First amendment equivalent in Australia?

[Amelia]

Does Australia have an equivalent of the United States' first amendment?

What about other countries whose citizens post on this board? How widespread is this right?

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances

 

[ThirdTerm]

Australia does not have explicit freedom of speech in any constitutional or statutory declaration of rights and the implied freedom of political communication is limited.

Some of us may presume that because we live in a liberal democracy like Australia, certain personal freedoms are a given – like free speech – and that any imposition on a person’s speech would be viewed as an attempt to curtail the freedom. Additionally, we’re going to presume (for the sake of the topic of this piece) that many Australians would be familiar with the US Constitution and specifically the First Amendment which states; “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…”, and we’re going to also guess (again for efficacy) that some people may believe that we here in Australia also enjoy a similar type of Constitutional protection: But do we? Well… it must be said that Australia’s free speech laws are interesting to say the least. First, let’s get the easy part out of the way: Australia does not have an explicit First Amendment equivalent enshrining the protection of freedom of speech in our Constitution.
Do we have the right to freedom of speech in Australia?

 

[Noomi]

The Australian

Andrew Bolt is a right wing Nazi - but he was taken to court and found guilty of racial vilification when he wrote an opinion article, stating it was his belief that a group of white skinned Aboriginal people applied for government benefits even though they were not dark skinned.

Freedom of speech? Maybe, maybe not.

Freedom of speech is one thing, but you guys take it way too far - you allow the wingnuts at the Westboro Baptist Church to picket funerals, for Gods sake.