Steve Holland
Broadcaster, commentator, media consultant, libertarian and former mayor of the Mornington Peninsula.
Once famed as a cradle of liberty, the United Kingdom is rapidly becoming a cautionary tale of digital dictatorship. We must ensure Australia doesn’t go down the same path.
The UK’s descent should alarm every lover of liberty. Under the guise of safety, security and the right to work, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced that his government will introduce a compulsory digital ID scheme by 2029.
The plan has been pitched as a way to crack down on illegal migration and make life “more convenient”, but the implications are chilling. Almost three million Britons have already signed a petition against this scheme, which calls it “a step towards mass surveillance and digital control”.
I can understand why so many citizens are concerned. This policy is being proposed by the same government that doesn’t want to talk about the revelation that police in the UK are arresting 12,000 people a year for speech-related crimes, including social media posts and so-called hate speech. A country that claims to uphold free speech has in practice criminalised so-called “offensive” online expression on an industrial scale.
Free speech, privacy, and anonymity are not quaint luxuries granted to us by government, but essential pillars of a free society we must defend from government.
These Orwellian laws criminalise sending “offensive” or “indecent” content over the internet. In practice, that can mean almost anything that rubs someone the wrong way, because offensive, indecent or hateful speech is always defined by those you’d least want to define it.
None of this is hyperbole: it’s reality. Anyone concerned about the ongoing erosion of civil liberties should be rightly concerned about how the government intends to use their new surveillance powers. Once governments get a taste for controlling information and identity, liberty is the casualty.
A compulsory digital ID in the hands of authorities who already eagerly police speech is a recipe for totalitarian control. Britain tried (and rejected) national ID cards in the past: now that bad idea has resurfaced in digital form for the digital age. It’s an all-access pass for the state to monitor and track their citizens.
Unfortunately, Australia is on a similar trajectory, with our own politicians pushing digital ID, surveillance, and speech-regulating laws.
If we don’t fiercely defend liberty now, we risk waking up in a society that looks a lot like the UK: papers required to live life online, and police knocking on your door because someone complained they didn’t like your Facebook post.
Shockingly, both major parties are to blame. It was a coalition government that launched Australia’s first digital ID program in 2015, and now the Labor government is on track to finish the job.
Politicians insist it’s voluntary and just a convenient option, but we know how this story goes. Today voluntary, tomorrow compulsory. Once entrenched, digital ID can easily morph from an optional identification tool to a de facto internal passport required to participate in daily life. The bureaucratic infrastructure is being built under our noses, with bipartisan approval.
Make no mistake, if you value privacy and the presumption of innocence, neither major party has your back on this issue. They are united in greasing the skids for a future where you must present your papers to go about even the most mundane tasks, like logging in to your social media accounts.
In a classic case of moral panic and the desire for more government control, the major parties have again converged, this time with a plan to ban under-16s from social platforms. A policy that will effectively force age and ID checks for everyone online. This policy presents our overzealous politicians and public servants with the perfect opportunity to roll out compulsory digital ID for all Australians.
Australia is on a similar trajectory, with our own politicians pushing digital ID, surveillance, and speech-regulating laws.
The endgame isn’t hard to see: every Australian internet user logged and verified, every online comment tied to your real identity, and an army of bureaucrats and police monitoring it all for misbehaviour. This isn’t paranoia, it’s the logical culmination of the policies our leaders proudly advocate.
Political apathy is rising in Australia, and I’m worried our easy-going attitude and desire to ignore our foolish ruling class has us sleepwalking into high-tech tyranny. The onus is on all of us to urgently take action to defend liberty and free speech in this country. Australia must not follow the UK (or any other nation) into a surveillance-state nightmare.
Digital ID and hate speech laws are tools of authoritarianism masquerading as safety and civility. Free speech, privacy, and anonymity are not quaint luxuries granted to us by government, but essential pillars of a free society we must defend from government.
We must demand that our leaders scrap digital ID schemes, oppose draconian speech-regulating laws, and roll back the surveillance state, not expand it.
We must insist on the right to speak and debate openly, including when that means offensive or unpopular views are aired, because the alternative is a government that decides what you can say, and to whom you can say it.
This article was originally published by Liberty Itch.
