‘Your freedoms are vanishing’: Katter laments parliament for pushing Digital ID laws
KENNEDY MP Bob Katter has viciously spoken out against the Federal Government’s Digital ID Bill – labelling the legislation as “big brother watching” and the loss of freedoms for the Australian people.
Mr Katter expressed his disappointment towards the actions of the Federal Parliament which allowed the bill to pass through the lower house without a vote; bipartisan support.
“I’m absolutely appalled that the people of Australia are represented by a bunch of ‘so-called’ representatives, that have let this through without a vote,” Mr Katter said.
Mr Katter said he now intended to move a Private Members Bill to protect the rights of people to oppose digital presence.
The bill, according to the government, aims to establish and regulate an “economy-wide digital ID system.”
“This is advocating Big Brother watching. Whether the ALP or the LNP win the next election, we’ll see what it's like when they have access to every movement that we make.”
Mr Katter said whether it was the right to defend yourself in your own home, banking or telecommunications – “when the government begins interfering with your freedoms, it cannot be trusted.”
“They privatised Telstra, but said ‘don’t worry, we’ll have a universal service obligation’. Well that’s not much use to anyone in my electorate, just look at the complaints coming in.
“Our party, the KAP, are putting before the Queensland parliament Castle Law, which has been the law of the British tradition since Magna Carta—your right to protect yourself in your own home. The Liberals are not voting for it—they're too scared—and, of course, Labor is opposing it, as usual.
“So we’re just supposed to trust the government to protect us; yeah well look how well that’s going in Queensland at the moment.
“If you trust the government with your freedoms, you are a fool and you betray the people that you represent. Not one person in the ALP has had the guts to stand up on the issue, and I would suspect that many of them are not on side with this proposal.
“You are taking away our right to privacy, our right to freedom.
“Having said those things, freedom is a real issue in Australia today.”
Mr Katter recalled a family story, of when his grandchildren went to visit him and his wife one holidays and the realisation of the removal of freedoms in the Australia hit the 79-year-old hard.
“I said: 'Oh, beauty’.
“I'll set up the flying fox and—zoom, zoom, zoom—splash in the swimming pool. Nope, my wife said: 'No, you'd have to take the panel off the fence. If you take the panel off the fence, that's illegal. They came and inspected it last week, and they informed us that our fence was 2½ centimetres below what it should be. They want the whole fence replaced'—at a cost of $3,500.’
“Ok, I'm not allowed to use the swimming pool.
“'We'll start work on the second stage of the tree house.' My wife: 'Uh-uh. A kid fell out of a tree house in Brisbane two months ago. Tree houses are banned.'
“Tree houses are banned?
“Alright, we'll just go down the flat and boil the billy. The most iconic Australian scene is boiling the billy. We should teach all our grandkids how to boil a billy and make a bit of damper. My wife said: 'No, you have to get a permit to light a fire in the open. It will take at least three months for the permit to come through.'
“A free country? Politicians in Canberra and Brisbane have never understood freedom.
“I could give you a hundred examples of where your freedom is going to vanish.
“It is not funny to say, 'I'm from the government. Trust me,' and that's exactly what the last two ALP speakers (speaking on the Digital ID Bill in the Federation Chamber) were saying: 'We're from the government. You can trust us.'
“Who would trust a government that has backed Gaza? Would you trust those people? They're justifying the murder of 1,200 innocent people with no provocation whatsoever, and they're out there barracking for Gaza. Would you trust that government?”
