In its High Court defence of Australia's new prohibited hate group laws, the Commonwealth has relied on historical material involving Soviet representative Boris Ivanov in support of its argument about racial discrimination and political speech.
Ivanov was no ordinary international diplomat. He was a Soviet intelligence officer who served in the NKVD, Stalin's secret police and predecessor to the KGB, and later became a senior Soviet intelligence operative.
Declassified FBI material identifies Colonel Boris Ivanov in connection with Soviet intelligence activity, while intelligence histories record his service as an NKVD officer and later Soviet intelligence resident in New York.
There is an extraordinary irony here.
The Australian Government is defending unprecedented powers over political organisations and political expression while invoking historical arguments associated with an operative of one of the most notorious authoritarian security apparatuses of the twentieth century.
Whatever your politics, Australians should be deeply uncomfortable with governments acquiring greater powers to determine which political organisations and ideas are permitted.
Free societies don't need political police. They need free political debate.
On August 30, Australians nationwide will march to defend freedom of speech and demand stronger protections for political expression.
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