If the government’s proposed changes proceed, Victorians will lose their right to free speech, setting a precedent for the entire country.
Current anti-vilification legislation in Victoria is restricted to race and religion, which is in line with the rest of the country. But the government wants to expand this law to include a laundry list of additional attributes, including disability, gender identity, sexual characteristics, and sexual orientation. If such an expansion is passed, it will become illegal in Victoria to offend people who are disabled, trans, non-binary or “sexually diverse”. Maximum prison sentences will be up to three to five years.
The legal thresholds for what constitutes vilification will be lowered. Currently, one must “incite hatred” to breach the law. Under the proposed changes, however, speech that is “likely to incite” will become a criminal offence. Under such a standard, almost all speech referring to those with protected attributes – regardless of intent or context – could be deemed criminal. This means journalists, writers, comedians, academics, artists and activists will all be open to prosecution.
Unlike previous false alarms, this threat to free expression is both real and urgent.
In 2023, for example, trans activist Claire Southey took the Australian Press Council to court for failing to rule against The Daily Telegraph for reporting the gender identity of a sex offender. The Council had ruled that The Daily Telegraph had not breached journalistic standards when it reported that “pedophile Scott Lee Irwin … identified as transgender and was now known as Sheryl”. Yet Southey alleged that such reporting promoted negative stereotypes about transgender people, and thus took the Press Council to court.
The ideology of this belief system (whether we want to call it progressivism, “wokeness” or something else) is now acquiring the trappings of official doctrine. This doctrine determines that certain groups have special moral status, with demands that are sacrosanct and beyond questioning.
This new orthodoxy operates on multiple levels. First, it holds that speech inflicts harm equivalent to physical violence, which means stringent controls must be placed on expression. Second, it establishes a hierarchy of moral authority based on perceived victimhood, where some voices are deemed more virtuous than others. Third, it promotes a series of dogmas about identity, privilege and systemic oppression that brook no dissent. This means debate is off the table.
Like any religion, this belief system has its own heresies. Questioning the concept of gender fluidity or expressing concern about biological males in women’s sports or suggesting that factors other than discrimination might contribute to disparities between groups – all these become dangerous utterances, potentially worthy of legal sanction.
Just as heretics once faced inquisitions for challenging church doctrine, today’s dissenters risk social ostracism, professional ruin and potentially legal consequences for transgressing this new moral code. Victoria’s shift represents a fundamental reimagining of the role of government in a liberal democracy. Rather than serving as a neutral arbiter, protecting the rights of citizens who have equality before the law, the state is now becoming the enforcer of a particular worldview. It’s a vision where the government not only dictates what citizens can say, but what they must believe.
Source: Victoria’s new orthodoxy is state religion in disguise
As we become more and more secular we create new religions in areas such as ‘Climate Change’ and ‘Trans Women are real women’.
With these new religions it is easy to say ‘trans women are real women’ and have girls and women trampled under the masculine feet of such just like we can ‘save the planet’ and green up our energy needs whilst simultaneously shipping our coal off to China to burn there but oh no, never here.
Logic is no longer relevant.
It’s metaphysical really…