Australian Parliament Meeting on Censorship Bill

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.