Never mind China, Australia needs to fight for own freedoms

Democracy and free press can't be taken for granted.

As Hong Kong protesters fight for democratic freedom, Australia seems detefixated on eroding its own. Picture: Kin Cheung

WE all know what they say about those who don't learn from history.

And now it feels like Hong Kong and China is on the verge of repeating it in a bad way, like a bad Tuesday night burrito.

I've been to China, working as a dancing koala in a major shopping centre (true story).

Hong Kong. Picture: Pixabay

It was a job which gave the group of us an impressive amount of downtime, and we got to experience the country.

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One of the things I observed was, despite the appearance otherwise, some freedoms were superficial at best. Facebook was (and still is) verboten, for one.

This might sound like paradise to many tired of the ugliness of social media, but remember: it's not a choice there.

Or the four-year-old child who got yelled at by an official at the airport for daring to step across the yellow line to get to her mother.

AFP raids at the ABC.

I fear we too often take our freedoms for granted.

So when it comes to the Hong Kong tension, some support from our government for those fighting to keep a free press and democracy would be great.

But sadly they seem too busy overseeing organisations who send letters to media outlets who haven't broken the law, fail to protect residents' metadata from illegal police searches, and raid the offices of newspapers over stories about the government considering spying on Australians.