Tomorrow NSW politicians from the left and the right will combine to suppress the free speech of even Queenslanders.
My friend Bernard Gaynor continues to fight for free speech with the deck stacked against him.
A NSW Parliamentary inquiry into vexatious complaints against people like him will convene tomorrow. He and his solicitor are not even allowed to appear.
I’ve said before that if Bernie goes down, none of us are safe.
Please take the time to read the email below to his supporters which he’s given me permission to re-publish.
As you read, ask yourself this: how did Australia come to this?
Dear Lyle,
At 10:15 am tomorrow the New South Wales parliament will hold the first of two public hearings as part of its inquiry into Mark Latham’s bill to end vexatious complaints.
The second hearing will be on Thursday.
You can watch the hearings at this link.
I will be up front: I am greatly concerned that the inquiry has been high-jacked by leftists. Labor and the Greens hold three of the seven positions on this inquiry but it seems clear that at least one of the three Liberal or National members also supports them.
This inquiry will not question Garry Burns. It redacted large parts of my submission. It won’t even hear from my solicitor, Robert Balzola. And it is simply not interested in any of the details that led Mark Latham to begin the process to reform these outrageous laws.
Instead, the inquiry will mostly hear from pro-LGBT ‘human rights’ lawyers and LGBT groups. They are calling for the inquiry to reject Mark Latham’s bill.
Indeed, the New South Wales Anti-Discrimination Board (ADB) has argued that it must be able to accept, process, investigate and refer vexatious complaints to the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
The ADB claims that ‘human rights’ will be diminished if it does not have the discretion to accept vexatious complaints.
In other words, it’s using taxpayer funds to campaign for the ‘human right’ of malicious and vicious activists to lodge vexatious complaints simply so that they can bankrupt you.
This is disgraceful.
As a reminder, you can watch Mark Latham’s brilliant speech regarding the problems with the ADB here.
Unfortunately, it appears that none of the issues he raised will even be considered.
You can also see my full submission to the inquiry here. I have highlighted in yellow the sections that the inquiry did not want the public to see.
You can also read an open letter my solicitor sent the inquiry after it decided that he would not be called as a witness.
For the record, my solicitor is the only lawyer who has practised in this area of law in the courts to have lodged a submission. Yet he was not called, despite the inquiry’s claims that it was interested in expert legal evidence.
Obviously this is a sham.
I would like to thank the approximately 160 people who lodged submissions to this inquiry. I have read them all.
All but two submissions from the general public support Mark Latham’s bill. There are no surprises for guessing who lodged the two general submissions opposing it.
There were another 2,000 plus people who signed my petition to the inquiry as well.
It is clear that the public want action. The activist lobby groups, politicians and legal elite are clearly out of touch.
Please keep my family and me in your prayers over the coming days.
Apart from the inquiry, I am dealing with:
an appeal in the NCAT Appeal Panel;
three matters and associated motions in the NSWLC;
an application for special leave to the High Court of Australia; and
action in the NSW Supreme Court to force Garry Burns to pay his High Court costs.
Also, more than two months after the ADB dismissed Burns' complaints against Israel Folau, it is still sitting on his latest complaint against me.
There are times when I feel like this is an impossible task. If I had known what lay ahead when this battle first started in 2014 I think I would have taken a cowardly way out.
But God has provided so much and I can only be grateful when I consider the support that we have received from you. I am eternally grateful.
I can only trust that He will bring victory because I am realising more every day that I cannot. I just need to keep walking forward because He works His miracles through us.
Kind regards,
Bernard Gaynor
Christus Rex!