NewsTop Stories
‘Contrived, pointless, and a total waste of taxpayer money’: groups respond to freedom of speech review
On Thursday, university personnel, fittingly, exercised their freedom of speech. Responding to the government's announcement of a review into freedom of speech on campus on Wednesday, the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) came out on blast.
Please login below to view content or subscribe now.
I’m curious about why the strong reaction if they believe they truly uphold principles of free speech. They should be welcoming it if they believe it will vindicate them from allegations they claim are baseless. Simply denying there is an issue, or reframing the issue as conservative hypersensitivity, or asserting that they are committed to the free speech principles are not convincing arguments that such a review may not be needed or beneficial. In my mind, these responses should give more reason to conduct a thorough review.
The five year plans that were promoted by the Communist Party (USSR) were all developed based upon their vision of the “national interest”. It was interesting therefore when this was cited for the reason for cancelling research grants which had already undergone a peer review process. There are so many examples of government interference, eg. Student Associations, student intake etc. So speech has never been free, it has always been linked to the threat of funding cuts.
Excellent point Nathan!
The quoted ANU example does look like a freedom of speech issue in the absence of more information. Why did the “logistical issues” emerge only after students protested?
Excellent point Cesar!
The left obviously doesn’t see a need for the review because they are currently being allowed by universities to intimidate anyone who does not subscribe to their world view (i.e. no genders, no religions, no borders, no parental rights, etc.). The threshold for being “offended” has been made ridiculously low and skewed in favour of leftist ideologies to the extent that universities are now at the forefront of attacking freedom of speech. Very sad.