Australia is considering a new bill to combat anti-semitism, hate, and extremism, which critics argue is overly broad and potentially criminalizes speech, with particular concern that it disproportionately targets Christianity while offering exemptions for other religious groups.
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Well, next week, Australia will take up
consideration of their combating
anti-semitism, hate, and extremism bill
in Parliament. This is one of the most
draconian pieces of legislation to hit
the English-speaking world. The Green
Party has now come out posting their
concerns, saying they will not support
it in its current form and that that it
may have some unintended consequences.
You think they But it's funny, their
their concerns seem to go the opposite.
They don't think maybe it goes far
enough. They think, "Hey, we should just
why are we just covering like religious
Jews, like against anti-semitism? Why
shouldn't we also cover LGBTQ plus?
Like, let's put everything we can into
this hate speech bucket."
Okay. Have they gone completely insane
in Australia? Here to help us understand
what is happening is Maria Z. Uh,
welcome back to the show from Z Media.
Great to have you here, keeping her eye
on the pulse of everything what's
happening there. Um, how close are we to
seeing these things actually passed?
Maria, great to see you.
>> Great to see you as well. Thank you for
having me back. It's yet to be
determined at this stage. It looks like
the Greens do want some amendments made
as you said. The opposition party, which
is actually so the the party in power at
the moment is Labor, which is kind of
like the Democrats here. Uh, the
opposition is the Liberal Party, which
is actually more supposed to be more
like Republicans. But Australia is very
similar to the US in the sense that what
you have most of the time is a uni
party. So the opposition, the liberals
aka like the Republicans are saying,
"We're not really uh supporting this. We
actually want to introduce our own
version of this." Whichever way you
turn, they're all saying seemingly that
it doesn't go far enough or they want to
amend it in some ways. No one's saying
actually no, this should be abolished
altogether. And it should be, Clayton,
because there is no such thing as hate
speech. Hate speech is simply speech
that certain people don't like. And
guess what? You're not God. You don't
get to decide who is and isn't allowed
to say what they want to say. And it's
just insane to me. But what we do have
is this lockstep approach across
multiple countries. We have similar
pushes here in the US for these types of
hate speech laws. So people in America
should be paying attention to what's
happening over there because similar
arguments are being made here. Now, if
you want, I can take you through some of
the most egregious points in this bill.
It says that it criminalizes speech that
merely causes fear, even if no harm
occurs, and it results in 5 years
imprisonment. This is very similar to
previous uh laws that they've passed,
which suggests that if you say anything
quote unquote reckless, you could go to
jail without trial. Um, it defines
public space so broadly that it would
include anything that you say on the
internet. The law states that it's
irrelevant whether hatred actually
occurs or whe whether anyone truly felt
fear. You are guilty.
>> Sorry, how are you going to measure
that? Right. It's it's 5 years in prison
because you caused fear. Someone had
fear based on something you said on the
internet. But then we don't really care
if we can even measure your fear. So how right?
right?
even if no hatred actually occurred.
It's basically the government saying we
get to decide unilaterally what we do
and don't like. That's what this bill
is. Um they say that you're guilty of
displaying a prohibited symbol unless
you can prove a religious, academic or
journalistic exemption. I do want to
talk about the implications for
Christianity in this bill as well,
Clayton, because I think Australia is
moving to criminalize Christianity and
that seems to be clear in this bill.
I'll get to that. Uh it says that the uh
Australian federal police minister can
declare quote unquote prohibited groups
without any procedural fairness. Uh so
they decide who is and isn't prohibited.
Obviously this will have implications
for any political parties that rise up
or community action groups. Um you know
people that form groups to push back on
legislation for example they could
suddenly declare they're prohibited or
hostile to the government. And the
powers can actually extend to actions
that occurred outside Australia. So say
you're a citizen that says I it's no
longer safe to live in this country. I'm
leaving. And on top of that, they can
actually do it uh based on retroactive
conduct. So no one knows how far back
they want to go. Yes, they no one knows
how far back they want to go, but that's included.
included.
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Wow. You could go back in your social
media feed years and find something that
they find offensive that which may have
caused fe. How are they going to me? It
may have caused fear then, but we don't
know. How do we quantify this? We have
no idea. We'll just throw that.
>> How do you commit a crime? How do you
commit a crime before something is law
that it is just pure insanity? And mind
you, it's similar to what they passed in
Canada. Is it bill C93?
Uh I think, forgive me if I'm wrong
about that one, but there are very
similar bills in Canada. And the
similarity of this bill, Clayton, it's
very interesting. So they say that there
are religious protections that they've
included in there. During a uh joint
committee hearing, Sarah Chiji from the
attorney general's department expressly
stated that protections are there for
religious groups such as Jews or Sikhs,
but not for Catholics and definitely not
for Christians more broadly. So, what I
want to point out here is that all of
these hate speech bills that keep
passing in these western countries are
at their very core anti-Christian bills.
How do we know that? Well, we simply
have to go to other examples like Canada
and the UK to understand how they keep
doing this. The example out of Canada,
it's really egregious. Um, they actually
used an example of a of an Islamic
preacher who um who basically called for
violence against Zionist aggressors.
This this was his words. And then he
claimed that his remarks were a prayer
and therefore could not under the
existing law be classed as hate speech.
the prosecutor actually agreed that this
was his religious uh prayer and he could
not be um prosecuted. So what they did
was they said we need hate speech laws
but what they did was expressly carve
out in their legislation uh exemptions
for Islamic preachers but banned certain
verses of the Bible. And that's what
Australia is doing as well. They've
carved out exemptions for Islamic
preachers, but they're saying that
Christians will not be protected. In the
UK, just just today, I heard the report
that a man uh there was a protest.
People were uh saying, you know, God is
great in Arabic, which is an Islamic uh
statement. And a man responded, "God
bless you." And he went he was arrested.
Clayton, the man who said, "God bless
you, was arrested." These western
countries are coming after Christianity
with these bills.
>> Remind me never to sneeze in the UK for
crying out loud. Oh, this is insanity. So,
So,
>> so criminalizing Christianity and I
imagine symbols, maybe even like the the
cross, would the cross rise to the level
of being some sort of a problem for them
based on these symbols? Unless you have
some sort of academic as you pointed out
uh reason for for studying it or is it
just are they keeping it to the swastika?
swastika?
>> I at the moment they've criminalized
symbols like the swastika but I think
the reason why they keep adding the
terms prohibited symbols into all of
these bills is because of a future
attempt to uh or a future plan to
criminalize Christianity. As we keep
seeing and I'll say it again, these
countries bring in these hate speech
bills. They are of course about
controlling the population and making
sure people don't say what they want
don't want them to say and more broadly
it feeds into that digital ID ecosystem
that we spoke about last time where all
of your words that you express or even
think will be form part of your digital
dossier and eventually be used against
you in a social credit system. But what
end what ends up what keeps ending up as
the case is that Christians get arrested
for praying outside of an abortion
clinic for example or Bible verses get
banned. It always ends up protecting all
religions and Christians being uh
treated as criminals in every single
case. I was going through like the Green Party's,
Party's,
you know, um, uh, problems with this
bill and going through their statements
on this and I, unless I missed it cuz
they were complaining about that it
would, you know, it would it would just
prevent anti-semitisms, but they and
they tal they said we need to include,
you know, Islamophobia, LGBTQ plus. I
didn't see any carve out in there or
mention in the Greens messaging about
Christianity. Did you or did I miss it? >> No.
>> No.
No, and they never do. From what I
understand, the Greens are currently
trying to cut a deal with the Labor
Party, the party in power, uh, but are
concerned that the the bill will curb
pro Palestinian protest, which they
support, people's right to protest. And
they're concerned that it will curb
people's ability to criticize Israel.
So, um, like anyone with common sense, I
think you should have the ability to
criticize any nation. Uh so the Greens
have some common sense there but then
they plan to push amendments to include
LGBT people, disabled Australians and
other minority groups as well. So in
some ways they feel it doesn't go far
enough. I mean it's it's really insane,
>> right? I just always come back to the
idea of I mean hate speech, you know,
legislation is ridiculous on its face
anyway. If you kill somebody that's
hateful. We already have laws in place
to deal with someone who murders
somebody or who robs somebody or who um
you know or or who beats someone up. We
already have laws in place to deal with
that. Then you have to add in this like
virtue signaling layer on top of it
which I mean how do you even enforce it?
I just I'm so frustrated by this and I'm
so sad to see it's coming to Australia.
But you're right. It's I mean further
coming to the United States. Of course
we've already seen these things pushing
through Congress, these anti-semitism
laws and so forth. You have the
Department of Justice under Pam Bondi
talking about this. So these carveouts
for for anti-semitism. Um I guess I'll
get you out of here on this, Maria. What
are the Australian people saying? I
mean, they're going to have their social
media feeds scrubbed going back years if
someone was critical of COVID or, you
know, the draconian laws or moves that
the the Australian government was was
pushing on them back then, which
Australia was one of the worst in the
world, as you know. >> So,
>> So,
>> yes, I was there.
>> I mean, this could create fear, right?
The fear that you're talking about, this
could create problems for people. And so
there's going to be a lot of people that
I think are just going to be very
trepidacious in Australia. But what are
the Australian people saying? What do
you in polls and otherwise?
>> Australia has, as in the Australian
population has historically been very
passive on these issues. I'm starting to
see that change a little bit. I'm hoping
that the Australian people gain courage
from what just happened in the UK.
Karmama had to back down on compulsory
digital ID for the right to work.
they're still going to bring it in on a
voluntary basis which unfortunately will
always lead to compulsory but at least
for now because of the public push back
they they've caused a dent in the
government's plans. I really hope to see
that when it comes to Australia. We've
seen a number of senators say this goes
too far. Unfortunately um none of them
are actually focusing on the problem
that um you know we have this these
immigrants running around uh we're
bringing them to the country. They're
chasing people around with machetes. I'm
not even joking. There are like home
invasions and people chasing people down
the street with machetes and the
Australian government is more worried
about the fact that the native people of
the country can't can't speak about
these things. They want to silence them
and I don't think enough politicians
have the courage to talk about what this
is really about. And certainly I haven't
seen any of them raising this issue
around Christianity. It is uh clear that
western governments at large are waging
war on their populations and
Christianity and the people need to
really gain the courage and speak while
they still have the right because the
problem with all of these bills is that
if you don't speak up now if you're
scared to speak up now well how much
worse will it be after something like
this is in place and the government can
jail you like they do in the UK you know
30 people a day for saying things that
they don't like. It's it's getting to
that sticking point and I really hope
that Australians use their voices while
they still can.
>> Well, I'd be pretty fearful of somebody
walking down the street with a knife
trying to attack me. That would rise to
the level of fear, but we don't care
about that.
>> No. No. Do you know what they did with
that actually, Clayton? They the
government uh invested in machete bins
and they put them in public places so
that the machete criminals could return
them in the bins. Cuz once you see the
bin, you have a change of conscience,
right? That's that's what they did with
that. Oh.
Maria, we are living truly in a clown
world. I got an idea how we stop all of
these, you know, these rapists with
knives. We'll just set up like little
bins so that when they're walking down,
they're thinking about rape.
>> They're thinking about breaking into
people's homes. They'll just stop and
they'll say, "Yeah, change of
conscience. I'll just drop this in this
in the bin and I'll I'll go to McDonald's."
McDonald's."
>> Yeah. News flash, it didn't work.
>> I mean,
>> have they put up signs? Maybe have they
thought about maybe putting up signs
suggesting people not do that? I mean,
that's right there. If I see a sign, I
immediately immediately know what we
know you were thinking about raping this
afternoon, but uh you might want to
double. By the way, if you if you have a
change of mind, there's a bin down the
street. Here's follow the yellow arrow.
>> PS, if anyone dares to voice their
concerns with you raping and chasing
people with machetes, you can report
them to the hate speech line over here.
>> Right. And if you But if but if your
comments online rise to the level of
causing fear in somebody, you could be arrested,
arrested,
>> right? I mean,
>> sometimes I just want to unplug from
whatever matrix we're stuck in right
now. Maria, great to see you. Thank you
so much for your insights on this. We'll
be watching next week and uh we'd love
to have you back as always. Thanks, Maria.
Maria.
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