What's in a name?

February 15, 2026

I should paraphrase Bill Shakespeare; “What’s in a phrase?” Greg Barns’ 13 February timely article should be a wake-up call to those of us in the sunny state of Queensland as two phrases are about to be banned by the LNP led government. The publishing or public utterance of these could see one landed in jail for two years. It is incomprehensible to me that “from the river to the sea” for example is deemed by seemingly naive politicians to be hate speech – a phrase by the way that has peppered the Israeli prime minister’s own political party. It is near farcical (if not so serious) that a phrase perfectly legal in the rest of Australia is to be outlawed in Queensland. Imagine the absurdity of having to discard a t-shirt with that phrase as you crossed the NSW / QLD border. Speaking of t-shirts, I hopefully look forward to the peaceful assembly of Queenslanders outside its parliament wearing or chanting the words. Perhaps the John Farnham song Two Strong Hearts could accompany we the people.