Censorship is a tool of the state — but it's also a tool of the censored

Queensland’s new speech laws raise alarm bells and stakes for writers and activists, writes Tom Tanuki.

QUEENSLAND FORFEITED their most prestigious literary awards on Thursday, including the only two career-launching Australian prizes accessible to emerging Indigenous writers. On the same day, they also criminalised free speech by passing a bill making two specific terms of phrase punishable by two years’ imprisonment. In so doing, in one day Queensland took two enormous strides towards demolishing freedom of written and spoken word for everyone in the state. They did all this not by popular demand, and not to serve the electorate. They simply did it at the behest of a smattering of Zionist lobbyists.

Now, if you say, “globalise the intifada” or “from the river to the sea” in Queensland, you can be punished by up to two years in prison. A smattering of Zionist lobbyists have constantly told the Australian politicians and media figures they handle that these terms are antisemitic. That doesn’t mean they are. And it certainly doesn’t mean the definitions of these terms aren’t heavily contested.

Queensland’s war on words: Antisemitism Bill threatens free speech

In a feat of enterprising delusion and sinister suppression, Australia’s second-largest state has decided to deal with what it regards as an antisemitic problem.

But it doesn’t matter what the Queensland electorate thinks, as we now know. All that matters here is how the mid-term Liberal politicians running the state, and the lobbyists who are in their ear the most, feel about civil liberties. So, we’ve lost our right to say “from the river to the sea” or “globalise the intifada”, all under the flimsy pretext of making the community safer after 2025’s Bondi massacre. This isn’t, of course, what these bans affect. All they actually affect is making anti-Zionism and pro-Palestinian activism a more treacherous and criminalised pursuit, which was the entire point for the smattering of Zionist lobbyists.

I wonder if we should be thankful. If we learned anything from five years of imbeciles in all tiers of Australian government enabling the National Socialist Network, it’s that up to a point, stupid measures of state repression actually fuel the thing they’re desperate to repress. (I probably hold the record for most published instances decrying this very stupidity, all in these column spaces.)

It’s fairly simple. Once the sieg heil ban started, for example, I began seeing ordinary folk sieg heil-ing. They thought they were sticking it up to the man. Then the legal challenges began, and Nazis exiting court on the evening news started looking like Darryl Kerrigan from The Castle. Accordingly, NSN membership exploded.

The watermelon as a symbol promoting Palestinian freedom, known as such all around the world, was borne of similarly stupid Israeli state repression measures. Now, the humble watermelon dares the authoritarian to become a laughing stock: Go on and ban me, a watermelon. See how you go. (A NSW Police officer actually tried to arrest someone for this, and went viral for it. You can see how embarrassed he was.)

Censorship is a tool of the state, but it can also function as a tool of the censored. Do they think we can’t figure out other ways to express that all of occupied Palestine should be liberated from its oppressors? Or that the uprising against those oppressors and their collaborators should be an international one? Do they think that we can’t simply utter these verboten phrases at an imminent, convenient moment, and then proceed to stand on those court steps before the news cameras for a couple of years, making them look like fools? They are fools. It’s the absurdity of the Zionist politician in Australia, laid bare: Every time they remove our civil liberties, they overspend on their dwindling political capital.

I see no positive aspect to the other demolition of the free word we saw on Thursday in Queensland.

Author K.A. Ren Wyld had been targeted by Zionist lobbyists over one later-deleted tweet praising Yahya Sinwar. Because the aim of this targeting was not to criticise Wyld’s tweet but rather to scare other writers away from participating in anti-Zionist expression, a first media hit-piece released at the time wasn’t enough. They resurrected the attack when Wyld later went on to win the $15,000 black&write! fellowship. They secured Wyld’s financial loss as their victory when Queensland Arts Minister John-Paul Langbroek personally meddled in the State Library of Queensland’s decision-making processes to force a revocation of the fellowship.

Now, an independent review has recommended that the State Library cease managing the black&write! fellowship and the Queensland Literary Awards on behalf of the government, and the State Library has accepted the recommendations.

Apply hate speech laws "equally" — send us all to gaol

While new hate speech laws are being enforced, it seems every other dangerous form of racism in this country is left unchecked.

The David Unaipon Award is part of the Queensland Literary Awards; since 1989 it has been awarded to an outstanding unpublished manuscript by an emerging Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander writer. It, along with the black&write! fellowship, are the two premiere career launching pads in all of Australia for Indigenous writers. Many of the nation’s most celebrated and decorated Indigenous writers can attest to having had their careers launched or sustained by these opportunities. And now, Queensland has lost them.

So we’ve binned free speech, and Australia’s only prize pathways for emerging Indigenous writers, to please a smattering of Zionist lobbyists. When will it be enough?

Take heart: we will fight it all.

As Queensland Council for Civil Liberties Vice President Terry O’Gorman said yesterday:

“Just as the Bjelke -Petersen street march ban in 1977 brought people onto the streets to protest against laws that banned protest, the new law will result in protestors coming onto the streets…”

Tom Tanuki is an IA columnist, writer, satirist and anti-fascist activist whose weekly videos commenting on the Australian political fringe appear on YouTube. You can follow him on Twitter/X @tom_tanuki.