From recollection around the time of Whitlam and co there was a strong push from the radical groups to allow greater freedom of speech and since they had the attention of those new to office it then followed that free speech was indeed to be allowed even encouraged. But by the time the government had changed a couple of times and a decade had passed there was pressure from the very sources of the movement for freedom of speech to apply limits as much was being aired that the peers of the radicals found unsavoury. Since then and more particularly in the last two to three years there has been a much tighter clamp applied somewhat similar to the conditions that existed in many socialist countries in years gone by.
