Probably half a dozen entries in this blog have been on encroachments on Aussies' freedoms--speech, press, silence--by their governments. I can't even bear to reread the posts at this point, but surely there was a note of smugness: "We Yanks value our freedoms so much, you should take a page from our book."
OK, I'm sorry.
At the time, I didn't realize that the US Justice Department was collecting reporters' phone calls. I didn't realize that our National Security Agency was collecting all the phone records in the universe, nor that it had co-opted Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and God knows who else. I didn't realize that the Internal Revenue Service had become an agency of political persecution.
I am ashamed of my government.
Maybe, though, this has something to say to Australia after all. When the Communications Minister proposed the Public Interest Media Czar or whatever his title was, the argument was that although the Czar could conceivably use his power to suppress anti-government articles, he wouldn't actually do that.
Really? What would stop him? If the Last Bastion of Freedom, the United States of America, has a government that can run amok and trample our Constitutionally granted rights, why mightn't Australia's government? Do you think that some unwritten social compact will stop them, if the "compelling need" is there?
Maybe this is an excellent time for an Australian conversation about a written Bill of Rights.
Yeah, I know, it didn't help us in the US. But perhaps it's better than nothing.
