TARQUIN O’FLAHERTY

In her biography of Voltaire, published in 1906 entitled; ‘The Friends of Voltaire’, Evelyn Beatrice Hall attempted to explain Voltaire’s view on free speech by saying; ‘I disapprove of what you say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it’.  Only by guaranteeing your right to free speech, can the same guarantees be applied to myself.

Sadly, Australia pursues mediocrity relentlessly.  Are we so unsure of what we think that we make no objection when, time and time again, these rights are ignored?

A few blokes on holiday in Queensland with their families, were arrested and put in jail as part of what that state describes as ‘…coming down hard on bikie gangs…’.

These arrests ignore completely the blindingly obvious fact that not one of these men was being pursued by the police.  There were no outstanding charges against any of them.  They were not involved in any criminal activity at the time of their arrest.  They were, in the end, incarcerated simply because they all belonged to motorcycle clubs.  This is shameful conduct, and in any other western democracy would have been greeted with outrage.  Not here.

Here we have newspapers and TV, largely owned by News Ltd and it’s clones.  Despite the fact that News Limited staff have been found to be involved in major criminal activity, Mr Murdoch’s fitness to go on monopolising Australian media has never come under scrutiny.  Not one of his ‘News’ outlets has taken up the cudgels on behalf of the men arrested.  Not one has insisted that these arrests might be unlawful.  The only intelligent conclusion to be drawn from this is that News Ltd cannot see, or are unaware of how the rights of every citizen in Australia are being usurped in this matter.  If bikies can be arrested just for being there, so also may journalists, judges and just about anyone.  If our media cannot see this, then I suggest that they are unfit for their job and should be replaced.

David Hicks spent years in Guantanamo Bay Jail.  The then Australian Prime Minister, John Howard left him there, having abandoned his fawning allegiance to England in favour of a fawning allegiance to America.  Why do we insist on this pursuit of mediocrity?  New Zealand suggested the US might take its nuclear ships elsewhere.  The Americans agreed and the sky didn’t fall, NZ didn’t expire or sink in the sea.  The only outcome was a grudging respect for the minnow who’d stood up to them.

And now we have Senator Cory Bernardi spouting laughable infantile tripe and being taken seriously by this same media who have no opinions at all but those of their masters.  At least in the old days we had good old bright right-wingers like Bob Santamaria, and in the UK, Enoch Powell who was formidably bright and well informed.  But Cory Bernardi…?  The man is an intellectual jackass, a disaster zone, a buffoon and should be treated as such.  That the media affords him any time at all, or indeed take him seriously, tells us as much about the media as it does about Bernardi.

I will, I promise, defend to the death his right to spout tripe.  Just give me a minute to stop laughing.