Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

Between 1991 and 2002 I edited a daily newspaper in Wagga Wagga. That newspaper first published on 10 October 1868, at which point, above its editorial comment piece of the day, it used these words: 'This is true liberty, when freeborn men, having to advise the public, may speak free.' It is a verse attributed to John Milton, a 17th-century English writer, who, in 1644, addressed the English parliament on unlicensed printing. But the context of his speech and the theme of his words during that address are about freedom of speech. Milton's verse, as it became known, was used by me as well. I continued the tradition of editors of the Daily Advertiser since 1868 and used that very good line on the editorial comment piece each and every day of the years that I edited the Wagga Wagga Daily Advertiser. It is a shame that it is not still there—it has been taken down in recent years—but the precepts of the line remain so for that publication because free speech is vital.

We are lucky because we are covered by parliamentary privilege in this place. We can stand at this dispatch box and say whatever we like without impunity by the courts. But with free speech and with parliamentary privilege come responsibility and we ought never forget that we need to be responsible as community leaders and parliamentarians for what we say because words are important. I'm pleased I can say this is where I am because outside these hallowed halls, this hallowed room, I may not get away with it. But in recent days we have seen a couple of court decisions which have shown that our court system is an interesting beast at times. I refer to a court case involving senators Mehreen Faruqi and Pauline Hanson just last Friday, when Senator Hanson was found by the court—the Federal Court, no less—to have defamed Senator Faruqi in a tweet. The post on Twitter, now X, was described by Justice Angus Stewart as 'an angry personal attack' that conveyed a 'strong form of racism'. Never mind the fact that Senator Faruqi had herself posted some things online about former prime minister Scott Morrison which, coming from a parliamentarian, were less than parliamentary.

Scott Morrison saved lives and jobs during COVID, Member for Bruce, and I will stand by him for as long as I have breath in me.

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