new ‘freedom commissioner’ should fight culture war on all fronts

Australia's new ‘freedom commissioner’ should fight culture war on all fronts

Freedom for whistleblowers, freedom of information and meaningful press freedom should be on Tim Wilson’s agenda

Katharine Murphy, deputy political editor

Given the year we’ve had – two prime ministers, an election, then a third prime minister and a transition to a new government – it is perhaps not surprising that the overstimulated national affairs year has folded into a small puddle of outrage.

This will be my last Dispatch for 2013, and right now I can’t see the horizon for the bandwagons. They are everywhere – circled and dug in, or circling mulishly in search of a crusade.

If there is someone out there who isn’t furious about something, or confecting outrage about something, do me a favour, stick up your hand so I can raise a festive glass to you in solidarity.

There was, of course, a brief hiatus in the outrage cycle when Tony Abbott thought he might govern by keeping himself off the front page. That proved impossible, sadly. Abbott has been forced to step forward and he’s still developing his modus operandi for the more offensive play.

One component of the “front-foot” toolkit is, of course, culture war – an oldie but a goodie – and the attorney general, George Brandis, is taking to the task of Coalition troll-in-chief with predictable panache.

It’s a reasonable bet that polarised reactions to Brandis’s recent appointments to a couple of key quangos are very much as he would like them to be.

Never mind if it is risible to reduce the world to a place where people are either freedom fighters or enemies of freedom, depending on whether or not they agree with one another’s world view – thunderous pantomimes signifying two-fifths of bugger-all are helpful to governments just wanting to get on with things.

The great pre-Christmas outrage fest gives a new government some cover to work out what on Earth it actually wants to do. It gives Abbott a moment to breathe and to think.

Thus far the Coalition government has been defined by undoing Labor’s agenda, by dealing with various legacy issues and by events outside its control.

As for the prime minister, he’s still sorting out whether he’s “big shaper Tony” or “small government Tony”. Sometimes he’s both in the space of a single press conference. None of us are only ever one thing, but Abbott needs to work out how to make his prime ministership less confusing to the voters. A trip to France and down the coast will no doubt be a tonic.

Given the government has been kind enough to put “freedom”, of all things, on the policy agenda for the new year with the appointment of Tim Wilson to the Human Rights Commission, I for one would like to welcome that direction.

Wilson’s appointment is, evidently, not universally welcome, but I can see some positives. Diversity matters, and diversity of core philosophy matters. It contributes to a healthy national conversation about things that are important, but are often little canvassed.

Having shared the odd talking head panel with Wilson over the years, I don’t think he needs much free advice from me about what a freedom agenda looks like – but I’m going to make a small bet and say he’ll tolerate a couple of modest suggestions all the same.

One is on press freedom – not the “press freedom” some of the increasingly brittle outrage merchants of News Corp rave on about, which as it’s practised is little more than the freedom to hector and bully their opponents, rage against the future and pursue the freedom for a single corporation to dominate a domestic media market and advance its commercial interests.

I’m talking meaningful press freedom. By this I mean first amendment-style freedoms, not the limited implied freedoms that currently exist in Australia.

Genuine press freedom underpins genuine public interest journalism – it’s as simple as that. Societal freedom is enhanced by consumers having access to quality, independent, brave journalism which serves their interests, not the interests of the government of the day, or the transient whims and hegemonic fantasies of activist editors and commercial proprietors fashioning the “campaigns” and pulling the strings.

Having been given the platform, Wilson could consider developing the nascent views I’ve heard him express around freedom of digital communication.

Edward Snowden’s disclosures have made the debate on civil liberties in the digital era essential in countries that regard themselves as true liberal democracies. The conversation around balancing freedom of personal communication and the freedom to keep your personal information private with the responsibility of governments to protect citizens from harm is an important one. It is best served by approaching it with some structure and without accusing those seeking to have it of being unpatriotic, or pursuing an extreme agenda of some kind.

Associated with this, of course, is defending and strengthening freedoms for whistleblowers motivated by public interest – people societies rely on to keep powerful institutions honest.

Another obvious area for first-up advocacy would be freedom of information. Governments bang on periodically about transparency, but Australia’s culture of disclosure is insipid at best. Some recent trends suggest it is getting harder for people to seek information from government, not easier. Freedom of information. That would be a meaty area for a newly minted freedom commissioner, I suspect.

This list is hardly exhaustive. Other people would have other lists. And of course it is up to Wilson to define how best to balance a freedom agenda against the imperative of exercising freedom with respect and responsibility. I suspect he and I would draw those lines rather differently.

An important freedom for Wilson to zealously preserve in his new role is, of course, his own. It would be ironic in the extreme if the freedom commissioner found himself muted or self-censoring in his new role, lacked the freedom to carve out his own agenda, or found himself reduced to pushing partisan talking points.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/19/australias-new-freedom-commissioner-should-fight-culture-war