This is one of those blogs, one hopes never to write, but given the events of the last weeks, it seems unavoidable.
What unfolded in New Zealand is heart breaking, but expected - sooner or later. What one didn't expect, was that it would be New Zealand, to put it bluntly, given the that a number of Australian politicians (and parties) in Australia have been using intolerance, hate and fear as political currency for around two decades; Australia seemed the more likely scenario. And indeed, this did turn out to be an Australian white supremacist, fueled by hate and made brave by Australian politicians normalising.
What followed in Australia, should be of concern to all -of gigantic proportions. The comments made by one Australian Federal Senator (voted in by a whopping 19 votes), in particular were, and continue to be...... actually, there are no words to describe the repulsion of this individual, nor the media outlets which continue to allow others like him to continue spin their bile message directly to a mass audience. The fact that, the ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority) have not revoked their licenses is truly incompetent and illustrates all to clearly the failings in legislation.
Lets be absolutely clear - HATE SPEECH, IS NOT FREE SPEECH - IT IS HATE SPEECH. Free speech stops the moment it creates a dangerous 'Us verses Them' narrative. 74 years after the conclusion of WW2, it appears humans are too stupid to learn.
As Labor Party Leader, Bill Shorten made clear, after 50 innocent people (including children) were confirmed dead and another 12 rushed to intensive care as result of the Christchurch terrorist attack, on the 15th March 2019;
Hate speech, doesn't always lead to violence; but violence ALWAYS starts with hate speech.
The entire history of humanity, into the present day, already provides far too many examples of exactly this.
Regardless of the ideology on which hate speech is based, it is at its core utterly repugnant and pure evil.
The election of Mark Latham into the Parliament of New South Wales, over the weekend - should not just raise warnings, as to how normalised hate speech masquerading as free speech has become, but also place Australian anti-terror organisations and Police services on greater vigilance, increase watch lists - if not raise their internal alert levels - considerably. Because if the patterns illustrated here continue the slaughter of Australians; regardless of religion, race, gender, age, sexual orientation will escalate, with any and all Australians becoming targets.
So where does the responsibility rest?
It rests with each and every individual. It rests with us:
- report hate speech when we hear and/or see it.
- report hate speech and content on social media, to that social media provider and to not share, re-post or retweet that content.
- don't just rant on social media, or scream at the television or radio, when hate content is beamed into our lives - but to sit down and report it to the ACMA - repeatedly until it is taken seriously.
- write, phone, email, twitter, facebook - every politician and party you can think of; demanding Australian Media Ownership Restrictions to be re-introduced - Immediately.
But most importantly it rests with us, at the ballot box !
At any and every occasion,
Vote: #HopeNotHateForAustralia
Vote: Compassion, Tolerance - Humanity.
Links:
This first one, should be screaming from Australia's media - but instead...... *crickets*
Open Letter from UK Counter-Terrorism, Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing
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