The reaction to this column’s 2020 conclusion that Covid had escaped from a Wuhan laboratory, one associated with the communist military, ranged from ridicule to denunciation as a ‘conspiracy theory’ or ‘misinformation and disinformation’.

These terms are code for suppressing divergence from the elites’ ‘party line’.

Controversial legislation to enforce this was proposed by LINOs ( Liberals In Name Only) and eagerly adopted by Labor.