Freedom of Conscience

The 21^st century is clearly going to be a time of human progress but we need to decide what price we are prepared to pay for this.

The essence of liberalism is freedom of thought. This freedom of thought manifests itself as freedom to express that thought - generally referred to as free speech.

In Australia, we do not have a written constitutional guarantee to free speech, however, is generally accepted that this form is one of the inalienable rights of man which in our British legal tradition can be traced back to Magna Carta and the English Constitutional Law system.

In an age where we can all express our views and many more of us are getting our news not from newspapers or television stations but from the Internet, we are now seeing global pressure to censor expressions of thought on the Internet and in our community more generally.

For me, it does not matter whether we agree with what Israel Falou thinks or says is that we are saying that as a public figure he should not have the right to express his views. Some of argued that his statements are based on his religious views. I for one don’t think it matters. If we are to remain creative, we must accept that the individual has the right to the own thinking and as such they have a right to express this.

I fear that the writings of George Orwell, in particular “1984”, are becoming a reality. Our views are being listened to, recorded, analysed and acted upon. What we say in our homes is now able to be monitored by devices such as Google Home, our calls with friends and loved ones can be listened to and our emails are being monitored. Whilst I don’t like these things, they are a reality and we will be told that they are necessary to maintain our safety in the modern world. 

The existence of such wonderful technology only makes it more important that we stand up for the principles of freedom of conscience and free speech. Whilst there is a good case for arguing the importance of stopping the radicalisation especially of youth we do need to understand that freedom of religion is part of freedom of thought and freedom of thought is critical to democracy.

One of the important things that distinguishes Australia from so many countries is that we are a small L liberal democracy. This is one of the things that makes people from all over the world want to come and live in this tolerant pluralistic society. Whilst I don’t like some of the things I hear and I reject from first principles some of the statements are being made as extreme I do strongly believe that to maintain the Australian style of democracy which is the envy of many parts of the world, we do need to be tolerant. That is tolerant that others can have a view which we totally reject - that they have the right to say it.

Paul Raftery