Australians said 'NO' to the government being the sole arbiter of truth

The MAD Bill is dead!

Australians rose up and opposed the Misinformation/Disinformation Bill in droves. Free speech was on the line and Australians said ‘NO’. 

Thousands of citizens contacted Senators over the past few weeks to make their voices heard. And it worked!

The federal government has abandoned its controversial misinformation bill due to opposition in the Senate.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland announced in a statement on Sunday the legislation would not proceed because there was "no pathway" in the upper house.

The scrapped legislation would have given the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) power to monitor digital platforms and require them to keep records about misinformation and disinformation on their networks.

Critics from across the political spectrum had concerns the bill would infringe on freedom of speech.

But the fight for our freedoms is not over. The government is intent on finding other ways to silence speaking truth and squashing opposition to their agenda.

In her statement on Sunday, Rowland put forward several other proposals for regulating online content.

"Mis and disinformation is an evolving threat and no single action is a perfect solution, but we must continue to improve safeguard to ensure digital platforms offer better protections for Australians," Rowland said.

Both major parties are supporting a bill to ban under 16-year-olds from social media platforms. This may sound benign, and it is veiled as ‘child safeguarding’, but this bill will lead to the introduction of digital ID for all people having to prove they are over 16. 

This will result in even more regulations and more monitoring of free speech platforms such as X (formerly Twitter).

As I know all too well, there are also attempts to weaponise existing laws to silence critics of gender ideology. 

An apprehension of violence order (AVO) has already been denied by the courts when a male soccer player tried to accuse me of violence for reposting a publicly available image of him in a female soccer competition.

This week a NSW judge will hand down a decision on his appeal to have the AVO against me.

Next year I will face court for two vilification complaints for speaking plainly about male’s participating in female soccer competitions.

We should absolutely celebrate the victory of killing the MAD Bill, but make no mistake; there is still a very long way to go when it comes to defending free speech and truthful speech in Australia.