Ralph Babet (Victoria, United Australia Party) Share this | Hansard source

The biggest lie you've ever been told is that you're free. In the old days, slavery was at least honest; you could see the chains and you knew who owned you. Today, slavery is just as real but disguised so that most people don't even know that they're in chains. The World Economic Forum famously promised us the future: 'You will own nothing and you'll be happy.' Look around. It's already here.

Think about it. The next generation won't own homes; they'll rent forever. You don't own your car; you lease it. You don't own the movies or music you consume; you rent access through subscriptions. You don't own your money; it's digital credit that can vanish with a policy change. You don't own your phone; you're on a contract. You don't own your software; it's all cloud based licensed, never yours. You don't own your social media accounts—one strike and you're gone. You don't even own your own privacy. It's traded for convenience and so-called free services.

You don't own anything, and are you happy? You probably are. Ownership was once freedom. Now everything is leased, licensed, streamed and revoked at the click of a mouse. Here's the genius of it all: step out of line and the system doesn't even need to jail you; it just switches you off. Instead of iron shackles, we wear invisible ones, and debt is the modern overseer. Whereas once the plantation owner fed and clothed his slaves, now we must do that ourselves and we need to thank the system for the privilege. Slavery has never gone away, it has just been modernised to include every man, woman and child.