Alex fought with 18C but there’s no will to set speech free

Dennis Atkins thinks the QUT students had it coming but he should listen to Alex Wood.

Veteran journo Dennis Atkins doesn’t want 18C repealed and he doesn’t have much sympathy for the QUT students The Courier-Mail, yesterday:

Then a group of Queensland University of Technology students ignored rooms full of available computers and sought to use the ones in an “Aboriginals only” room and complained about it on the internet. An exchange led to a section 18C legal to-do and ended in tears.

Rooms full of empty computers, huh? Here’s Alex Wood testifying before the free speech inquiry, February 10, 2017:

There were two buildings that had been recently built at the university. One of them was full of computers and we exhausted all options there, so we thought we would go to the other building and search for another computer lab. We walked straight in. There was a computer lab that looked like any other.

An empty computer lab at a university campus? You’d have an easier time finding Atlantis, Dennis. The free speech inquiry continued:

We sat down and about five minutes later a lady came towards us and asked us if we were indigenous. We said, ‘No, we are not’, and she quite brusquely asked us to leave, because they were reserved for indigenous students, and that we had to go. We promptly left ...

It’s not like Alex stood there and screamed. He left, he found another room. But let’s crucify him for a Facebook post. The free speech inquiry, continued:

I found another computer where I posted on a Facebook page to a couple of thousand other QUT students. I said: “Just got kicked out of the unsigned indigenous computer room. QUT stopping segregation with segregation.”

Nah, let’s just leave it. Atkins in The Courier-Mail, yesterday:

Now a parliamentary committee has said the Act is not ideal ... Scrap 18C, toughen the test for offence or leave it as it is, says the committee. If the government has any sense, they’ll go with the third of those options. This does not rate on the top 100 issues of concern for the overwhelming majority of people ... This mad echo chamber shouting match inside the lunar right is not about any genuine free speech argument. It’s just another branch of the culture wars.

How has leaving 18C as it is worked for Alex? The free speech inquiry, continued:

I come to you today as a young bloke who has gone through an incredibly tough time, and I offer a unique perspective on how a small and inno­cuous statement can lead to drastically changed lives, hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal bills and years of court and legal proceedings.

Sure, most people want the government focused on jobs. The Courier-Mail, continued:

Give it away, people, and get back to creating jobs.

But this silly, unjust law has hurt Alex Wood’s chances of getting any job. We need to fix 18C. The free speech inquiry, continued:

At that point in my life, it all sort of hit me at once. I was afraid. I felt that uni had been for nothing. I had studied quite hard and had a GPA of 6.3, and I thought that was going to go down the drain. I thought I was going to lose my job and potentially not be able to get a job after uni. I thought my friends would shun me if they thought I was a racist. I honestly believe 18C was extremely close to ruining my life and still has the potential to do so.