NSW Labor Premier Chris Minns has said something appalling. Whether or not it is true, remains to be seen. Essentially, Minns has alleged that free speech must be sacrificed to keep the peace in multicultural Australia.

It is implied that we cannot ‘get along’ unless our words are constrained by the government.

‘I recognise and I fully said from the beginning, we don’t have the same freedom of speech laws that they have in the United States, and the reason for that is that we want to hold together a multicultural community and have people live in peace.’

Even without context (which I will give in a moment), it is a terrible thing to admit.

Australia has been multi-ethnic since the beginning, and it has never required restrictive speech laws to stop racism or to quell violence.

Taking the Premier at his word, that multiculturalism cannot survive without the strong-arm of government oppressing speech, it is fair to argue instead that those individuals who cannot live peacefully do not deserve to seek shelter in Australia.

What was it that former Prime Minister John Howard said? ‘We will decide who comes to this country, and the circumstances in which they come.’

The context which brought about this shocking admission from the Labor Premier is in relation to the hate speech laws which were rushed through Parliament. The crisis used to justify the already controversial measures has been revealed as a hoax allegedly perpetrated by criminals to negotiate reduced sentences. This was, apparently, known from early on.

Various politicians in NSW are agitating for these laws to be rescinded.

MLC John Ruddick said of these repeals, ‘Parliament was misinformed by the Minns government about the urgency of the bills referred to in one A, B, and C … this House calls on the Minns government to repeal the bills … and apologise for both misleading this Parliament, preventing a Parliamentary Inquiry, and further curbing free speech principles by these reactionary bills.’

Here is the beginning of Minns’ comment:

‘There have been some that have been agitating in the Parliament to nullify the laws to remove them off the statute books, think about what kind of toxic message that would send to the NSW community.

‘And I think the advocates for those changes need to explain what do they want people to have the right to say?

‘What kind of racist abuse do they want to see, or to be able to lawfully see, on the streets of Sydney?’

https://www.amren.com/news/2025/03/did-multiculturalism-cost-australia-free-speech