I am disappointed that the Federal Court has rejected my appeal relating to the claim against me by the Greens’ Senator Faruqi.
My legal team and I will now closely review the decision in the coming days, with a view to commencing an appeal in the High Court of Australia.
Public discussion in Australia has become almost totally silenced by laws and rules which prevent ordinary people expressing their personal views in case some small part of our society takes some sort of offence or feels hurt or “distressed”. This has never been, nor ever should be, the Australian way.
We all need to have the courage – and the freedom – to say what we think on issues that are important to us all. Some of those views may not be what certain people would like to hear, but that doesn’t mean that they are not valid views, and it certainly doesn’t mean that people should be prevented from having a voice on topics which are critical to our country’s future.
I was incensed by the incredible disrespect that I felt was shown to our late Queen on the day of her death by Senator Fahruqi and others. I simply wanted to call that out.
For me, respect for our institutions of Government; for our collective moral compass; and for the principles – including respect for our Head of State – which together have shaped this wonderful nation, are vital attributes which all Australians should embrace.
If people in Australia are scared or forbidden to freely express themselves, then those values are eroded. I am here to fight for all Australians to ensure that such a dark day never comes.
I sincerely thank all those who continue to support me in this legal process.
For everyone asking questions on why AusAlert was sent as an Operating System level message broadcast and not an SMS.
Text messages travel individually, so sending 80 million text messages would clog the network and delay / drop messages - that’s UNICAST
Then there’s group messages - that’s MULTICAST. Still heavy on the network as multiple messages are sent and delivery notifications returned.
Finally, there is BROADCAST. A single message, where everyone receives. The network filters nothing. It has the same network weight as a single text message.
The reason it doesn’t come in as an SMS is because it’s one-way traffic. 80 million “delivery” notifications would also clog /choke the network.
The US has had Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) since the 2000’s.
Australia is one of the last adopters.
SpaceX is preparing to attempt its first-ever catch of the Starship upper stage on Flight 14. The catch will only happen if post-flight data review from previous missions comes back favorable. Catching Ship at the launch tower is a far bigger challenge than a splashdown, since the vehicle has to survive the full return profile and land precisely back at the pad.
A Ship catch also requires an orbital-class trajectory rather than a suborbital hop. That means Flight 14 would double as Starship’s first true orbital launch, combining two major milestones into a single mission.
SpaceX has already proven tower catches with the Super Heavy booster, and extending that capability to the upper stage would mark a major step toward full reusability. It shows how quickly the company is moving from testing survivability to testing precision recovery.