Selective Free Speech on Display at the Broncos

I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it. - Voltaire

In the Middle Ages they would have burned him.  In the 1930’s they would be content with burning his books. Today they are content withdrawing their venues preventing him from speaking.

What wonderful progress we are making.

This is in fact what happened yesterday to Christopher Monckton. You see, the Brisbane Bronco’s Leagues Club decided yesterday to withdraw their venue from his nationwide speaking tour. The General Manager, Geoff Kuehner, told me he had “never received more complaints in his 15 years as GM from club members” about Christopher Monckton.

Maybe, and maybe it was just another vocal group of others who are doing their darnedest to silence Monckton? I guess I’ll never know.

Since this news broke, I have had numerous Broncos’ club members call and tell me that they are extremely disappointed that the club withdrew the venue.

There are no winners from this and certainly the Australian spirit of a fair go hasn’t been extended to Christopher Monckton. Yes he made an absolute jerk of himself with those comments about Prof. Garnaut, but he has unreservedly apologised and I fear the real victim is now free speech.

It also seems when the going gets tough, the Broncos Leagues club goes to water. If only they had the fortitude of the Brisbane Broncos NRL team who would never back off from an adversary.

Wayne Bennett instilled a culture of courage and integrity at the Broncos. Now they buckle to this.

 

Update 1:

Not surprisingly, the GetUp! link referred to in my post has mysteriously been removed.

But we made a screen copy just in case. Click on the image to enlarge and see for yourself.

Update 2:

I have been threaten with legal action by the Broncos Leagues Club General Manager, Geoff Kuehner. After a very heated telephone call on Friday afternoon, he accused me among other things, of lying about the reason the function venue was withdrawn.

So let me put the record straight.

I signed a function room hire contract with the Broncos Leagues Club on May 4, 2011. I disclosed who the speaker was and the nature of his presentation. The speaker and our money were gladly accepted by the club. We also paid for additional security as we held concerns the likes of GetUp! will do their darnedest to disrupt Christopher’s presentation. Again, the club gladly accepted this risk.

So around 11am on Thursday (30 June 2011), I received a telephone call from Mr. Kuehner. He informs me that the club had received about “50 telephone calls” from “club members” that Monckton should not be allowed to speak at their venue. These “Members” brought up the recent unfortunate comment Christopher Monckton made about Prof. Garnuat.

Mr. Kuehner said he would need to speak to the directors of the club board but it looked like the club would cancel our room hire contract. He said he would call me back later in the afternoon to let me know about their decision.

I pleaded with him not to cancel our function room contract as it was important that Christopher be allowed to freely speak and that the people who had prepaid to hear him speak were allowed to hear him.

As of yesterday afternoon, we had 157 people prepaid $25 via Ticketek to listen to Christopher’s presentation.

Around 2pm, Mr. Kuehner informs me that the Broncos Leagues club board has decided to cancel our room hire contract and the reason given was they (the Club) could not “risk” Christopher Monckton repeating such remarks again at their venue.

Notwithstanding the fact that Christopher Monckton has already provided an unreserved apology to Prof Garnaut, it seems the Broncos would rather not accept his apology, not be prepared to extend him a fair go and instead take the easy road out and just cancel our contract because of an imaginary fear that Christopher might call someone else a nasty name.

The Broncos’ didn’t just censor Christopher Monckton; they also censored at least 157 people who wanted to hear what he had to say.

As I have already said, there are no winners here and the biggest loser is free speech in Queensland. It’s a sad day.

Update 3:

More proof that GetUp! had a hand in this. Click to enlarge.

Special thanks to Anne and Jeanette for providing me with these screen shots.

Update 4:

Thanks to Tim Blair and Andrew Bolt for both picking up this story.

 

Andy Semple

Follow him on twitter @Bulmkt

 

We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still. - John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1859

We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values.  For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people. - John F. Kennedy

Comments

[Richard Ryan]

Bolt and Monckton have a lot in common, Bolt's comments on ABC Insiders a few weekends ago, that electing a Green to the NSW upper house was a mistake akin to the election of the Nazi's in Germany in 1933 was a slur on the Greens.

[observa]

Care to quote the exact words Bolt uttered on Insiders Richard or else link to the actual segment? Monckton has apologised for his stupidity but as far as I'm aware Bolt has no such apology forthcoming. Put up or withdraw and apologise if you can't.

[Mags118]

This really threw me when I first found out about this. A leagues club that is against free speech, I honestly hope a lot of their patrons find out about this and refrain from going there, or doing business with them. What is happening lately in this once wonderful Country of ours.

[The Beak]

" I may disagree with everything you say but I will fight to the death for your right to say it". There goes one of the foundation stones of our liberty. It has been replaced by "All rights for me but not for thee unless you agree with me"

Woe Western Civilization!!!!

[JimboK]

Well... let the decisionmakers know:

info@broncosleagues.com.au

info@broncos.com.au

Thre latter email address is the football club, The
Brisbane Broncos which has its home at the leagues club (latter email address).

Fairness and competition are rugby ideals and the competition of ideas is under assalt by an ignoble and craven decision from this Bronco Leagues Clu.

[John Angelico]

Andy, I tried to email to the public address of the broncos club last night (info@broncosleagues etc) at approx 20:00.

I was asking exactly how many complaints he had received, how he distinguished between member and non-member complaints, and how this event compared with the next biggest number of complaints he had received.

At 20:03 I received a notice from my ISP that my email had been rejected "user does not exist".

The club had obviously blocked the info address - the electronic version of covering their ears.

[Tim Andrews]

info@broncos.com.au (which is the team's email - the one we provided was the actual club's one) still seems to work so suggest you try that :)
Tim

[Steve]

Richard, the Greens are a bunch of hypocrites. http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/alp-rages-at-greens-nazi-joke/2007/04/01/1175366078761.html

[chris]

It was a League venue. What do you expect.
Get smart and book a Rugby club next time - I don't think that kind of discriminanation would be countenanced.

[Andy]

Also, the next time a Broncos player gets involved in anti social behaviour, which is sure to happen, will they use the same principles, we think you'll do it again mate, no second chances, no apologies accepted, on your bike.
I doubt it.

[John]

Wow, a campaign suggestion put up by random GetUp members, on a site designed to give te very principles to their members you're accusing them of stifling? That sure proves their involvement alright. And with 3 votes, it has such widespread support among their members clearly.

The Broncos league club seems to be offering member complaints as an excuse, rather than citing the real reason which is they can't take the legal risk that monckton will defame someone else while he's on their stage. Of course the venue manager accepted it initially, boards are always more cautious as it's their ass on the line.

[Ivan Watt]

When I heard on radio 2UE last Friday that the Broncos Leagues Club had cancelled the booking for Lord Monckton, the host Mike Smith spoke by phone to the Broncos GM who was pathetic in his rationale for the cancellation. He admitted that the club did not verify the identity of the callers allegedly phoning to voice their displeasure at the prospective appearance of Lord Monckton.

Mike Smith encouraged listeners to contact the Broncos, which I did by email. Unfortunately, when the email was returned by Bigpond with a message that the email could not be delivered. I tried again yesterday, with the same result. The Broncos Leagues Club had obviously turned off their email server, so that everyone who contacted them to complain was rejected.

What a bunch of gutless twerps. Hard to believe that this leagues club would expose themselves to ridicule by pulling such a reprehensible act in denying members and others the right to express an opinion. If I were a member of this club, I would be raising hell, and call for the sacking of General Manager, Geoff Kuehner.

Lord Monckton is the most extravagantly knowledgeable and entertaining expert on the global warming hoax I have yet heard, and I will be at North Sydney Leagues Club next Friday to hear him again.

[christian louboutin shoes]

The speaker and our money were gladly accepted by the club. We also paid for additional security as we held concerns the likes of GetUp! will do their darnedest to disrupt Christopher’s presentation. Again, the club gladly accepted this risk.

[burberry uk]

There are no winners from this and certainly the Australian spirit of a fair go hasn’t been extended to Christopher Monckton.

[pandora sale]

be prepared to extend him a fair go and instead take the easy road out and just cancel our contract because of an imaginary fear that Christopher might call someone else a nasty name

[Ian]

Lord Monckton probably meant to call Ross Garnuat a "fascist", which Ross Garnuat well and truly desrves the title of (see http://cecaust.com.au/main.asp?sub=releases&id=2011_06_29_garnaut2.html). Furthermore, the hypocrisy of Getup! is badly exposed given that Nazi collaborator and drug pusher, George Soros, was behind the establishment of GetUp! and its sister organisation in the USA, MoveOn.org (see http://cecaust.com.au/main.asp?sub=releases&id=2011_06_01_Soros_Carbon_Cate.html)

[Andy]

Whatever Lord Monckton called Ross Garnuat he dissevered! This creep is part of the lie to defraud Australians out of billions! And it also looks like the Drongo’s are doing there bit to stop free speech by bowing to pressure from a political action group like the communist Get Up! Mindless bloody sheep that they are…

[Doug on the Gold Cost]

This is the same Broncos NRL club that has a team captain who accused the Canterbury Bulldogs player of being a "team of rapists"! On another occassion, he said the Broncos player who got drunk and tackled the manager of a Brisbane nighclub wasn't him, until CCTV footage showed it was in fact him!! Better off not being involved with such a hypocritical organisation! Cheers, Doug.

[Christy]

Supeorir thinking demonstrated above. Thanks!

[Red Wing Black]

Don't know what is wrong what is rite but i know that every one has there own point of view and same goes to this one

[Ayoub]

it all and directly retaels to the consensus argument used by Lord Monckton opponent. Melanie PhillipsI am open-mouthed. The BBC Trust is recommending that its journalists ditch balance for propaganda.A report being published today has apparently decided that the BBC no longer needs to interview man-made global warming sceptics because there is a consensus on this issue that the theory is true.Its conclusions are said to be based in part on recommendations by the geneticist Professor Steve Jones. Astonishingly, he is said not only to have found no evidence of bias in the BBC's output on climate change, but suggests that on issues like this where he says there is a scientific consensus' also including the MMR vaccination and genetically modified crops there should be no need for the BBC to find opponents of the mainstream view.This is as terrifying as it is outrageous. First of all, the claim that there is a consensus on man-made global warming is itself false. The wickedly cynical propaganda strategy to promote this false belief in a consensus was described in an eye-opening blog post by James Delingpole in the Telegraph last year:The story begins in autumn 2004 when the government's hysterically warmist chief scientific adviser Sir David King successfully persuaded the then Prime Minister Tony Blair to put action on global warming at the heart of UK government policy. This resulted in the creation of a propaganda body called The Climate Change Working Group which in turn sought PR advice from a company called Futerra communications.Futerra Britain's answer to Fenton communications in the US recommended the following policy:Many of the existing approaches to climate change communications clearly seem unproductive. And it is not enough simply to produce yet more messages, based on rational argument and top-down persuasion, aimed at convincing people of the reality of climate change and urging them to act. Instead, we need to work in a more shrewd and contemporary way, using subtle techniques of engagement.To help address the chaotic nature of the climate change discourse in the UK today, interested agencies now need to treat the argument as having been won, at least for popular communications. This means simply behaving as if climate change exists and is real, and that individual actions are effective. The facts' need to be treated as being so taken-for-granted that they need not be spoken [emphasis added].

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