Leadership Quote by Alexander Downer

Downer’s line wears the costume of liberal tolerance, but it’s really a politician’s pressure-release valve. “So this is all part of a free society” isn’t a philosophical claim so much as a scene-setter: calm down, this is normal, no one is breaking the rules. The phrasing does two jobs at once. It affirms rights in the abstract while quietly draining urgency from whatever controversy sparked the comment.

The key move is the double permission slip: “People are entitled to hold whatever view they want” and “the media can report things how they wish.” On paper, it’s even-handed. In practice, it’s a strategic shrug. By granting both sides their formal freedoms, Downer sidesteps the substantive question of whether those views are informed, dangerous, or being amplified irresponsibly. It’s the rhetoric of procedural democracy: as long as the process is free, the outcomes don’t need a moral accounting.

There’s subtext, too, in the separation of “people” and “the media.” It gestures at a familiar conservative grievance without naming it: ordinary citizens have opinions; the media has power. By validating the media’s right to report “how they wish,” he signals he’s not censorious, but the wording also implies the reporting is a matter of choice, framing bias as a stylistic preference rather than an institutional problem.

In context, this is classic Downer-era political management in a media-saturated democracy: defend the system, avoid escalating conflict, and keep your hands clean while everyone else fights it out.