The most senior judge in NSW says Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have been emboldened and empowered by the election of Donald Trump to act in ways that only further their interests and risk social cohesion.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Andrew Bell used a speech at the Law Society of NSW on Thursday evening to accuse the Tesla chief executive of inflaming antisemitism with his endorsement of far-right political parties and “flippant” references to senior Nazi figures, as he warned of a threat to the rule of law.
Chief Justice Bell said it was very concerning that Mr Musk in particular “appears to exercise substantial but unaccountable political power in the United States through proximity and patronage”.
NSW Chief Justice Andrew Bell says ‘truth decay’ represents a profound risk to social norms. Louie Douvis
Meta, the owner of Facebook run by Mr Zuckerberg, had abandoned fact checking and become “unshackled from previously expressed concerns about integrity of information”, he said, a decision that would “only contribute to the flourishing of misinformation and disinformation”.
And Chief Justice Bell criticised the pardons of thousands of people by Mr Trump – including those prosecuted for the January 6 riots in Washington DC – and former US president Joe Biden, which he said would have struck at the “professional, civic and ethical core” of American lawyers.
In combination, Chief Justice Bell’s comments were a broad repudiation of the direction of US politics since the election of Mr Trump, who has empowered Mr Musk and found allies in billionaires like Mr Zuckerberg, who donated $US1 million ($1.6 million) to the president’s inauguration.
The speech is the latest in a series of increasingly thinly veiled speeches on threats to liberal democracy, the rule of law and judicial independence by senior Australian judges, including the current High Court chief justice, who by convention typically avoid involvement in politically sensitive matters.
‘Terrifying’ antisemitism
Chief Justice Bell said some would think it was inappropriate for him to speak about the rise of Mr Trump and Mr Musk and other events in the US.
“I would observe that one cannot simply speak about the rule of law in an abstract way,” he told a dinner marking the opening of the legal year. “Recent events both domestically and abroad have generated a sense of great disquiet and anxiety about the state of society and the rule of law.”
Specifically, Chief Justice Bell spoke about the surge of antisemitic attacks in Sydney, Melbourne and other major cities over the last year. Late last month, police said they had found an abandoned caravan near Sydney holding explosives and a note with the address of a synagogue. Police have also put together Strike Force Pearl as they investigate a spate of attacks.
The federal government on Wednesday passed new laws imposing minimum sentences for performing Nazi salutes or displaying symbols associated with Nazism, with NSW proposing a range of similar laws.
Appearing to endorse the crackdown on the display of antisemitic symbols, Justice Bell said that “deployment of the symbols of Nazism and replication of the hateful conduct which led to the horrors of the holocaust is not a legitimate or acceptable form of political protest”.
“In a civilised, democratic society, there are peaceful and respectful ways in which [protest] can occur that do not involve invoking the terror and callous inhumanity of one of the darkest periods of human history.
“This conduct must not be allowed to stain our city.”
Mr Musk, he said, had “made flippant puns involving the names of leading historical figures from Nazi Germany to respond to legitimate criticism. Anything trivialising or making light of those indelible events of history is irresponsible and neither clever nor amusing.”
