The ANZACs didn't fight for suppression of free speech, yet Woolworths wants to take free speech away from us

This is another of those short and to the point blog posts.

Woolworths has come under fire for selling a T Shirt with the Australian flag and a message saying, "if you don't like it, leave".  God forbid someone be pro Australia.  How dare they?!

A few months ago, Woolworths ran a campaign saying "Happy Ramadan" and a few extremists in Leichhardt were annoyed with it, but Woolworths stood by  it.

This time the supermarket giant has bowed to public pressure and removed the t shirts.  Apparently they're causing offense.

Let me tell you something, race isn't mentioned, the T Shirts are just telling people if they don't want to live in Australia to leave.  What's wrong with that?  I'm white and before I left NZ a number of people said to me, "if you don't like it leave" and well, guess what?!  I eventually did.  I was only waiting for the right time to.

So why are "fuck Tony Abbott" t shirts acceptable, yet "if you don't like it, leave" t shirts which promote patriotism aren't allowed?

Why are Australia's civil liberties being compromised because of a minority?  Nobody forces people to live in Australia and in Australia we're supposed to have free speech.  It's hardly free speech or an open market if you can't sell a T Shirt expressing love for the country.  What happened to saying what you think?  Saying what you think is an Australian value.  The neighbours across the ditch will tell you that Aussies are more up front.

Personally I find the hijab and the Ramadan campaign offensive but I accept it because that's what Australia is about.  It's about respecting views which are different than yours, but removing a t shirt that promotes love for this country shouldn't be deemed offensive, especially when race isn't even mentioned.

I think it's time we stood up to companies who want to appease a minority and forget what Aussie values are.  One Aussie value is the right to offend as Senator George Brandis said a while back, and it's your right to be offended but it's not your right to stop others expressing themselves, which is what this is, by removing the t shirt, Woolworths has totally compromised on our open speech values.

I think a lot of people forget that living in Australia is a privilege and they need to stop abusing it and actually realise just how lucky they are.