Hi Armchair Critic,

Thank you for sharing your views.

It's been a testing time for all of us.

I had such high hopes for the Voice Referendum.
I was so certain that most Australians would be
able to sift the myths from the facts and
recognize that what was being asked was to give
our First Nations people justice and rights in
their own country - to which they were entitled
as First Nations people.

In any case - what happens next - we shall have to
wait and see. I stand by the fact that the NO
campaign was run on twisting and turning around
the facts. I agree that the YES campaign struggled with
their messaging and it didn't get through with the
general Australian community. Not understanding what
exactly it was.

The full truth was not heard.

As Katharine Murphy stated = Peter Dutton is Australia's
figurehead of fear and fake news, like Trump but without
charisma:

http://theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2023/oct/14/peter-dutton-is-australias-figurehead-of-fear-and-fake-news-like-trump-but-without-charisma

As for the Misinformation / Disinformation Bill

First you have a war with China in the works,
- The government has a vested interest in stifling any dissent as nations pick sides.

Then you have the 'fascism factor'
- That is the big media companies want to stamp out any views that may be voiced by the alternative media, so that it bolsters their own news readership.
"You get your news from us and no-one else - we tell you what to think"

I can tell you that there is too much censorship as it is, and this power is already misused in the worst kind of ways, to stifle genuine news and information sources that other vested interest don't like.
- Because they wish to control the narrative, not allow people to actually be informed.

And the result?
We get biased information and everyone ends up at everyone elses throats, the whole nation polarised because genuine points of view are not permitted to be taken into consideration in the first place.

Even the reasons they give for the need for censorship now barely hold any weight.
They just fined Elon Musk some 600+ thousand...
- And every single post on twitter has a 'report' button.
next time I post a link

People misuse it to stifle others opinions more often than not, rather than the content actually representing any real danger.

- That means it's being misused for the wrong reasons, and not the good reasons for which they told us there was a genuine need for it.

They main use of censorship to control the narrative,
Making arguments like 'protecting children from sexual predators' is merely the justification they give for doing so.

Armchair Critic,

Here's a link as to why Labor's Bill on combating
disinformation so controversial:

http://theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/01/why-is-labors-bill-on-combating-disinformation-so-controversial

It's worth a read.

"The full truth was not heard."
- Like I said the government brought this to the people.
It was their job to sell it to the citizenry on a basis of it's own merits.
On such a divisive issue - what happened during the campaign;
Things that were said that you felt was fear campaign and scaremongering
- Should've been anticipated by the government, and it shows they were ill-prepared.

If there's any consolation I can offer you about the result
Then it's the fact that there were 'Yes' votes and that in an of itself shows that Australians aren't heartless people and that they do care about the plight of our indigenous people;

And that's important, but what matters now is where we go from here

Will the government allow other things that might help us find a way so that the problems can be better managed into the future, in hopes of better eventual outcomes?
Or will they jump up and down claiming racism and hamstring any other potential moves in that direction.
- That is the question.

I know there are sensitive issues, but if we don't face up to them how can we ever arrive at a better place for all?
And even as a 'No' voter, I genuinely hope that things do improve for the indigenous people as we move forward from all this.

AC,

Sorry - I left out a bit. Here's the link again:

http://theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/01/why-is-labors-bill-on-combating-disinformation-so-controversial#

AC,

Thank you for your civil and rational comments.

They are appreciated.