David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Before I respond in detail to the motion, I'd like to clarify something. While the Greens agree with the thrust of it, we should be clear that, yes, these rights are inalienable at their core, but that does not mean that they cannot be subject to such restrictions as are necessary for the safety of people, including to prevent vilification and hate speech, and we've just had a short demonstration of why that's important.

It's no coincidence that the antiprotest laws are increasing right as global temperatures are. It's no coincidence that attempts to clamp down on dissent on university campuses and in the streets are increasing as global injustice shows its real face. It's no coincidence that antiwar protesters are being met with violence and that those standing for peace face brutality. Responding to threats of environmental catastrophe and social upheaval by more policing and harsher laws, which is the Labor and coalition trend, is a disturbing global trend, and the creeping patchwork of authoritarian state laws is chipping away at a fundamental political right in Australia.

The last decade has seen governments across the country start pulling apart the right to protest, empowering police and criminalising dissent, and it's getting worse. Laws are limiting the right to publicly disagree with governments in real and meaningful ways, and we need to resist those. We all know that protests, strikes and other forms of collective action are how rights have been gained, from a five-day week to workers compensation, voting rights and, more recently, key environmental protections and marriage equality. The streets have been places of political action. They've shown politicians the strength of public will, and they've forced places like this to make changes.

Protest isn't incidental to democracy; it's a necessary feature of the system. The right to freedom of assembly is contained in international laws that Australia is a party to, and it is at least to some extent, a very marginal extent, ingrained in the Constitution through the implied freedom of political communication. Antiprotest laws have been used to target climate campaigners and certain locations, have expanded police powers to unprecedented levels and have led to more search-and-seizure powers and harsher penalties almost across the board in this country. Those in the major parties talk big, opposing crackdowns on protests overseas, but they are steadily slicing away at the very same right in this country.

When we talk about freedom of speech, we need to also talk about whistleblowers. We talk about those who told the truth about war crimes in Afghanistan, like David McBride, who's right now in prison a few short kilometres from this parliament, while those in charge at the time are resting at home and shining their medals. We've also seen the very real penalties—in their employment and out on the streets—faced by those speaking the truth on the genocide in Gaza. Here, too, the need for the protection of freedom of speech is real. But many of those who advocate for their right to freedom of speech fall silent here. We won't be silent. Free Palestine. Free Gaza. Ceasefire now.