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There was a shocking scene in the Australian Federal Senate recently, which I am still honestly coming to terms with. Senator Hanson attempted to table a motion regarding the upcoming census and the inclusion of people who identify as being ‘transgender’ or ‘gender diverse’. However, both Labor and the Greens took the extraordinary step of prohibiting the issue from even being discussed.

This is an incredibly serious precedent for the Senate to have set. As the Hon. Jonathan Duniam argued:

While the Senate has the opportunity to reject a bill at the first reading stage, in practice the first reading is almost always passed without opposition and is regarded as a purely formal stage and the Coalition supports these normal procedures as we have with many Greens, Labor and other cross-bench bills that we have had opposition to.

The normal process enables a bill to be fairly considered and debated by the Senate before a substantive decision is taken and it should only be deviated from in the most extreme of circumstances… lest we deny the right of senators to even have matters debated.

As in all cases, a vote on the first reading should not be taken as a position on the substantive legislation especially where a bill has not had the opportunity to be subject of a normal internal process.

Dastardly Damage

As was quickly demonstrated, though, Senator Hanson was not only refused the opportunity to seek leave to make a short statement, but any debate on the bill was subsequently squashed. Victor Davis Hanson makes the point in his book The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalisation Are Destroying the Idea of America (Basic Books, 2021):

Sometimes citizens can do as much harm to their commonwealth by violating custom and tradition as by breaking laws.

In practical terms, the US Constitution guarantees citizens security under a republic whose officials they alone choose and that assures them liberties. What exactly are these privileges? Everything from free speech, due process, and habeas corpus to the right to own and bear arms, to stand trial before a jury of one’s peers, and to vote without restrictions as to race, religion, and sex.

America, then, is only as good as the citizens of any era who choose to preserve and to nourish it for one more generation. Republics are so often lost not over centuries but within a single decade.

This is precisely why the rejection of Senator Hanson’s bill is so corrosive. If the federal senate of our nation cannot model respectful debate and the free exchange of ideas, even those it strongly disagrees with, then the very nature of our democracy is not only “harmed”, but irreparably undermined.

While the Hon. Katy Gallagher acknowledged that Senator Duniam was “correct in many of his remarks”, she nonetheless supported the suppression of free speech. This is a sad day for the federal parliament. As Senator Hanson later argued:

I’ve been denied the right to actually introduce this bill. For the first reading speech, I was denied the right. That is very unusual in this place. Labor and the Greens have taken the highly unusual step of voting down a bill at its first reading that sought to reinforce the biological definitions of ‘man’ and ‘woman’.

This is a rare and alarming move that undermines our democratic process. By refusing the chance to debate this bill, Labor and the Greens are not only silencing important discussions but also disregarding the voices of Australians who support One Nation’s position on upholding biological reality.

This is the real risk and true harm to republics and commonwealth democracies everywhere. As Victor Davis Hanson says, “They are lost not over centuries but within a single decade.” And it’s a lesson it seems that we must learn here in Australia as well.