Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Universities and Research) Share this | Hansard source

from his Boyer lecture in 2008:

This competition is becoming more intense every day. Because technology now allows the little guy to do what once required a huge corporation. Look at the Drudge Report. Matt Drudge doesn't really create content. Instead, he finds content that he thinks is interesting, and puts it up on one of the internet's simplest pages. Readers come because they trust his judgment. And he is showing that good news judgment is something that can add value.

Even those who don't like him—

This is referring to Mr Drudge—

including many editors and reporters—click on to his website every day. In other words, with his single webpage, Drudge has succeeded in challenging the leading media companies of our day—including mine. And he has done it all with minimal start-up costs—a computer, a modem, and some space on a server.

That is the new technological terrain that the government has not even looked at. That is of course where influential media is going.

This debate about freedom of speech does reveal a real tension between liberal democracy and social democracy. Labor and social democracy parties of the Centre Left are largely statist. Ultimately, they always question the judgement of individuals, whether in welfare or in the area of the economy. Statist political parties such as the Australian Labor Party question the choices of individuals in welfare, in the economy and indeed even in the media.

This rhetoric of freedom of speech is always slightly threatening to the Centre Left. Pluralism, vigorous democracy and competition always worry the Left far more than it does the Centre Right. Always the Centre Left thinks, 'Oh, people's choices are wrong. People's understanding is incorrect; they might get it wrong. Freedom of choice is only good so long as the choice is something that the government—that is, the state—would agree with.'

I am going back to my university days here—it is a long time ago—but I do remember looking at the roots of social democratic parties—