Censorship is a tool of the state — but it’s also a tool of the censored

Queensland’s new speech laws raise alarm bells and raise risks for writers and activists, writes Tom Tanuki.

QUEENSLAND on Thursday made its most prestigious literary awards, including two career-launching Australian awards, available to emerging Indigenous writers. On the same day, they also criminalized freedom of expression by passing a bill making two specific expressions of speech punishable by two years in prison. By doing this, Queensland has taken two major steps in one day towards eliminating freedom of expression, written and oral, for everyone in the state. They did not do all this at the request of the people or to serve the voters. They did this only at the behest of a handful of Zionist lobbyists.

Now if you say, “Globalize the Intifada” or “from river to sea” In Queensland, you can be imprisoned for up to two years. A small number of Zionist lobbyists constantly tell Australian politicians and members of the media that these terms are antisemitic. That doesn’t mean they are. And that certainly doesn’t mean that the definitions of these terms aren’t widely debated.

But as we now know, it doesn’t matter what Queensland voters think. All that matters here is what the mid-term Liberal politicians who run the state and the lobbyists who listen most to them think about civil liberties. So we lost our right to say “from river to sea” or “Globalize the Intifada”Under the flimsy excuse of making society safer after the Bondi massacre in 2025. Of course, this is not the effect of these bans. In fact, all they effect is to transform anti-Zionism and pro-Palestinian activism into a more nefarious and criminalized pursuit; This is the real purpose of disbanding the Zionist lobbyists.

I wonder if we should say thank you. If we’ve learned anything from five years of imbeciles making the National Socialist Network possible at all levels of Australian government, it’s that, up to a point, foolish measures of state repression actually fuel the very thing they are desperately trying to suppress. (I probably keep the record in these column spaces for most of the published examples condemning this stupidity.)

It’s pretty simple. once siege heil The ban started, for example, I started meeting ordinary people. sieg heileng. They thought they jumped on the man. Then legal challenges began, and the evening news began to show Nazis emerging from court like this: Darryl Kerrigan from Castle. As a result, NSN membership exploded.

The watermelon, a symbol supporting the freedom of Palestine and known all over the world, was also commemorated in a similar way. stupid Repressive measures of the Israeli state. Now the humble watermelon dares the authoritarian to become a laughing stock: Come on, ban me from watermelon. See how it goes. (A NSW Police officer actually tried to arrest someone for this reason and viral For this. You can see how embarrassed he is.)

Censorship is a tool of the state, but it can also be a tool of those who are censored. Do they think we can’t find other ways to express that all of occupied Palestine must be liberated from the oppressors? Or does the uprising against those oppressors and their collaborators need to be international? Do they think we can’t just say these things? forbidden Are you going to make these statements at a very close, opportune moment and then stand on the courthouse steps in front of the news cameras and make them look like fools for several years? They are idiots. This makes clear the absurdity of the Zionist politician in Australia: every time they remove our civil liberties, they are overspending on their dwindling political capital.

I don’t see any positives in the other destruction of the free word we saw in Queensland on Thursday.

Writer KA Ren Wyld He was targeted by Zionist lobbyists for a later-deleted tweet praising Yahya Sinwar. Since the purpose of this targeting was not to criticize Wyld’s tweet but to intimidate other writers from participating in anti-Zionist statements, the initial media hit published at the time was not enough. They resurrected the attack when Wyld later won the $15,000. black&summer! brotherhood. They took Wyld’s financial loss as a victory when he was elected Queensland Arts Minister. John-Paul Langbroek He personally intervened in the decision-making processes of the State Library of Queensland to force it to cancel the scholarship.

Now, an independent review has recommended that the State Library stop managing black&print! The scholarship and the Queensland Literary Awards were accepted on behalf of the government and the State Library. recommendations.

David Unaipon Award It is part of the Queensland Literary Awards; Since 1989, this prize has been awarded to an outstanding unpublished manuscript by an emerging Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander writer. With Black&write! The fellowship is a top-two career launchpad in all of Australia for Indigenous writers. Many of the country’s most celebrated and award-winning Indigenous writers can attest to having their careers launched or sustained by these opportunities. And now Queensland has lost them.

So we’ve thrown away freedom of expression and Australia’s only avenue of awards for emerging Indigenous writers to please a handful of Zionist lobbyists. When will it be enough?

Take courage: We will fight them all.

Queensland Civil Liberties Council Deputy Chairman as Terry O’Gorman in question Yesterday:

“Just as the Bjelke-Petersen street march ban in 1977 brought people onto the streets to protest laws banning protests, the new law will result in protesters taking to the streets…”

Tom Tanuki is an IA columnist, author, satirist and anti-fascist activist whose weekly videos commenting on Australia’s political wing are published on: YouTube. You can follow him on Twitter/X @tom_tanuki.

Support independent journalism Subscribe to IA.