I bet that you like me when we were about 9 or 10 took an interest in politics.

It’s not a bad thing for kids when they were about 7, 8, 9, 10 to get a if their parents are up for it, some parents aren’t, that’s fine. There should be things that people can do without the government monitoring us. [End video]

Well, we are just a few weeks away from the introduction of the Labour Party’s under 16’s social media ban, where any user under the age of 16 is supposed to be removed from a whole host of different social media platforms, including the most popular ones that are used by young people all over the world. I’ve said for many months now that if they actually follow through and implement this, and it’s certainly very clear that that’s what they plan to do, then it is going to lead to a bunch of lawsuits. I’ve had video after video detailing what I think is going to happen and why. But someone has come out of the gate a little bit quicker than what even I expected. And that someone joins me now on the Topher project. It is Libertarian MP John Ruddick. Uh John, thank you so much for joining me once again on the Topher project.

[From video] Good to see you, Topher. [End video]

Now John, you’ve gotten together with some some like-minded people and you’ve formed a thing called the Digital Freedom Project. Now, this is a relatively new project as I understand it. I believe you’re now the spearhead of that project. Let’s can we start there? Can you tell me a little bit about what is the digital freedom project? Why have you formed and why is the digital freedom project specifically the ones that are now bringing this lawsuit against the e safety office?

[From video]

People, your viewers will be different, but barely anybody in Australia is aware about this this freight train is about to hit them. Pretty much every Australian, you know, there’ll be some exceptions, but pretty much every Australian has got some form of social media. and on the 10th of December, they’re going to find out, well, you can’t access social media, including my 84 year old mother who occasionally likes to watch, you know, her grandkids on uh Facebook or, you know, her crazy son on, you know, giving a speech on YouTube or something. So, she’s got to prove that she’s not 16. And this is this. So, there’s two really bad aspects to this law. [End video]

I’m sorry to interrupt this interview with John Ruddick MP. We’ll get back to him very, very shortly. But first, my name’s Topher Field. This is the Topher project and this is what I do. I bring you interviews and stories that you won’t probably hear in very many other places. And I help people like you, busy people, not only to know what’s going on, but to cut through the crap and the noise and the nonsense and really understand what’s going on. And this is a particularly important lawsuit and a particularly important story. Because, as I’ve said before, the battle for freedom was going long before I was born, and it will keep going long after I’m dead. All we get to do is decide what we do when it’s our turn. And if you’re breathing, well, it’s your turn right now. Now and I’m very grateful to John Ruddick and the team that are putting together this lawsuit, this appeal to the High Court of Australia, and I’ll be watching it and following it very, very closely.

If you appreciate what I’m doing here at the Topher project and you like my videos and my interviews, then you’re going to love my books. They’re about government power, civil disobedience, and the role that civil disobedience plays in limiting the power of government even in the modern age. There’s my first bestselling book, Good People Break Bad Laws. Then, for those of you that are Christians, there’s my second bestselling book, Good Christians Break Bad Laws. This is the biblical theology of civil disobedience and why I believe that Christians should be among the very first people to stand up against government when government exceeds its god-given powers. Then there’s my DVD documentary Battleground Melbourne. This is my multi-award-winning documentary about the madness that went down during Covid in Victoria. As I say, this is not my story. I didn’t write this story. This story was written by the incredible people of Victoria who stood up against Daniel Andrews.

I just had the privilege of directing and telling this story and it’s won many awards. It’s a fantastic documentary if I do say so myself. You can get a copy of it uh via DVD at my store or you can actually go to battlegroundm.com and you can watch it completely for free. I made the promise to the people of Victoria that I would make it available for free online for as long as I possibly could. So, you’ll still find it there at battlegroundmelbourne.com. But if you want the the DVD, then you’ll get that from goodpeoplebreakbadlaws.com. Also, you’ll find my t-shirts and my hoodies. There’s a range of designs and five designs are being discontinued soon. So head over to goodpeoplebreakadlaws.com. Grab whatever you like because at the end of November there’s a bunch of designs disappearing. And all of that is going to help me to keep doing what I do here at the Topher project and bringing you stories like this one. One more thing quickly. If you’ve already got my books and my merch and you’d like to give me some support, then you can do that by buying me a coffee via the buy to a coffee button that you’ll find at topherfield.net. Now, without further ado, let’s get back to this interview with John Ruddick MP.

[From video]

The fact that we’ve all got to show to the government that we’re uh that we’re all over the age of 16 got to upload your digital ID and other things and they know and then it’s going to be very difficult for anonymous accounts. The other thing to which I feel very strongly about is that I bet that you like me when we were about 9 or 10 took an interest in politics. It was unusual in the playground at the time but some of us are just born with a political DNA in us, right? and we just take it. Now, as you get older, as when you get to about 60, most people are interested in politics, right? But some of us at a young age are interested in politics. Okay? Now, now when I was when I was about 10, my mother bought the um World Book Encyclopedia. I used to just sit there and read all the stuff about politics, right? What would I do now?

I’d go on to YouTube. It’s going to be banned. So and and you know what’s going to happen, Topher that the government is saying right uh that you’re going to have no if you’re 15 16 you know 11 10 12 sorry 12 13 14 15 16 no social media then they drop you into the then they drop you into the deep end. It’s not a bad thing for kids when they’re about 7, 8, 9, 10 to get a if their parents are up for it. Some parents aren’t. That’s fine. Parents know best. uh that they can sort of maneuver their way around social media and get a bit of a radar for fake accounts and baddies. Okay. They can work it out themselves. If they just dropped into the deep end at 16, we’re going to have more problems. [End video]

Yeah. And that of course assumes that this ban actually works as it is intended to work and that is that under 16s are not able to be on social media. We know of course in reality under 16s are simply going to find unregulated corners of the internet which will turn into honeypots for predators. And unfortunately, yet again, we’re going to see that government has made something much much worse than what it otherwise would have been.

Before we get to the lawsuit specifically, I want to come back to the the digital freedom project. There’s there’s quite an interesting group of people that have come together and a group of people, you know, freedom of speech and the defense of freedom of speech used to be something that was universally held to across the entire political spectrum that looked like it had fractured. That unity on that particular topic looked like it had fractured. But in some senses, in my opinion, this digital freedom project that you’re spearheading looks like it’s actually reformed a pretty broad spectrum of support. Tell us a little bit more about who’s behind the project, who you’ve got coming with you, and also their particular reasons why.

[From video]

Okay. Well, look, you know, often in parliament, I refer to the Libertarian Party as the anti- Greens. Now, 95% of the time they’re wrong. Maybe 98% of the time. I tell you where they are good. They are good on civil liberties. Okay. Yeah. and and and so look, I mean, I don’t think David Schubert has officially joined us. He’s the Green Senator, but he describes himself as a left libertarian. And it was the Greens who voted against this in the federal parliament. Who voted for it? Labor and Liberal. Okay. So, so we we I believe we’re going to have a very broad spectrum of uh of supporters. People are signing up. And I’m, you know, I’m hoping some of the tech platforms can swing in behind what we’re doing. I tell you why this is such an important thing, Topher is because they’re doing this all around the world. You did you see the thing in Nepal? Did you see the thing in what what they did in Nepal? [End video]

Yes, I did. I chose not to post about it because I’ve already been in trouble with the law regarding incitement and I post a lot of things critical of government. Uh but yes, ultimately the Nepalese people ultimately burnt down their parliament house and ran a lot of their politicians out of the country.

[From video]

Well, and that’s in Nepal. Now they’re doing this in in Europe, you know, Western Europe, Eastern Europe. They tried it in the United States. Joe Biden tried it. First Amendment. Thank you very much. Founding fathers of America. Supreme Court said no, Mr. President Biden. Not allowed. Uh now, unfortunately, we don’t have that same protection here in Australia. But if Australia is really at the tippy tippy point of this, okay? So, if we can have a big victory here, hopefully the these East German style surveillance people will get the message that we don’t want this. There should be things that people can do without the government monitoring us and that’s these people in the government they crave to know everything and this is a big part of it and we got to win this one. [End video]

There’s this totalitarian in instinct that seems to have really emerged it’s always been there but it seems to have really come back to the four particularly as a result of and and since Covid I want to come to the lawsuit specifically there’s a lot of for good reason a lot of Australians don’t really know the intricacies of how our legal system works we know most people would know that The high court is our highest court, but realistically, what’s possible? What’s the crux of this lawsuit? What’s the basis upon which you’re going into court? And just to set expectations for for people out there who are watching this, what’s the timeline here? What what could we possibly expect to happen?

[From video]

Okay. So, I expect that by about Tuesday this week, we will have officially lodged with the High Court of Australia saying we want to challenge this on say it’s contrary to the Constitution. Now, the law comes into effect on the 10th of December. The high court is not going to hear this case before then. Uh now the high court the high court hopefully will before then publicly say that they will accept that they agree to accept to hear this case. Now, are they going to do that? Well, we’re 90% sure. I mean it’s not some some people they lose in court and they go to the high court about about some mundane thing mundane for the public, not for them. and the high court says, “No, we’re not interested.” That probably happens most of the time. But I think on a constitutional matter, a big important bill, I think they’re going to say, “Yes, we will rule on this.” Now, when are they going to do that? Well, I would imagine that it’s going to be February, March next year, fairly early in the new year cuz they’re going to say, “This is important. We need to clarify this situation.” So while the Australian constitution does not give us like the Americans enjoy the right to free speech um but what hap what happened about 30 years ago, Topher is uh that the the high court of Australia uh came to this view which has been consistently held up ever since that there is an implied right to the freedom of political communication in this country. You and I being good conservatives to would probably say we don’t like this creative license with our with our justices but on this occasion we love it. Okay. So we we’d prefer to have a US style bill of rights but since we don’t have that if they found that there is an implied freedom of political communication that’s good. Now, this is clearly a breach of that. It’s the state saying that you can’t learn about politics on YouTube or other things. Twitter okay and other things. So now there’s seven justices in the high court. We need four to agree.

Um uh so, you well I’m hoping, Topher that by the time the the ban comes into effect by the 10th of December over the Christmas period there’s going to be a lot of very very cranky Australian saying what’s this? What’s this? I don’t want a digital ID. Why is my anonymous account being shut down? And so hopefully the justices of the high court when they’re at Christmas with their grandpa their grandkids and their and their kids and they’ll see how angry people are about it. Okay. So then by the time we get to February, March and look, I got to say I’m usually very critical like you of the mainstream media. The mainstream media is not cheering this on. Okay. And yes, so they could become allies here too. Uh so, I think it’ll be like it’ll probably a hearing. It’ll probably take two or three days. Now then after they’ve done the hearings and the justices have asked their questions and stuff, they then go away for about a month and they write up their judgment. And sometimes they have it. Sometimes if there’s seven judges, if four of them agree uh that it’s bad, then they might write a joint sub they might write a joint judgment or they might write their own little ones. Uh we’re hoping it’s going to be a 7-0 victory. Okay. But um then we’ll get this thrown out. Get this thrown out and that we can turn the tide on the surveillance state. [End video]

Yeah. Well, this is just one of a of a number of scenarios that are happening here. I do want to make one little correction of what you said there. You referred to me as a good conservative. I’m these days a very bad conservative. Thank you very much. I’m much more of a libertarian than I am a conservative. But I do have conservative roots and those instincts still do exist. Uh but you’re quite right. I’m not a fan of this adventurism with our constitution, although I do happen to agree with it in this case. So what you described is correct. I’m mindful of the American factor. Now, we we know that Google are pretty unhappy about YouTube being included. They did previously threaten that they were going to sue and I think there is reason to believe that they will follow through with that, but that’s likely to be particularly narrow. They’re likely to write that so that it applies to themselves and their own self-interest and doesn’t necessarily help anyone other than themselves. But there is also the Trump effect and we saw this in particular when when the UK government tried to secretly stop Apple from being able to use encryption services for UK people where the the US state department and ultimately the US president, the vice president JD Vance, uh the the Tulsi Gabbard and a bunch of others got personally involved in this and pressured the UK government into relinquishing that requirement and allowing Apple to offer its encryption services as normal inside the UK. Do you see a scenario where we might end up with the US government actually feeling the need or feeling that it can validly get involved in this?

[From video]

Now, what you said about YouTube is very interesting. Yes. So sorry uh Google which owns YouTube. Uh and obviously powerful obviously big big corporation and now what had originally happened to when they debated this in the parliament the government put out a list of websites that would be included and YouTube wasn’t included. So the law passes and then our dear friend Julia Inman Grant said, “Oh no, no, no. YouTube is now included.” Okay. So that’s what’s motivating Google. Okay. Now, but your point is entirely correct. They’re only concerned about their own narrow self-interests. Okay. Whereas we’re out there defending them all. Okay. Now, um, now what was the second? There was a Oh, yeah. Trump. Trump. Yes. Yeah. Now, him and JD Vance have repeatedly said, and they mainly had Western Europe in mind and England in mind, the UK in mind, uh, that, you know, say, you know, if you want to be an ally of the United States, you got to hold up robust free speech. You know, you know, 16,000 people have had some type of police interaction in the UK in the last few years because of social media post. Can you believe it? England, the land of liberty, the land that gave us liberty all around the world. Uh, and so that’s what they were directed at, but I will have to say they were talking that good talk very early on in the administration. I haven’t heard too much about them saying it lately. I think these European leaders, these European leaders and elbow and the South Korean leaders and these Japanese leaders, you know what they’ve worked out? If you flatter Trump, you get what you want out of Trump. That’s what they’ve worked out. This is why, you know, the British the British putting on a state visit for a foreign a head of state is a very very rare thing. I can’t remember the last time an Australian prime minister had a big big big state. You get to meet the king and the queen and blah blah blah. Uh but Trump’s had two Trump’s had two state visit because they’ve worked out oh well we can get what we want out of Trump. So I am worried about Trump uh that he might have gone soft on this issue which would be disappointing. [End video]

Well that is interesting. I have a slightly different view but obviously only history is going to really show us what’s going to happen. None of us can really predict it. But they did follow through and this was a relatively recent thing and being obviously foreign politics there’s no reason you’d necessarily be across this but it was only in the last few months uh last two months I believe that we saw the UK back down on this issue with encryption and Apple and it was very much attributed to particularly JD Vance and Tulsi Gabbard as the main uh store who really held their ground and and forced that to happen. So it will be very interesting to watch whether or not the US giants are going to get involved in lawsuits. Of course, Julian Inman Grant has written these regulations such that they can be interpreted a lot of different ways. The tech giants simply have to take reasonable steps and that of course is a phrase that is very open to interpretation and anything open to interpretation is therefore prone to lawsuits. But John, thank you so much for being the first cab off the ranks. Thank you so much for spearheading this digital freedom alliance. And uh look, I really look forward to seeing what happens with this particular lawsuit. I do hope that the high court hear it quickly and I hope that your optimism around a 70 win does prove to be what happens. But in the meantime, we’ll have to wait and see. Thank you so much for coming on the Topher project.

[From video]

Well, Topher, I’m happy to keep talking to you about this issue until we get the judgment. So, I really appreciate your interest. [End video]

I’ll definitely have you back on. Thank you. That was John Ruddick MP telling us about the high court lawsuit that he will be bringing in in conjunction with some other supporters against the under 16’s social media ban that the e- safety office under Julie Inman Grant is ramming down our throats on the 10th of December. I am personally a little more excited about this than I probably should be. It is going to be probably a multi-month drawn out battle and of course victory is uncertain. There might be many rounds in this particular story yet to go. You can rest assured that I will keep you up to date and follow this story as it progresses.

My name’s Topher Field. This is the Topher Project and this is what I do. I help busy people like you to keep up with the world as it changes around us. If you like my videos, you’re going to love my books. And of course, don’t forget my DVD and the multiple different designs of merch that you will find in both t-shirts and also in hoodies that are all available at goodpeoplebreakbadlaws.com. Some of them are about to be discontinued to be replaced with new designs. So, make sure if you see something you like that you grab it before the end of November.

And as always, think free.