FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN AUSTRALIA

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Freedom of speech isn’t protected in the Australian Constitution — and it’s disappearing faster than you think according to Senator Ralph Babet hence he is introducing a Constitution Alteration (Right to Free Speech) 2025, the purpose of which is to enshrine freedom of speech within the Australian Constitution.

Senator Babet deserves our support.

  • I’ve introduced the Constitution Alteration (Right to Free Speech) 2025 to enshrine freedom of speech and freedom of the press in Australia’s Constitution.
  • Australians assume they already have free speech; they don’t. That assumption is now dangerously wrong.
  • State and federal laws increasingly punish Australians for saying what they honestly believe, even simple biological truths.
  • Without freedom of speech, there is no freedom of thought. The right to speak your mind is the foundation of every other liberty.
  • My Bill will give Australians the chance to vote in a referendum and decide, once and for all, whether we still believe in the right to speak freely in our own country.

This Bill is urgently needed and will provide protection of a right that Australians assume they already have. That assumption is increasingly dangerous. While freedom of speech in this country is generally assumed, it is not guaranteed. Indeed, it is under perilous threat right now.

Over the past decade, the right of Australians to say what they think has increasingly come under attack. While Australian Parliaments have made no effort to protect speech, they have passed laws – at state and federal levels – to restrict freedom of speech. We are now at a point in this country where it is dangerous to openly say things that most people privately believe. It’s a brave person, for example, who opines in public that men cannot become women. Is that really the kind of country we want to live in? A country in which stating simple biological truths puts a person in danger of being dragged before a tribunal to be interrogated for their words.

Senator Babet proposes to make the following speech to the Senate:

Australia lacks, at a national level, entrenched protections of freedom of speech. Our role as elected representatives should be to provide and sustain that right.

This Bill, if successful, will give the Australian people the power to vote in a referendum and determine just how important freedom of speech is to them.

I believe the people will vote overwhelmingly in favour of free speech, because Australians may disagree on many issues, but we believe in a fair go and the right of everyone to voice their opinion without fear or favour.

Our proposed alteration to the Constitution will protect freedom of expression along similar lines to the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, which provides that the Congress ‘shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press’.

The Australian Constitution already provides some express protection against legislative action by the Commonwealth. Section 116 says that the Parliament ‘shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion’.

In a similar way, our proposed protection for freedom of speech would reflect the assumption of all Australians that people have the right to express their thoughts with confidence and without fear of censure.

Moreover, it would put a brake on efforts to suppress freedom of speech that are, shockingly, becoming more and more common around the Western world, including here in Australia.

There shouldn’t be a single Senator in this chamber who would say they were against freedom of speech.

There shouldn’t be a single Senator in this chamber who would say to their constituents, I want to make it more difficult for you and your family to express your opinions.

We came to Canberra not to oppress our constituents but to defend and ensure their freedoms. This bill does that. And it is long overdue.

I commend this Bill to the Senate.

LAST DAYS PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS IS RELENTLESS

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Despite two unanimous acquittals at the Helsinki District Court and the Helsinki Court of Appeals, Finland’s state prosecutor has now taken an elderly member of parliament and a Lutheran bishop before the Supreme Court to answer for their traditional Christian beliefs on sexuality. Dr. Päivi Räsänen, who has served in parliament for 29 years, and Bishop Juhana Pohjola of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland (ELMDF), are facing “spiritual persecution” for upholding the Scripture, said a letter signed by dozens of Christian and Jewish leaders.

“Once again you face unjust charges. For almost half a decade, you have confronted targeted legal harassment for simply living out your Christian faith, the direct result of not just political persecution but also spiritual persecution,” says the letter, which was led by Advancing American Freedom and released today. “Now, despite twice being unanimously declared not guilty at the Helsinki District Court and the Helsinki Court of Appeals, the prosecutor has filed another appeal, potentially forcing a third trial at Finland’s Supreme Court.”

Authorities have centered their legal case on a five-year-old social media post made by the MP, a member of the Christian Democrats Party, asking why her Lutheran church body would take part in an LGBT “Pride 2019” event. The post on Twitter, now X, included a photo of Romans 1:24-27, which clarifies that homosexual behavior is sinful. 

Two years later, in April 2021, prosecutors charged Räsänen and Pohjola with “agitation against a minority” under the nation’s law against “War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity.” Police arrested Räsänen and subjected her to 13 hours of police interrogation before her trial. Prosecutors dubbed the Bible verses in her tweet, a booklet the two wrote in 2004 expounding on biblical doctrine titled “Male and Female He Created Them: Homosexual Relations Challenge the Christian Concept of Humanity,” as well as comments Räsänen made on the radio in December 2019 as “hate speech.”

Räsänen and Pohjola were first acquitted by the Helsinki District Court on March 30, 2022. The three-judge panel ruled that prosecutors had violated the Christians’ right to freedom of expression contained in Section 12 of the Finnish Constitution, as well as noting the thorny legal questions posed if secular judges begin ruling on matters of religious doctrine. “It is not for the district court to interpret biblical concepts,” the court declared.

But within days, then-Prosecutor General Raija Toiviainen appealed the charges. Räsänen then faced a two-day trial last August 31-September 1. The Court of Appeals unanimously acquitted MP Räsänen and Bishop Pohjola on November 14, 2023. Under the law, social media posts must be intended to offend, and “there must be an overriding social reason for interfering with and restricting freedom of expression,” they ruled. The judges ordered the state to pay both defendants’ legal fees.

Finland’s current state prosecutor appealed the dismissal once again earlier this month.

“It is shocking that the Finnish state prosecutor has decided to target MP Räsänen for a third time, because she politely expressed her religious beliefs in public,” Arielle Del Turco, director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council — and who signed the letter — told The Washington Stand. “So far, the Finnish courts have been clear in affirming Räsänen’s right to express her religious beliefs. However, the process of being dragged through court is often the punishment itself.”

The thirst to continually prosecute the grandmother of 10 exposes the government’s intolerance and malice toward traditional Christian viewpoints, said Paul Coleman, executive director of ADF International, which is supporting Räsänen’s legal defense. “Dragging people through the courts for years, subjecting them to hour-long police interrogations, and wasting taxpayer money to police people’s deeply held beliefs has no place in a democratic society,” said Coleman. “As is so often the case in ‘hate speech’ trials, the process has become the punishment.”

What we see playing out in Finland is happening in most Western countries and it demonstrates that a spiritual battle of immense proportions is underway exactly as the Bible prophecies will take place before Jesus returns. Before Jesus returns Satan is cast out of heaven and knows his time is short (Revelation 12).

“Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” Revelation 12:7-12

FREE SPEECH IN JEOPARDY

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“This is the first time in American history that free speech is in jeopardy,” Dennis Prager conservative nationally syndicated talk show host says.

In my opinion, Dennis is one of the most respected and influential thinkers, writers and speakers in America.

To expose this frightening battle in the USA, Prager and comedian Adam Carolla star in a new film that’s coming out this Friday called No Safe Spaces.

The documentary-style film features several cultural experts who shed light on the assault on free speech, particularly on college campuses. No Safe Spaces reveals that assault for what it is. And it’s no wonder—universities have become increasingly liberal over the years.

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Prager said, “free speech is one of the few things all Americans virtually always agreed on. And it’s almost unbelievable, but almost half of Millennials don’t believe in free speech for ‘hate speech,’ which means they don’t believe in free speech because everybody thinks the other guy has hate speech.”

Prager is doing a great job with Prager University. It is not an accredited academic institution but provides videos on a wide range of political, economic and philosophical topics from a conservative view. Go and take a look http://www.prageru.com. Check out Evolution: Bacteria to Beethoven by Stephen Meyer.

Prager’s videos are making a difference, because the big left-wing social-media platforms are making it difficult for him to spread his content.

“We come out with a video a week,” he says. “We have over 400 of these five-minute videos. Four prime ministers of countries have given videos. Three Pulitzer-Prize winners [have given videos], and [these platforms] still put 80 of the videos on the restricted list, one with pornography. I have a talk on the Ten Commandments, and it’s lumped with pornography on YouTube.”

Why are YouTube and Google trying so hard to hide his videos? Prager said, “If it’s healthy, the left hates it. That’s the way to understand it.”

That’s why Prager believes the movie No Safe Spaces  is so important right now. It is due for release in the USA in October 2019.

“The movie is very powerful,” Prager says. “You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. But even if it weren’t good, conservatives need to support movies that express our values. But it’s a great movie. Adam Carolla alone is worth the price of admission. … It’s extremely well-done. The people who brought you Dinesh D’Souza’s movies are behind this producing, and the writing is first-class.”