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

WA’s Unanswered Question

Julian Gillespie LLB, BJuris

September 9, 2026

Economy, Freedom, Society & Law

A referendum in which Western Australians vote decisively to leave the Commonwealth would confer democratic legitimacy upon the claim that the people of my state are entitled to determine their own political status. As I note in the just released second edition of my book, Secession by Western Australia, a

Community Update – August 2026

Jorg Probst

August 29, 2026

Community Updates

With less than three months to go to our biggest ever ASF conference, a reminder that earlybird tickets are still available. Our conference committee is putting together a fantastic program of speakers on current developments, pain points, and future plans for restoring vitality and freedom, curating an event in Perth

Critical Thinking – Part 2: What is Critical Thinking?

Prof Paul Frijters

August 24, 2026

Humanities

Let us begin with Aristotle and Socrates. The view of the first has been summarised by the phrase “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” A first element of critical thinking is then a kind of ‘waiting room of

Critical Thinking – Part 1: Statement of the Problem

Oleg Maltsev

August 24, 2026

Humanities

Today, an adult receives more information in a single day than a resident of a medieval town received in a whole year. This is no exaggeration — it is a structural characteristic of the environment in which both adults and children live. The problem has long since ceased to be

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.

As a not-for-profit organisation we greatly appreciate your support.

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Australians for Science and Freedom

Our Latest Articles

WA’s Unanswered Question

Read More>>

Community Update – August 2026

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Critical Thinking – Part 2: What is Critical Thinking?

Read More>>