this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2024
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A Boring Dystopia
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Ah. Parliamentary privilege I think it's called. They have that bullshit in the US and the UK afair, perhaps other places too.
Really helps public trust when parliamentary debate is exempt from the rules that us commoners must abide by!
It makes sense for stuff like whistle blowing. you don't exactly want fear of prosecution affecting someone presenting evidence of wrongdoing.
But like, if reporting on how someone else described themselves in Parliament can get you sued because they can say "prove I said that" then that's a bit chilling. Idk where the balance is, that's something we all need to have a serious chat about, but it's not here
Except whistle-blowers have specific protections already, so that doesn't really apply.
To say the least!
I do! Holding politicians accountable like everyone else. THAT'S the balance.
The bar for proving defamation is already high enough that there's no risk of accidentally chilling honest political speech.
If you honestly believe it's true, it can't be defamation. Politicians would only get in trouble for wilfully false defamatory statements, which I'm 100% in favor of happening much more.
Not in Australia, the bar for defo is stupidly low. The defendant basically has to prove their innocence. The law is fucked and the new "public interest" defence failed its first test in court. Defamation law is abused by the rich and powerful to suppress free speech and silence critics. Even if you can successfully prove substantial truth or genuinely held opinion you'll still be ruined by all the legal costs.
Yeah Aussie defo law is basically a "are you wealthy?" test.
We don't talk about class much here but it's a super classist society. My dad for example, from a line of Irish transported, could only get out of generations of poverty because Whitlam made uni free. He ended up planning some pretty important national infrastructure (so blame him haha) that I'd say the state got a pretty good deal on given the price of a degree. My mum is a Polish immigrant and her parents, who were an agricultural scientist who refused to join the party in occupied Poland and an office admin worker (USSR leading the world on women working) were treated like fucking dirt and imbeciles because they had a strong accent and strange grammar.
If you look at the last names of people in power it's heavily slanted English. Legacy from the colony days. We had this really brief moment of good fortune and higher class mobility due to fear of communism driving social reform and since then further backsliding. I mean look at all the jobs for the boys from private schools etc and what families get admission.
Shit's fucked, but we pretend like it's all good mate and that mythical occa Anzac spirit of going hard hand in hand is all around us. Meanwhile pollies are untouchable, landlords buy up everything, and access to help and opportunity crumbles for everyone who earns less than 300k a household.