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The Forum > Article Comments > Seen but not heard > Comments

Seen but not heard : Comments

By George Williams, published 4/8/2006

When it comes to speech Australians are not nearly as free as we like to think.

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The notion of freedom of speech being taken for granted is the biggest crock of poo out, just like the notion of innocent until proven guilty. Our democratic system is supposed to be built on these tenets, but they are mightily corrupted, and so is the whole system, which is at best a crude approximation to real democracy.

Never mind about what is legal or illegal - much of what is legal is essentially forbidden anyway. Actual legality has been well and truly usurped.

In private enterprise, many people cannot or dare not say things publicly that go against the interests of their employer, not even as private citizens not connected to their work. This is a huge diminution of real freedom of speech.

In the public service, which is supposed to uphold the dictum of free speech as a matter of principle, the situation is no better.

As a public servant, I ran into awful suppression. I always spoke on my own behalf (mostly in letters to the editor) and never connected myself with my employer. I never advocated views that were out of line with my employer and I never once infringed my department’s code of conduct or went against the directive of a superior. But I still had my right to express myself severely compromised because, I was told, I could not espouse views that might be to the dislike of anyone with whom my department deals!

I should have earned the reputation of being genuinely concerned about the things that my department dealt with, to the point that I was willing to be involved in them extensively outside of my work arena and in the wider community. Yeah, right!

Now I write under a ‘spewdonym’, which means I don’t get recognised for my efforts, except by a few who know it…. and I continue to feel highly suppressed and aggrieved.

For me and no doubt many others on this forum, it is not a case of “being seen but not heard”, but rather; being heard but not seen (or not recognised for your efforts and concerns).
Posted by Ludwig, Saturday, 5 August 2006 9:01:25 PM
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Alchemist

It is the left wing secular bigots (Victorian Labour Party) who have charged two men under religous vilification for saying that Islam posers a threat to our nation and that Christians should love muslims in retaliation to their violence. Your views seem extremly narrow.
Posted by runner, Saturday, 5 August 2006 10:58:44 PM
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It is amazing that private schooling can't teach people to spell.
Posted by GlenWriter, Sunday, 6 August 2006 4:51:11 AM
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Dear David,
I am sorry i mis-read you. I tripped on my anger, i am passionate, as so many others who wish to ventilate their opinions and views.
I agree with you that we need to exercise our right to freespeech. I used to get very upset with ABC presenters, who were obviously not exercising their rights, i have changed tack now, due to the pressures put on them by an iron fisted regime, which has used fear to mould their compliance with more and more tools to make them feel less secure in their jobs, as this regime is doing to other Australians.
I am pleased that you are talking about revolt, against such a revolting regime, which puts business before people.
Posted by Sarah10, Sunday, 6 August 2006 6:34:59 AM
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Thanks for saying it, Sarah10...it's awful rare for people in this sort of forum to change their minds or admit mistakes.

I would suggest that the ALP is not a great deal better than Howard's current government - the ALP is just as good at getting people to shut up and do what they are told. (Not that you have directly talked about the ALP, but a lot of people just focus on 'Howard' when they talk about these sorts of things, instead of looking at the system he rose from.)

I think its important to focus on that system, rather than the party that runs it - I agree with you that the system is set up for the benefit of profit and business, not what people need.

If any sort of revolt is going to succeed, part of that is going to be teaching people to replace fear with hope, and a sense of power - one of the reasons I reject the pessimism of the original article.

If you have time, take a look at Last Superpower
http://www.lastsuperpower.net

It's full of people who want to put people first and chuck out the bosses. Good chance you won't agree with a lot of opinions, but we need and welcome reasoned debate from just about anyone there.

David Jackmanson
http://www.letstakeover.blogspot.com

What is the pseudo-left?
http://www.lastsuperpower.net/disc/members/568578247191
Posted by David Jackmanson, Sunday, 6 August 2006 9:20:21 AM
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The Albert Langer episode must go down as one of the blackest in our country’s history, in terms of what our core values are supposed to be. Likewise with the whole Pauline Hanson saga.

The implications of these are huge.

Firstly, we seem interminably stuck with compulsory preferential voting, which is the dirtiest rort of our democratic system, in that it means that your vote can and very often does count for a party / candidate for whom you never wanted to vote, or even specifically wanted to make sure your vote didn’t trickle down to.

This system greatly assists the two major parties in remaining entrenched and strongly works against smaller parties, and against alternative political movements and directions…. It helps keep the political dinosaurs, that are taking us rapidly towards the economic, social and environmental precipice, entrenched.

Very few people seem willing to say anything about this. But awareness and concern is surely very widespread.

And the extraordinary history of suppression and perversion of Hanson’s efforts to broaden our political perspectives will be looked back upon as something in the realms of burning witches at the stake in medieval times.

How many times did you hear people say; “I’m not a Hanson supporter, but I think the way she is being treated is disgusting”? I was never a strong supporter, but I did realise early on that her views were very much more moderate than what they being made out to be.

So now we have a situation where new political movements or even differing political views are just about impossible.

All-considered, free speech, unfettered political views and the right to uncompromised political choice, are so suppressed that we may well be closer to a totalitarian regime than to a true democracy.
Posted by Ludwig, Sunday, 6 August 2006 10:46:06 AM
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