New bill would make Australia worst in the free world for criminalising journalism
The Turnbull government’s latest foreign interference bill might finally be the straw that breaks the journo’s back – if a pile of documents found in a Canberra op-shop don’t get there first. Monash University’s Johan Lidberg reveals all in this crossposting from The Conversation.
Australia is a world leader in passing the most amendments to existing and new anti-terror and security laws in the liberal democratic world. Since September 11, 2001, it has passed 54 laws.
The latest suggested addition is the Turnbull government’s crackdown on foreign interference. The bill has been heavily criticised by Australian Lawyers for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, and major media organisations for being too heavy-handed and far-reaching in the limits it would place on freedom of expression and several other civil liberties.
So would this bill also apply to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet? I can see no way that it wouldn’t if it applied to the press, or to the bloke who bought the two filing cabinets in the first place.
Surely the PM needs to set up a top-level investigation into his won department as it was on his watch that the filings cabinets were sold.
As the old maxim goes, if you can’t manage your own affairs how can you manage the country’s.