When you take your children or grandchildren to a museum you show them 'things' that were in the past, e.g. dinosaurs, 'classic' cars etc
So, when you enter the old parliament house you can reminisce what 'democracy' looked like in Australia, 'cause that ain't today's reality!
See article from 9 Dec 2019 by sbs of the headline:
Australia is now in line with the United States, Ghana and Botswana in terms of civil freedoms.
By Velvet Winter
An annual report on the civil rights of countries worldwide has downgraded Australia’s democracy from “open” to “narrowed”.
In the 2019 report, Australia’s democratic ‘status’ dropped. This was due to recent police raids on media outlets, the growing trend of prosecuting whistleblowers like Witness K - and the increasing crackdown on peaceful protest.
The CIVICUS Monitor combines several different
sources of data looking at things like the freedoms of association,
peaceful assembly and ‘expression’.
Countries are then given a ranking ranging from closed, repressed, obstructed, narrowed or open.
See the monitor at: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/australia-s-democracy-has-been-downgraded-from-open-to-narrowed?fbclid=IwAR2zIS0i5pP334LlcpMDviJu7wPnbh9FHFqNTQ17JhJEWctLDzwRUXJZ2Kw
“All of these restrictive policies add up. We need to draw a
line in the sand and say ‘enough’,” said the Centre’s Campaigns Director
Tom Clarke.
We need to create an Australian Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms to help level the playing field.
The 2019 report took particular aim at legislation passed by Australian parliament this year that
allows law enforcement authorities to force tech companies to hand over
user information - even if it is protected by end-to-end encryption.
The
report’s assessment of the Australian civic space is echoed in public
opinion, with just 59 percent of Australian’s saying they are satisfied
with how democracy is working.
Australia is one of three countries that were
downgraded in the Asia Pacific region in 2019, with India and Brunei
going from obstructed to repressed.
In wider regions, Malta joined Australia in declining from an ‘open’ civic space to a ‘narrowed’ civic space.
The
report also found that the percentage of the world’s population living
in a ‘repressed’ democracy doubled in the last 12 months, to 40 per
cent.
Countries categorised as ‘open’ decreased in the past year from 4 per cent in 2018 to 3 per cent in 2019.
As
part of the research CIVICUS published a ‘watch list’ - countries where
citizen’s rights are being actively infringed upon. Making the
selection for 2019 were Colombia, Egypt, Guinea and Kazakhstan.
China
was highlighted for the ongoing conflict in Hong Kong over the proposed
extradition bill, and the continued mistreatment of protestors and
journalists.
There were several brighter
spots in this year’s report. Dominican Republic and Moldova were both
updated in terms of civic freedom from ‘obstructed’ to ‘narrowed’.
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