Alison Bevege at her fantastic letters from Australia blog, notes that we now have less than one week, to stop the Albo government's censorship Bill, the Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Bill 2024. In the next post I will discuss in more detail why this Bill is utterly tyrannical and will destroy the very basis of liberal democracy in Australia, and I will be quoting others who hold a similar view about the extreme existential threat of the Bill if it becomes law. However, there is some good material in the extract below as well.

The Bill was pushed through the lower House while public attention was focussed upon the US election, and now the evil Albo government is attempting to do the same with the Senate. However, the election is over and now attention can be directed to ending this threat.

Alison Bevege has done a great job in getting together listed Senators and full contact details. I hope the coloured table can be reproduced at the blog; it may not go through. If it does not, note that the link has the full details to consult. It is recommended that people try and visit their state senators. However, it is likely that they will be "all booked out," with such short notice. Then ask for a phone conversation. At worst, a snail mail letter, sent very soon, and an email, with a requested response.Get everyone you know who cares to do this, with an email at the minimum. There is material below giving all the information need to argue against this Bill, along with the next blog article to fully equip one, and you can forward these articles as "one stop shop" sources for information to those who may oppose the Bill.

With the Green Senators and some Labor, they are not going to be sympathetic to an abstract defence of free speech. But as Leftists, they should be concerned about say, imagined suppression of Leftist subjects, such as protests against the Middle East situation; you may not agree, but you need to hit the Senators at their prejudices and scare them. It is worth researching this before seeing them, going on their websites. If you can get young people to ring/post/email this line, it will all help. In other words, the arguments need to be targeted to fit the prejudices of the Senators, along with your concerns.

I am also advocating that since this law is implicitly drafted to go after Elon Musk's X, and was done in the belief that Kamala would win the US election, with the rise of Elon Musk in the Trump administration, there is a powerful new weapon to use in this battle. Thus, get onto Elon Musk on X and ask for him to intervene, with President Trump issuing a statement that if Australia attempts to censor the internet, and US sites, there will be trade sanctions, or even a rethinking of US defense of Australia. Why defend a country that supports tyranny? The threat of communist China, despite trendy crawling, might make the Albo government rethink things.

To repeat myself, if the table of Senator contacts does not come through at this blog, go to this link:

https://lettersfromaustralia.substack.com/p/free-speech-shock-you-have-one-week

"FREE SPEECH SHOCK: you have ONE WEEK to stop the Censorship Bill It's down to the Senate vote: this is how you can tell them "NO"

The Censorship Bill now before the Parliament was punched through the lower house in a shock vote on Thursday, November 7.

They did this on the sly, while we were looking at the US elections - then blinded us with the squid ink of "ban on social media for under-16s".

It has now passed both the Second and the Third Readings, which leaves just the Senate to stop it with a vote.

This "Misinformation" Bill will give an unelected bureaucracy (ACMA) control of everything you can hear, see and say on social media, censoring the internet.

ACMA is full of Permanent Canberra bureaucrats, spies and ex-cops. They will decide what is "accurate" and what is "wrong" or "lies" and then censor what they deem "misinformation".

You will never again see or share a dissenting scientific, medical or economic opinion if the Government decides it is causing too much flack for the bureaucracy or their corporate "partners".

If you want free speech you must act now, there's no time to waste. Senate sits next on November 18 - you can see the calendar here.

To stop this Bill you need to contact the Senators in your state - and tell them that if they vote this into law, that you will punish them at the next election and campaign actively to have them voted out. Go in person (but be polite) to your nearest electoral office. Failing that, phone their office. Be always calm and polite - never rude.

There must be electoral consequences for this.

I will update this Substack with a record of how they voted. They will not be forgotten.

This Bill will not only censor the internet, it will back-engineer censorship of corporate media where the metric of journalistic success is clicks and shares on socials.

If socials are censored for what the government calls "misinformation" then The Guardian, ABC, SBS and Nine will all self-censor, too.

Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp) is already gearing up for it.

Lawyer Tony Nikolic accurately pinpointed that the institutions that stand behind this "misinformation" censorship bill - media organisations, government agencies, regulatory bodies and bureaucracies - are not neutral arbiters of truth. Rather, they are gatekeeepers, filtering and sanitising information to protect their own interests.

I will add that they are the bureaucratic class of university-educated entitled people, who despise the blue-collar working class. They hate you and they will not share power with you, and they are afraid of you. That is why they want to control what you can say and share online.

"Free speech is not dangerous," Nikolic wrote.

"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."

More than 22,000 people have signed a petition against the Bill as of November 8: click the button below to add your voice.

If we lose this battle we will lose everything Australia ever stood for.

Every time censorship such as this is tried it leads to the same thing: lies and errors are covered up with bigger lies and errors. It ends with the powerful stealing everything you own, because that's what darkness lets criminals do.

Here is a breakdown of the Parliamentary MPs who voted for this bill. They must be VOTED OUT next Federal Election. Look to see who is your local MP and campaign against them.

The third (final) reading was passed passed 79 to 56, for a full Hansard fragment including the vote breakdown see it here.

NOTE: if you want to look up how MPs voted, it's on the Parliamentary website here - you just need to know the date of the vote, click on that link and scroll down to find the right Bill.