Competition and Consumer Act reform unlikely to gag environmentalists

There's a lot of talk at the moment about freedom of speech, and not all of it makes sense. The Federal Government wants to relax the prohibitions on hate speech in the Racial Discrimination Act, but at the same time it is calling for new laws to restrict what environmentalists can say in public debate.

The government wants to hold environmentalists accountable for their claims when they're protesting against corporate conduct, and it says that amending the Competition and Consumer Act is the way to make it happen. Protesters who don't get their facts straight are bad for business and bad for the economy.

Seems like a fair enough proposition. But we're not sure that the plan will work.