And, surprise surprise, Mr. French found that there is nothing to worry about, because that's the what the government wanted to hear. Heaven forbid that they would actually have to try to combat Leftist bigotry and stifling of speech freedoms.

I don't find the author's arguments credible or cogent.
And fairly typical of the hard right who think that their's are the only voices and BS that should be heard.

If you seriously believe that freedom of speech is threatened or under attack? Why then in heavens name have the conservative cohort been the only voices that have ensured that we alone among the democracies that have no bill of rights,

One of which would be the right of free speech, another the freedom of the press to report it! Plus several other basic rights which the conservative (born to rule element) have repeatedly trampled on since federation and before!?

Be careful what you wish for in case you get it!
Alan B.

we saw all the bile, bigotry and stress that the Professor who exposed all the lies about gw and the Great Barrier Reef had to go through. No truer statement than Donald Trump's 'drain the swamp'. Problem for anyone speaking truth is they lose their funding. Just ask Israel Folau. Conservatives have been implicit in their silence, maybe thinking one day that the idiotic indocrination of the left would be seen for what it is.Unfortunately they were wrong and I suspect those few conservatives left in academia just want to live out their life in peace. I mean who could possibly challenge a baby born with a penis being male let alone the idiotic pseudo science of the big bang. Meanwhile as long as Chinese or Indian students pay the big bucks the unis will be happy to give them a piece of paper.

Alan,

What absolute crap. For the left whingers only there is unlimited availability to speak at the universities, but there are continuous efforts, protests, etc to block anyone outside the left whinge group think.

As for the "bill of rights" wherever these have been put in place they are used actively to shut down "hate speech" which as far as the left whingers are concerned is anyone that disagrees with them.

For example in Canada their bill of rights is being used to punish people that don't use the preferred pronouns of gender confused people.