Be warned: This appalling new bill will spell the end of freedom in Victoria.

We live in an age of euphemisms. We cover up our real intentions with pleasant-sounding words and vacuous phraseology. This has become an artform among politicians of course. They whisper in our ears sweet little nothings while they carry the sledge hammer behind their backs. And it gets worse all the time.

As George Orwell once put it, “In our time political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible. Things like the continuation of British rule in India, the Russian purges and deportations, the dropping of the atom bombs on Japan, can indeed be defended, but only by arguments which are too brutal for most people to face … Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness.”

Of course as a conservative I happen to think that a case might be made for the first and third examples he raises, but that is not the point here, so I will let that go through to the keeper. Orwell is certainly correct to highlight the use of euphemisms in political language and warn us about the many dangers thereof.

And this is certainly true of some political parties and their chosen names. Some are forthright and upfront about what they believe. What you see is what you get with groups like the Christian Democratic party for example. Their very name informs us of who they are and what they believe in.

But the names of other political parties can be woefully and entirely misleading. The Greens for example have almost nothing to do with genuine care for the environment, and almost everything to do with radical agenda items straight out of the cultural Marxism playbook.

And then we have the Reason Party. As if! This is one of the most unreasonable and bizarre groups around. Indeed, they first began as the Sex Party. Imagine having a political party all about pushing the agenda of the slimy porn industry!

So it has already changed its name once, but it needs to do so once again. They need to be far more honest about their actual aims and intentions. So they really should call themselves the Anti-Christian Anti-Democratic Party. For that is exactly what they are all about.

It seems that everything Christianity supports they are against. If Christians are pro-life, pro-marriage, pro-family and pro-faith, then Fiona Patten and her cronies are dead set against all that. But what do we expect from someone who was once a prostitute and a lobbyist for sex workers, as well as a co-founder of the Eros Association?

She even set up the first National Museum of Erotica! Good grief. Now she is a Victorian politician, pushing one anti-Christian agenda item after another. Just what have they put in the drinking water down there to cause Victorian voters to run with someone like this!

And she is still at it, with her latest act of radical social engineering a real shocker: she is introducing new legislation to even further expand special rights for homosexuals, transgenders and others. The homosexual press was certainly happy to hear about this. As one such outlet covered this story:

Reason party leader and Member for Northern Metropolitan, Fiona Patten, has introduced new legislation to extend Victoria’s anti-vilification laws to cover hate speech based on gender, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics. Currently, Victoria only protects people from vilification on the grounds of race and religion but not other categories. Patten said she was motivated to put the reform forward because of the rise of online trolling on social media – particularly of women in public roles. www.starobserver.com.au/news/national-news/victoria-news/reasons-fiona-patten-introduces-lgbtqi-vilification-bill-in-victoria/186027

Yeah right – this is about one thing and one thing only: the trolling of conservatives and Christians and others who dare to offer a countering point of view to the never-ending activism and tyranny of the alphabet militants. It is all about silencing any opposing points of view.

But this has always been how the other side operates. They do not want debate on the hot potato issues of the day – they simply want to shut down all debate. This is their long-standing MO, and they have perfected the art of using euphemisms and politicised speech to disguise their real agendas.

Indeed, whenever you hear terms like “anti-discrimination” or “equal opportunity” or “vilification” or “hate speech” you know you are up to your ears in “the defense of the indefensible” as Orwell put it. This is how the other side gets away with murder – or to use biblical parlance, this is how they cover a multitude of sins.

In this case it is all about an attack on free speech, freedom of religion, freedom of conscience, and the right of ordinary people to be able to share their thoughts on contentious issues without fear of being fired from their jobs, heavily fined, or even jailed.

And that is happening all over Australia. You may not know that, since many of the cases are hush-hush – at least for the time being. They are still being dragged through courts and tribunals. How do I know? Because many of the victims have contacted me privately to inform me of their fate.

And a nefarious bill like this will simply compound problems massively. It really would be the death knell of free speech in Victoria. A piece in the Australian a few days ago certainly nailed it:

Anti-discrimination laws proposed by Victorian upper house MP Fiona Patten have been ­described as “section 18C of the ­Racial Discrimination Act on ­steroids” that will turn the state into a “circus for culture wars”, ­free speech advocates say….

Free speech advocates including the Institute of Public Affairs and Liberal Democrats MP David Limbrick warn of unintended consequences in the legislation, likening it to section 18C of the federal Racial Discrimination Act, which outlaws actions that “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate” a person on the basis of their race.

“Just like section 18C, the proposed anti-vilification laws are vaguely worded and contain no objective standard,” said IPA research fellow Morgan Begg. “Each judge will have their own view on what is ‘likely to incite ­hatred’ or ‘severe ridicule’. This bill not only infringes on the freedom of speech of everyday Victorians … but the media, too.” www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/new-victorian-antidiscrimination-law-section-18c-on-steroids/news-story/e5d2b72877102ce19f36eed6c7491e88

And Dan Flynn, head of the Victorian Australian Christian Lobby, put it this way:

Under the guise of protecting women and transgender persons from trolling, her proposed legislation targets those feminists who oppose the broadening of the definition of woman, from a biological woman to anyone who identifies as a woman. It also targets those whose religious convictions adhere to the scientific fact that there are two sexes – male and female – rather than an infinite spectrum of genders. www.acl.org.au/mr_df_gender#splash-signup

The war on faith, freedom and family continues to ratchet up in the People’s Republik of Victoria. The Victorian Labor Government under hyper-leftist social engineer Dan Andrews certainly has the numbers to pass a bill such as this.

If it does, we can all kiss freedom goodbye, and say hello to the rainbow gulag. Welcome to the ugly new world of Big Brother that Orwell tried to warn us about. And bear in mind that his prescient novel Nineteen Eighty-Four was meant to serve as an alarm bell, not as a guide book.