Mike Shellenberger Criticizes Australian Censorship Bill After Parliament Meeting

Hey guys, it's Mike Shellenberger reporting to you live from the Australian Parliament. We just got out of a meeting with representatives of the governing party for the government.

I don't wanna say exactly who, but with two representatives, and it was wild. I mean, first of all, they had no idea that the bill would allow the government to run offensive fake accounts attacking their political opponents on social media. No idea.

They, uh, we-- I then said like, "Why do you need this bill?"

And they said, "Well, we wanna do it to prevent things like the execution of this guy in the United States that's gonna be broadcast." And then I said, "What are you worried about exactly?" And they said, "Well, we're worried about like copycat killers."

And I was like, "Is there an example of that?"

And they said, "Yeah, these backpackers were, you know, copycat killers."

And I was like, "But under that logic, then it would allow the government under this law to censor the Bondi massacre."

Americans say Bondi, but in Australia they say the Bondi massacre.

This is where I think fifteen people were murdered brutally at a beach attended by mostly Jewish people.

And they s- they sort of hemmed and hawed, and they said, "Oh, well, but that would be like a news event." And I was like, "But your bill allows you to censor news." And they didn't have any response to it. And then I said...

I was like, "If you're worried about copycat killings, then why are you worried about like an execution? You should be more worried about like the Bondi massacre."

I mean, the bottom line, you guys, is that this gives the government to censor violent crime. Like, anything that they think could contribute to, you know, what they call significant harm, that means that this bill would allow the government to censor something like the Bondi massacre.

I mean, it's mind-blowing. And then when I point out, I go, "Would you guys really like to have this in the hands of your opponents?

Like, what would you think if like your political opponents had this?

They could run offensive like fake account bot campaigns against you.

They could censor like all the stuff you care about." And it was clear they had never thought of it, and they got like mad at the idea that I was suggesting that like their opponents might do something bad to them with it. I mean, it was wild. It was wild.

Like, clearly. And then here's the final straw.

One of the staffers at the end, he just goes, "Well, we don't wanna debate this with you. Um, we're supporting the bill." It was like, wow.

It was like, I felt like I was in like Soviet Russia, and it was like they had no interest in actually hearing...

I mean, we had told them things they didn't know, and they wanted us to know that they just really didn't care, and they're gonna support this legislatioN- this legislation, even though they had no idea what it would do.

And when we pointed out that it would've allowed them to censor, like allow the government to censor them or censor like important events like the Bondi massacre, they didn't care. I mean, I gotta say, guys, I've never seen anything like this. This is the craziest,

most totalitarian piece of censorship leg-legislation ever introduced in the West.