The recent denunciation of free speech by New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, in order to protect the fragility of multiculturalism in Australia reminds me of what Cicero warned in 44 BC:

“Freedom will bite back more fiercely when suspended than when she remains undisturbed.”

Australians were once a fiercely independent people. We were also a laid back and accepting lot - we are still very much accepting.

But these past years we have allowed our government to coerce us into handing over our inherent right to think and speak for ourselves in the name of whatever “ism” is the latest fashion trend. It was devastating to witness the degree to which that occurred during the early 2020s with the Covid hysteria.

Now, we face another challenge.

We lose our freedoms from our inability to guard them assiduously. We pay for such apathy via allowing weak men and women to rule over us. This is how Cicero summed up such a state of affairs:

“Surely, then, our present sufferings are all too well deserved. For had we not allowed outrages to go unpunished on all sides, it would never have been possible for a single individual to seize tyrannical power.”

It is disturbing how not one journalist attending the press conference where the premier articulated such authoritarian rhetoric failed to hold him to account on his position as a democratically-elected leader. Then again, the media is complicit in the tyranny by virtue of not asking questions.

We can only hope that Cicero is correct and that our ferocious spirit for freedom will rise again to reclaim what we once possessed and valued.