Australians for Science and Freedom

Australians for Science and Freedom is a diverse group of Australian clinicians, academics, lawyers and public intellectuals who united in growing disquiet at federal and state responses to COVID-19.

Today, we work with an ever-expanding range of specialists and leaders in Australian communities to design better social institutions and policies in support of rebuilding and restoring Australian society.

Our Latest Articles

The Australian Fifth Amendment

Prof. Peter Swan

August 13, 2026

Economy, Freedom, Science

Fauci refused to answer. Our economists answered a question they had told us not to ask.

Tick-Borne Disease in Australia

August 12, 2026

Health

This case study draws on multiple evidence streams to analyse institutional responses to tick-associated illness in Australia. It examines Australian Government policy and clinical pathway documents, reports of the Senate Community Affairs References Committee, selected peer‑reviewed literature on tick‑borne disease and Lyme‑like illness, and relevant grey literature, including doctoral thesis

Let’s Talk About AI ‘Companionship’

Anthony Dillon

August 2, 2026

Health, Humanities, Society & Law

We are certainly in the age of AI. Many of us, directly or indirectly benefit from what it has to offer. Thankfully however, we are also learning about some of the problems it causes. For example, we know that students are becoming overly reliant on AI resulting in a ‘digital

Hey Presto – New ABS Model Extinguishes Evidence of Excess Deaths

Mrs Clare Pain

July 22, 2026

Health, Science

Australia had 3,200 fewer deaths than expected in 2024 and 3,800 fewer in 2025, according to a new excess mortality report 1 report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The Bureau’s previous release 2 had shown 8,700 more deaths than expected in 2023. The apparent turnaround is not evidence

Australians for Science and Freedom

Mission Statement

To promote intellectual and personal freedom in public debate and public policy, including the application of classic scientific methods to the analysis of scientific questions, and the transparency, contestability and accountability of public decision-making.

Primary Focus

Our motivating purpose is to create, nurture the development of, and advocate for social and institutional changes in response to what has happened during the covid era. We aim to provide a place for critical and constructive reflection upon the mistakes made and lessons to be learnt in order to avoid repetitions in the future of policy interventions that rely on social coercion and population-wide mandates.

Scientific Inquiry and Debate

Driven by intellectual curiosity and a commitment to pro-human ideals, we believe that questioning existing knowledge and the fit between theoretical frameworks and empirical data is the essence of the scientific enterprise. We believe that free thought and good science are needed to craft and adapt policies required to sustain free societies.

Freedom of thought and speech

Freedom in science includes freedom of inquiry, freedom to be sceptical and freedom to question established wisdom or the dominant worldview and set of beliefs. These liberties are integral to scientific advance and progress.

Freedom is also integral to the practice of medicine. It underpins the sacred Hippocratic Oath of "First, Do No Harm'" which is indispensable to the principle of informed consent and is fundamental to the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship.

Professor Ramesh Thakur

Free societies flourish best with free speech. Science is work in progress, not an encyclopaedia of facts. Although the long arc of Science bends towards Truth, scientific progress requires the full supporting intellectual infrastructure of critical research and findings. Science has the power to set us free of bondage to mass killer diseases, but only if science and scientists are themselves allowed to be free to question, to shine a harsh light on existing inadequacies and flaws, to pursue all promising leads and avenues of fresh discoveries. Thus science is not synonymous with the existing narrative and progress is neither linear nor irreversible. Scientists must be free the right to challenge the prevailing dominant narratives. They must have the right and responsibility to subject the existing consensus to searching scrutiny in line with empirical observations. Rejection of attempts to suppress dissenting voices and encouragement of diversity viewpoints on contested elements of knowledge provide necessary safeguards against reverses. The damage inflicted on the theory and practice of free societies by the creation of a censorship-industrial complex over the last three years, in the name of waging a total war on Covid, highlights the dangers of muzzling science to impose intellectual conformism.

Dr Arief Farid & Prof Gigi Foster

Australia’s people are storied, pragmatic and diverse, with tremendous potential to collaborate for the good of the country if we put our minds and hearts to it. We founded ASF to provide an organising framework for this potential to develop and build more accountable, more democratic Australian institutions that deeply respect freedom and honour the scientific method. Our ultimate hope is that our efforts in Australia will provide an example to the world of how to more forward together, out of the darkness of the covid era.

Our Directors

Meet the directors of Australians for Science and Freedom.

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Australians for Science and Freedom

Our Latest Articles

The Australian Fifth Amendment

Read More>>

Tick-Borne Disease in Australia

Read More>>

Let’s Talk About AI ‘Companionship’

Read More>>