4th of July – NO Hate Rally in Byron

Having been born in USA, it has been somewhat upsetting to me (and other Americans) that Byron Bay usually holds a hate rally against America each 4th of July – even the Mayor Jan Barham has been involved.

It’s good to see they’ve moved their rally to a different town.

America’s independence resulted in, among other things, freedom of speech… which isn’t actually a ‘right’ in Australia, but that hasn’t stopped the America haters from rallying against USA.

In Australia there is no explicit legal protection of freedom of speech. The most commonly understood notion of freedom of speech derives from the United States where the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights reads, ‘Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…’ Some argue that freedom of speech in Australia exists to the extent that there is no law restricting it. However in the absence of a positive right to freedom of speech there is little protection against censorship on the part of government or other interests.

Source: www.comslaw.org.au

At least they didn’t do it in Byron Bay this year.