You've now got a copy of an email from the National Symbols Office to a media outlet [The Juice Media]
suggesting that they stop using a version of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms
which as you can see is heavily modified and in fact it even has on that Coat of Arms, "Not The Real Logo".
The head of the emu and the kangaroo are surveillance cameras
and the word "Australian" is spelled...
A-L-I-E-N
That's pretty clearly satire isn't it?
Brandis: Well it all depends Senator, if you look at it carefully um.. I'd agree with you
but of course, when it comes to um the kind of material with which this
bill is concerned, um, what one is um dealing with, are circumstances in which
um... it is unlikely that recipients of the material will look at it closely so...
Thank you, Attorney, as you'll see in this email
from the National Symbols Officer in the Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet
they've asked the relevant media authority to cease using this logo
to avoid that media company being mistaken [lol] for the Australian Government... um...
(Brandis interrupts): I mean if I... if I saw this in my letterbox and I didn't look carefully at it
um... I'd probably think that's the Coat of Arms but if I look carefully at it I'd realize it wasn't, so...
(Sen McKim): Clearly satire, as you said earlier
(Brandis): It's only clearly satire if you study it
(Senate Chair): Yes, and may I say... (Sen McKim): I'm not asking you, Chair...
(Chair) ...when looked at it, I thought it was the accurate thing until the Senator...
(Brandis): So it's tested by... a Court will decide in all the circumstances, whether a reasonable person
would be capable of being misled by it.
(Sen McKim): Alright, how do you tell the difference between genuine satire and non genuine satire?
(Brandis): That's a matter for the courts. (McKim): But you're the one... you're the one bringing forward the legislation, Attorney
(Brandis): Well, we have defined... (McKim): You must have thought about this as you...
(Brandis): Of course, and we have in the legislation um... put in the appropriate reasonable tests of reasonableness...
The application of those tests is always a matter for the courts.
(Sen. McKim): Well, again, what test does one apply to tell the difference between genuine satire and non-genuine satire?
(Brandis) Well there's a prior question, and the question is
whether a person in all the circumstances is reasonably capable of being misled
and that is a question for the courts.
(Sen. McKim): Ahh.. Isn't there a risk here that something like this
which, as you've accepted, if it's examined closely
it could not be found to be anything other than satirical in its intent...
(Brandis): I agree with you Senator... if it's examined closely...
though looking at it from the distance that I am from you as you hold it up there
um... it just looks like the Coat of Arms. So that's why I say...
(McKim): That might say more about your eyesight than anything else
(Brandis): Well, it just looks like the Coat of Arms but, if you look at it closely uh... obviously it's um...
it does... it's not the Coat of Arms and it does... it does have a satirical flavor so... (McKim: lol)
that's why I keep saying it all depends on applying the test of reasonableness
in the circumstances and that's not a matter for Parliamentary Committees, it's a matter for the courts.
Attorney, I'll go again, if you don't mind, as to why you have the word "genuine" in the offense
and what is the difference between everyday run-of-the-mill satire
and genuine satire, and/or non-genuine satire?
(Brandis): Well, I think that's a very good question, Senator, which perhaps is best left to
a legislative draftsman or to the courts but I think the word, the adjective uh...
has been included by the draftsman to emphasize the fact that it doesn't apply to satire
(McKim): Ahh yes, but it *has* the word "genuine" in front of it.
(Brandis): Yes well that's the adjective to which I'm referring
(McKim): Well I'm no clearer about any difference between "genuine satire"
and non-genuine satire but lest these proceedings be considered
by someone observing, to be descending into the satirical...
(Brandis): Senator McKim, neither you nor I are legislative draftsmen and uh..
(McKim): But we are legislators, both of us... (Brandis): Indeed, and so the choice of
the adjective "genuine" to qualify the noun uh... "satire", is a choice by
the legislative draftsman which I assume was made for the purposes of emphasis but
this bill has not been progressed through the Senate yet
and I'll make a mental note to myself to clarify that issue in my second reading speech
(McKim): Alright! Thank You Attorney