Tony Abbott is often criticised by Bob Brown, in fact it seems to be Brown's primary function (in addition to destroying the economy...). One of Brown's favourite lines of attack revolve around Abbott's 'thought bubble' policy ideas; uncosted, unplanned and unrealistic are usually the words used by Bob & Co. when trotting out this offensive strategy. However it is now becoming clear that if any federal party leader is guilty of not just unrealistic, but dangerous, thought bubbles then it is Bob Brown, the Policy Clown. So what is the Clown up to now, you ask? Why Bob (or should that be Bobo?), the leader of the 'Free Speech Haters Alliance', has decided that, in the wake of the Andrew Bolt ruling, all journalists should be licensed. That's right; if you want to have an opinion then you must first seek permission to express it from Comrade Brown.
What scares me the most is who Bob thinks should handle the registration body. No, not an independent licensing commission run, perhaps, by the journalists peak professional body - oh no! - Bob want to control it himself through a state-sanctioned authority. An authority that would have the power to award practicing licences to individual journalists with the flip side of this being they would also have the power to strip them of their licence. Censorship, anyone?
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| Coulrophobia: A fear of clowns... |
This typifies the stupidity of Brown and the Greens. Now this may sound like a strange thing to say, but while I don't agree with ANYTHING that Bob Brown says I would do all within my power to defend his right to say it. Every person, regardless of how stupid, moronic and uninformed their views and opinions might be have the right to be heard. For example, Sarah Hanson-Young is an absolute half-wit who would be lucky to have to functioning neurons to bounce an idea between. Yet, despite how much I loathe the woman, I would gladly stand up and defend her right to spout her neo-Marxist nonsense. This is what it means to live in a free society. This is what it means to have true debate, where in the political forum any and all can stand and have their views and opinions heard. You may not like what is being said, but at least you have the right to, in turn, stand and rebuke the opinions of others. It just frustrates me when our elected officials who sit on the Left (i.e. those who hate freedom) seem to think that they can strip the citizenry of their right to speak their mind.
The national political discourse will be richer for having a wide debate where all can express their views. Bob Brown doesn't see this; he wants to silence the dissenters and create an Australia where the only opinions you hear are sanctioned by the state... While Bob has the right to speak his peace, he most certainly does not have the right to strip that fundamental entitlement from others, simply because he doesn't like what they are saying.
P.S: It should be noted that Bob Brown discussed this policy idea at the 'Intelligence Squared' event in Sydney on Saturday. If I was putting together a list of potential guests and speakers for an event called 'Intelligence Squared' I can assure you that Bob would be way, way, way, way down the list of candidates...
