Trivia for you - did you know, in Australia we actually don't have free speech.

Apparently it's not enshrined in law like it is in the "land of the free", America. Here it's kind of implied that we are free to express our views on things, but you have no strong legal backing if somebody takes you to court over it.

Dissidents beware. Employees beware. Political journalists beware. A few days ago the Howard Government ordered MelbourneIT (that paragon of all that is good and pure in the tech world) to take down a site parodying John Howard's site.

To be fair, the site was cutting a bit close to the bone for real parody (using imagery, site layout, copyright notices etc that are probably rightfully owned by the Government). Then there's the fact that someone who didn't know John Howard from a bar of soap may believe he really wrote the press release that has triggered the site take-down. It's so cunningly written that you could well believe Howard himself wrote it, if he knew how to admit mistakes or say sorry.

The funny thing is that if Little Johnnie had actually penned the text it would probably have gone a long way towards having the bulk of the populace think better of him, and maybe even vote for him for a reason other than the utter lack of decent alternatives.

References: Slashdot posting of story Link to PDF of “supposed” John Howard speech from shut down site