Do you have any thoughts on the question of Freedom of Expression or Free Speech?

The reality is, that in Australia we do have Freedom of Expression. We do have some hate speech laws, and so you can’t incite violence or things like that, and occasionally people overstep the mark, but by and large we have the right to freely express ourselves.

What does that mean in practise?

I think we have to exercise that right and we also have to combat the approach where someone takes offence to something, or an artist expresses ideas that someone disagrees with, and that person coheres a group of people to shut down a piece of art, or writing,  or a journal in our case.

That approach is having a chilling effect, forcing artists to censor their own work so that they aren’t the next one who gets cancelled or shut down.

That happened to me in 2020 with the previous version of this magazine, Verity La. I was very much the person, the sacrificial lamb, who was used as the example of what happens if you go against the grain and people go after you.

And you are fighting against that approach?

The point is that we need to ensure that we start with Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Speech in order to open the pathway for people to produce interesting art.

We really need people to be able to express themselves freely so that art can be used to interrogate, and investigate, society.

As we say on our website, our vision is, “to live out the value of freedom of expression”.