Tigon

Australians are only just waking up to how our nation has fundamentally changed over the past few days. With the passing of the Trojan horse "Hate Speech" laws (passed by Labor, Liberal & Greens - with One Nation abstaining) where you can be arrested and jailed (for up to 7 years) for expressing an "incorrect" political opinion. And this new law was rushed through the Parliament with just 60 minutes allowed for debate in the Senate. Under this new law, it doesn’t matter if you made the comment in genuine "good faith" engaging in debate about a matter of public interest, or pointing out (with the view of reforming) errors or defects in government policy or the administration of law - you can still be arrested and jailed. All that is required is for some "group" (including groups distinguished by political opinion) to take offence at your comments and say they believe that your comments "threaten the use of force" (whatever that means) and you’ll face arrest and 7 years imprisonment. In the USA, such law would be unconstitutional thanks to the provision of the 1st Amendment protecting free speech - but with no such specific provision in the Australian Constitution, Australians will face up to 7 years in jail for saying something that would they’d be free to say in the USA. Americans visiting Australia will also need to be very careful when engaging in political debate or commentary in Australia, because they could be arrested and face 7 years imprisonment in an Australian jail for saying something in Australia that they could freely say on US soil. (Although I would suggest President Trump might have something to say if an American was arrested & jailed).