The old saying “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” is a good one.

Just look at the clumsy efforts of the Labor government to introduce “hate speech” laws in the aftermath of the Bondi attack.

They say they are trying to address antisemitism, but it’s a rush job, and they’ve butchered the legislation.

Anthony Albanese and Labor do not deserve the benefit of the doubt.

This is the government that, last term, worked tirelessly to introduce misinformation laws that would set up a Ministry of Truth.

They spent the entire Voice referendum desperately trying to suppress information that would hurt the Yes case, like the past words of Voice advocates and details of the sham process of producing the referendum question.

And even now they’re doing everything they can to avoid talking about mass immigration while shaming those who bring it up.

There are no good intentions here.

No, this is a convenient excuse for Labor to impose a form of speech restrictions they would very much like to implement anyway.

They are not both-sidesing antisemitism with islamophobia because they are concerned about eroding social cohesion (a meaningless bureaucratic term anyway).

They are throwing the blanket of censorship as widely as they can because that’s what they want to do.

If they wanted to just deal with antisemitism they would. If they wanted to deal with Islamic hate preachers they would. After all, if they can deport Novak Djokovic over a vaccine, there’s no excuse not to deport those who spread hate.

Anthony Albanese, Labor, the Greens, the Teals, and much of the media and academic class – the activists and the elites – do not want ordinary Aussies to be able to speak out on controversial issues.

They do not want you talking about immigration, about putting Australians first, about Net Zero or transgender madness.

These laws open the door to censorship of opinions the government finds inconvenient and that is a price Aussies should not have to pay.