Ah, the ironies of what the Prime
Minister calls exceptional measures for exceptional times. Have a dekko
at Piers Akerman’s column on the sedition proposals in the Telegraph today:

There is a huge irony in the fact that Victoria’s Premier
Steve Bracks led the premiers’ charge against the proposed changes to
the sedition clauses of the Crimes Act earlier this week.

His
Government’s Racial and Religious Tolerance Act – a measure that former
NSW premier Bob Carr refused to adopt – has done far more damage to
free speech in Australia than any prosecution under sedition laws.

Mr
Bracks’ laws were used against a pair of Christian pastors doing no
more than quoting the Koran, and those laws were given a bizarre
interpretation by a Victorian judge. None of those now protesting the
updating of the sedition laws raised their voices.

Christian mad mullahs – but he’s absolutely right, you know.