024, effectively circumventing normal parliamentary processes and procedural steps, in order to ram through the proposed legislation.

Today, 73 Labor MPs and 6 Independent MPs voted in the AFFIRMATIVE in the House of Representatives. It is now scheduled to be put before the Senate on Monday, 18 Nov, 2024. [updated date]

This is your last chance to have your say and sign the petition to oppose the bill.

Below, is a guest post by Tony Nikolic, a practicing lawyer in Sydney, NSW who has been at the forefront of human rights and informed consent cases. He provides an analysis of the Federal Government’s proposed misinformation bill and its impact on free speech.

Amid the recent Trump election victory, critical domestic issues have slipped by unnoticed. The government appears to have advanced its controversial Combatting Misinformation & Disinformation Bill 2024, while the public has been preoccupied.

In the face of the distraction, Australians risk losing freedoms as this proposed legislation advances quietly. The stated intention of the bill is to prevent the spread of falsehoods that could harm public health, national security, and the economy.

It introduces fines, penalties, and even potential imprisonment for those who spread what the government defines as ‘misinformation’ or ‘disinformation’, a concept that in itself can become the victim of misinformation due to the ambiguity and subjective nature of its treatment.

However, while branded as a tool to protect the public from harmful misinformation, it represents a chilling move toward government overreach, suppressing the voice of the people under the guise of safety and order.

At its core, it symbolises a retreat from the ideals of open discourse and democratic freedom and seeks to control the narrative, stifling dissent and debate, and establishing the government as the ultimate gatekeeper of truth.

In the rush to silence dissent and regulate speech, our elected representatives have forgotten that freedom is not a gift from the government. Free speech is not dangerous; it is the cure for misinformation, prejudice, and bias. It is through the clash of opinions, unfettered debate, and the exchange of ideas that we as a society find truth.

Section 14(b) of the bill targets so-called disinformation related to public health, raising alarming questions about the future of scientific discourse. When governments claim the authority to determine what constitutes valid science, they risk silencing breakthrough discoveries and condemning society to stagnation. 

Similarly, Section 14(f) proscribes the dissemination of information related to economic affairs, specifically those deemed harmful to financial markets. This not only protects corporate elites from scrutiny but also stifles whistleblowers who might expose economic manipulation or corruption. In a world where economic injustice is rampant, this provision ensures that the powerful will remain unchallenged.

While Australia’s Constitution does not enshrine an explicit right to free speech like the United States, the implied freedom of political communication is part of our democratic tradition. The High Court of Australia has repeatedly upheld the notion that open debate, particularly about government policy, is crucial to a functioning democracy.

Drawing on the words of John F. Kennedy and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, I believe that free speech is not only a democratic right, but the cornerstone of a society where truth prevails over power. It should not be implied, but rather absolute.

When the government becomes the sole arbiter of truth, it opens the door to corruption and tyranny. When citizens are too afraid to speak out, the government with its cheerleading bureaucracy and corporate sector can operate without accountability, leading to an erosion of trust in institutions.

This Australian bill is not an isolated incident, but part of a broader trend toward authoritarianism that we have seen throughout history. In Nazi Germany, the government used propaganda to control the narrative, suppress dissent, and promote its twisted ideology. In the Soviet Union, dissenters were routinely silenced, imprisoned, or executed for questioning the party line. In China, the government’s control over information is nearly total. The Great Firewall prevents citizens from accessing unfiltered information, ensuring that the Communist Party’s narrative remains dominant. And let’s not forget how the Biden-Harris Administration sought to coerce social media platforms to silence and deplatform citizens expressing disfavoured views.

The role of gatekeeping institutions

The institutions that stand behind Australia’s misinformation bill – media organisations, government agencies, institutions that generally protected the Rule of Law and regulatory bodies – are not neutral arbiters of truth. Rather, they are gatekeepers, filtering and sanitising information to protect their own interests. This complex interplay between bureaucratic layers creates a self-serving system where the flow of information is tightly controlled, and any threat to the status quo is swiftly neutralised.

When information is filtered through layers of bureaucracy, it loses its truth, becoming distorted and diluted to suit the agenda of those in control. As citizens, we must ask ourselves: who benefits from this control? The answer is clear – those in power.

As we had seen during Covid, Australian police shot dissenters with rubber bullets for protesting against government overreach, arrested and jailed people for speaking at rallies and crossing state borders just to be with their families. They arrested a pregnant mother for posting on Facebook, raided doctors’ surgeries, seized confidential patient files, and deregistered them for raising awareness about adverse reactions or providing information about alternative treatments.

Fighting for truth and democracy

The bill is a direct threat to free speech, democratic principles, and the pursuit of truth. By silencing dissent and controlling the narrative, the government is setting the stage for authoritarianism, where corruption and wrongdoing thrive in the shadows.

A pathway forwards that preserves liberty and free speech without resorting to the draconian measures proposed in the bill involves reinforcing existing democratic frameworks while promoting transparency, accountability, and open discourse.

Instead of suppressing speech, governments should invest in public education and media literacy programs to empower citizens to critically evaluate information, ‘teach them how to think, not what to think’. By fostering an informed populace, the government reduces the need for censorship and encourages constructive debate.

As citizens, we must resist this encroachment on our rights with every fibre. We must demand transparency, accountability, and the freedom to speak our truth. By allowing this bill to pass, we risk losing that liberty – and with it, the very essence of democracy.

Truth is knowledge held back by power, and it is our duty to ensure that power does not silence the truth. Australia’s legacy is not one of censorship and control but of liberty and courage. Our political representatives would do well to remember this. 

---

Op Ed adapted from The Spectator, Sept 2024.

---