There’s a nagging sensation in your gut when you watch Citizenfour. The BAFTA award-winning documentary by Laura Poitras is an exploration of the modern surveillance state, the Five Eyes Alliance (of which Australia is a part), and the Edward Snowden revelations, and the concerns it raises – particularly for those who haven’t been following the […]
WAR! National Security @YaThinkN reckons this is serious #auspol voodoo
October 29, 2014
Our esteemed Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his Attorney-General George Brandis are loving this war business. The word WAR, or if you want to be more high-brow about it ‘National Security’ is just magic. Serious voodoo. As soon as either is uttered, the press bow down at the Governments feet and question nothing! The likes […]
Labor’s Mark Dreyfus QC takes stand on #freespeech: Abbott and Brandis honour Voltaire only in the breach
August 11, 2014
[clear] The Coalition will never waver in its defence of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. — Tony Abbott (@TonyAbbottMHR) March 13, 2013 Oh the terrible irony for George Brandis QC in fronting the latest Abbott Government attacks on free speech through its terror legislation. Brandis was one of several moderates in the […]
The Liberal Party’s war on freedoms: My reply to Brandis
May 10, 2013
By Margo Kingston May 10, 2013 ‘But at least the debates about freedom of speech and freedom of the press, which we have seen in the past couple of years, have been a sharp reminder to the Liberal Party of its historic mission. For in the freedom wars, there has been only one party which has […]
The Skull Beneath the Skin
May 10, 2013
By Margo Kingston 10 May 2013 In his Cry, Freedom speech this week, Shadow Attorney General George Brandis said this: ‘But at least the debates about freedom of speech and freedom of the press, which we have seen in the past couple of years, have been a sharp reminder to the Liberal Party of its historic […]
Freedom Wars: The George Brandis speech
May 9, 2013
ABC Lateline Interview May 7, 2013 Margo: Well here it is, the Brandis speech on free speech he calls the Freedom Wars. It is not online, so Barry Tucker rang the Brandis office and obtained a copy. Thank you @btckr. I have a feeling I’ll want to write a response soon – my boiling anger at his @Lateline […]
The Forgotten People
May 9, 2013
By Margo Kingston May 9, 2013 The day after Howard, Abbott and Brandis, among other Liberals, pulverised our freedoms for George Bush, they did it again for Chinese President Hu. This chapter of my book is Part 5 in our series of memory joggers for shadow Attorney General George Brandis, in the hope that he revises his recent […]
A day in the life of Our House under siege
May 8, 2013
By Margo Kingston May 8, 2013 Margo: In this chapter from my book, I detail the unprecedented mauling of press, parliamentary and citizen’s freedom in Parliament by Howard when George Bush came to Canberra in 2003. Brandis was in the thick of it, and made no protest. My contemporaneous report of the events is Parliament meets Bush: A […]
Brandis: Enemy of free speech, friend of false speech, on children overboard
May 8, 2013
By Margo Kingston Wednesday, 1 September, 2004 Source: Webdiary The intense strain on the two people in Senate Committee room 2S1 today was palpable. The two had by very difficult choice propped up the credibility of a cowardly and bullying Prime Minister for nearly three years. Yet Howard’s point man on children overboard – George Brandis, whose […]
George Brandis, free speech charlatan
May 8, 2013
MARGO: I am so disgusted with the Brandis free speech interview on @Lateline I don’t trust myself to write about it. It brought back memories of the Howard Government’s relentless assaults on free speech, egregiously denied by Brandis last night, and of his nasty record. So @NoFibs will try to drag truth back on the public […]
