4499-26 Protection of books and songs
Eligibility - Residents of the State of QueenslandC/- Post Office
MOFFAT BEACH QLD 4551
The Petition of residents of the State of Queensland draws to the attention of the House the Fighting Antisemitism and Keeping Guns out of the Hands of Terrorists and Criminals Amendment Act 2026 (s.52DA) creates an offence.
A person who publicly recites, publicly distributes, publishes or publicly displays a prohibited expression in a way that might reasonably be expected to cause a member of the public to feel menaced, harassed or offended commits an offence, unless the person has a reasonable excuse.
Books are published.
Amazon has dozens, maybe more, books titled From the River to The Sea. Abebooks has thousands of books with that title for sale.
Recently a wall mural of John Farnham featuring his song Two Strong Hearts showed words from that song "River to the sea" was vandalised and had the phrase removed by someone. A large media fuss ensued.
ABC Religions and Ethics department has this week run a story saying John Farnham's song may face being banned or have the censors beep over the words "river to the sea" to comply with the law.
Books are published but also need to be protected from a bad law that doesn't even have a definition of the term antisemitism in it.
Songs are publicly recited words and they too need to be protected from the bad law.
Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to protect songs and books from the Fighting Antisemitism and Keeping Guns out of the Hands of Terrorists and Criminals Amendment Act 2026.