With Communications Minister Michelle Rowland expected to introduce a ‘prominence’ bill this week, Australians should be very worried about the government attempting to control our smart devices and the information we receive. We are on the slippery slope to socialism and it will only get worse as the Albanese government destroys our standard of living in pursuit of its socialist agenda. The green-left agenda, previously the purview of conspiracy theorists, is now out in the open. It manifests in government policies designed to reduce our individual carbon footprints. It has no regard for our liberty. We will have no cars unless we surrender control over our EV batteries as they become part of the ‘smart’ grid. We will not be able to control the temperature in our houses because this will be used to balance the inconsistent supply to our energy grid from wind and solar. We will cook our food using government-endorsed methods that will not be good for cooking meat because there will be no meat to eat. And we will live in our tiny, densely packed high-rise or walk-up apartment buildings and catch the tram to work in jobs where we are selected for our ‘diversity credentials’. Two key legislative manoeuvres by the Albanese government go to the heart of the matter: the Misinformation and Disinformation Bill and a proposed ‘prominence’ bill to determine the order and arrangement of news apps on our smart TVs. Misinformation refers to incorrect information that can be readily checked whereas disinformation is designed to be deliberately misleading. However, the Misinformation and Disinformation Bill will not apply to the government or to its ministers. For example, the Treasurer keeps posting on Twitter that we are better off under Labor when clearly we are not. His posts are frequently fact-checked by Twitter Community Notes and found to be inaccurate, but these won’t count as misinformation or disinformation. Regrettably, there is insufficient space to detail the Energy Minister’s posts.

Today’s wages data from the @ABSStats shows we’ve seen the highest quarterly wages growth in 26 years under an @AustralianLabor Govt. Real wages started falling under the Coalition due to a decade of deliberate wage stagnation and high inflation. We're turning it around #auspol pic.twitter.com/D8JmD4KKyn

— Jim Chalmers MP (@JEChalmers) November 15, 2023

And there is already a voluntary, self-regulated code of conduct on misinformation and disinformation online developed by the not-for-profit Digital Industry Group Inc. (DIGI), the Australian Code of Practice on Disinformation and Misinformation (The Code). Like Ad Standards (formerly the Advertising Standards Bureau), self-regulation is an affordable way to regulate industries and, even in my personal experience, an effective way to address complaints. But that is not the ultimate purpose of the legislation. The former Coalition government shares some of the blame as it looked to strengthen the laws around misinformation and disinformation. But the Opposition has since rejected the Albanese government’s Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023. This is the correct decision as legislating for online content control is ‘under-researched’. Given that there is not even a Bills Digest published by the Australian Parliamentary Library (documents designed to set out the pros and cons of a particular bill), it is ironic that the government has done little to inform the House let alone the people. The most recent attempt to control the information we receive is through the ‘prominence’ bill. This bill will ensure that the state-funded and increasingly partisan news service, the ABC, will appear ahead of commercial media stations on our Smart TV devices. The integrity of the ABC is under serious threat as a result of its manner of reporting on Hamas, a terrorist organisation that attacked Israel on October 7. Things are not looking up at the ABC. There is an agenda at play that does not bode well for life in Australia. But ordinary Australians are seeing through the dystopian end we are rushing toward. The recent Voice Referendum indicated the extent that the government is out of touch with ordinary Australians. And a recent poll on Australians’ attitudes towards nuclear energy is overwhelmingly at odds with Energy Minister Chris Bowen’s routine rebuttals. (Not to mention that his views on nuclear our now completely out of touch with the rest of the world.) But the recent deplatforming of journalists who speak out is cause for concern. Traditionally the fourth estate looked after the interests of the common people. Now the pressure on journalists to conform to the green-left agenda is immense. In the meantime, Greens leader Adam Bandt has protested against our major export industry in a kayak that wouldn’t exist except for the very industry he is trying to ruin. No doubt the photo of him in his petrochemical-produced vessel was taken with a device that would not exist except for the nuclear industry.

Proud to take to the water with @RisingTideAus to blockade the world’s largest coal port today.

If Labor won’t stop coal, the people will. pic.twitter.com/Xg8KTKVcFX

— Adam Bandt (@AdamBandt) November 25, 2023

Australians are starting to see through the controlling agenda that is presented under the guise of misinformation and disinformation, but it is only the tip of the iceberg. But make no mistake, we are in a fight for our way of life and the very liberties that make that way of life possible.