In a
direct attack on democratic rights and freedom of speech, the
newly-installed Liberal-National Coalition government of Prime
Minister Scott Morrison has declared its intent to deny courageous US
military whistleblower Chelsea Manning a visa to address what are
expected to be large audiences in major Australian cities.
Just
days before Manning was due to speak in Sydney, Melbourne and
Brisbane, and then in Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand, the
Australian government issued her with a “Notice on Intention” to
deny her an entry visa. This was done on the spurious grounds that
she fails the Migration Act’s “character test” because of a
“substantial criminal record.” Similar moves are underway to ban
her from New Zealand.
The
Socialist Equality Party (SEP) condemns the planned political
censorship and demands its immediate reversal. Manning is not a
“criminal.” Her heroic act in leaking more than 750,000
classified US military and diplomatic documents, which were then
published by WikiLeaks in 2010, exposed the real criminals, who still
sit in power in Washington and Canberra.
Manning
is being denied her fundamental democratic right to speak publicly
about her actions. The people of Australia and New Zealand are being
denied their basic democratic right to hear her speak and discuss the
political implications of her revelations.
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