# Australian Free Speech Issues

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-free-speech-issues/525298>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [January 17, 2010, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-free-speech-issues/525298 "2010-01-17T07:24:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 70

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**Author:** ![Cesario](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Cesario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cesario)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2010, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-free-speech-issues/525298/70 "2010-01-27T02:06:23Z")

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> [@sisu](#):
>
> What a lot of crap has been spouted on this. Australia has censorship just like America.

If you believe that the United States has censorship laws anything like those being described by the Australians here, you are thankfully mistaken.

> [@sisu](#):
>
> We don’t have an explicit freedom of speech but we don’t seem to suffer from it.

Not those of you with government approved opinions anyway.

> [@sisu](#):
>
> We Australians don’t see our government as big bad oppressors but rather as a group to help us poor lowly citizens.

You frighten me worse than the likes of China and North Korea. At least in those countries, one gets the impression that the citizenry objects to the measures their government is taking to control their access to information and their ability to advocate for political causes.

> [@sisu](#):
>
> I don’t mind that I can’t watch kiddie pron or incite hatred towards to ethnic groups, it makes us a safer and much more civilised country.

Precisely how are you protected by arresting people carrying around a forbidden fictional text? Why do you beleive that silencing unpopular opinions makes you more civilized?

> [@sisu](#):
>
> We do have freedom of information laws that allow any citizen to ask for information from the government, the only stuff that is sometimes not released is commercial in confidence or state secrets.

How does this tie in to free speech exactly?

> [@sisu](#):
>
> In short, we are Australians are pretty happy with our censorship laws and if you don’t like it don’t come here.

I decided a long time ago that I would never set foot on that continent. However hostile my own society may be towards me, looking at how bad things could be makes me appreciate the United States all the more.

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