Next week, on September 8 and 9, the High Court will hear arguably the most important court case in Australian history. The deafening silence on this in mainstream political discourse is truly staggering, as our democracy is hanging by a thread.
These new “hate group” laws don’t merely enable the government to ban “neo-nazis” – they enable the government to arbitrarily find any activist group or political party they don’t like guilty of “hateful conduct” and ban them by executive decree with no recourse, unless the High Court strikes these laws down as unconstitutional.
The entire point of constitutions is to stop tyrannical governments from legislating something like this. Yet there is an eerie conspiracy of silence and complicity amongst the (now state-funded) mainstream media to keep this court case out of the news cycle. And unfortunately, the rest of you seem to be falling for their misdirection.
When these laws were initially passed back in January, they attracted opposition from all angles. New pieces of legislation very rarely cop the same level of criticism and opposition.
One Nation, the Greens and even the Nationals (who broke up the Coalition temporarily over it) voted against them. Official criticisms of the anti-democratic nature of the laws were issued by the NSW Council for Civil Liberties (in conjunction with Liberty Victoria and the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties) [link: ], the Australian Lawyers Alliance [link: ], the Australian Human Rights Commission, the Law Council of Australia, and the Australian Law Reform Commission.
These laws were rammed through without wide popular support, without regard for the criticisms of Australia’s top organisations representing the legal profession and civil liberties, and despite leading constitutional experts warning they effectively abolish democracy and are therefore unconstitutional.
So why the hell aren’t you all talking about it? Why isn’t One Nation talking about it? Especially considering the fact Pauline Hanson committed back in February to repealing these laws if she wins the next election, and the reasonable fear they could be used against them by Albanese’s tyrannical police state?
There are only two possible explanations. Stupidity and cowardice.
Stupidity, to think these laws won’t be used against more moderate groups in the future. If Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain had its equivalent in Australia, no doubt these laws would be used against them too.
And cowardice, to think fighting these laws will make you look like a “nazi sympathiser”. As if the Australian people are so stupid that they can’t comprehend a principled defence of democracy.
The refusal by the leaders of the mainstream right-wing to force this issue into the news cycle could cost us our democracy. The High Court right now feels massive political pressure from the government to rubber stamp these laws, with no pressure or scrutiny to speak of in the other direction. If this doesn’t change over the next few days and weeks, our democracy could be quietly abolished with a whimper while the mainstream media all have you arguing about the Sydney Swans spanking a prostitute and other such trivialities.
Do not let this happen.
Pressure every right-wing party and political commentator to call out this attempt by Labor to overthrow democracy as an unconstitutional farce, and demand the High Court strike this law down. Force it back into the media cycle and force it back into public debate.
Hell, even the pro-Palestine types on the left should be making noise about this. Their heads are on the chopping block with this law too, not just us over here on the patriotic right. This attempt by the establishment to desperately hold onto power by degenerating Australia into an authoritarian equivalent of Vladmir Putin’s Russia, where a democracy simulation replaces genuine politics cannot be allowed to transpire.
Whatever your opinion on the “neo-nazis”, if you want to keep having a democracy you’ll need to defend their right to participate in it, or your rights to do so will be lost in the process. Unless you’re fine with living under police state multiculturalism for the rest of your life, powerless to resist.
The arguments of the White Australia Party in this case are reasonable. The first is literally that the government’s appeal to their constitutional right to ratify international treaties (their main argument as to what authorises them to ban political parties as “hate groups”) doesn’t authorise them to overrule our constitutional right to elect them in the first place – which would violate Articles 7 and 24 of the Constitution. The second is that these laws empower the executive to arbitrarily find groups guilty of being “hate groups” without a trial, due process, or involvement of the judicial branch of government at all – violating the separation of powers, and Chapter 3 of the Constitution.
These arguments should win if the constitution is worth the paper its printed on. But if the public are largely ambivalent about its violation, then what force truly undergirds it?
So the time is now to make some damn noise, and pressure those with influence and status to speak up before it’s too late. Get busy.
Header image: The High Court of Australia in Canberra (HCA).
