Australia’s online censorship chief has launched an appeal against a landmark free speech judgement made earlier this year in favour of a woman whose X post exposing a Melbourne primary school’s “queer club” was secretly banned.
Celine Baumgarten, assisted by the Free Speech Union of Australia (FSU), challenged eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant’s takedown notice in the Administrative Review Tribunal, and in February Justice Emilios Kyrou ruled in her favour , criticising the eSafety office’s use of “informal notices”.
But Ms Inman Grant is now seeking to overturn the ruling in the Full Court of the Federal Court, in what the FSU described as an “effort to preserve the ability to secretly pressure social media companies into removing content without due process”.
Ms Baumgarten told Noticer News the appeal was a waste of taxpayer money, and showed the lengths Ms Inman Grant was prepared to go to silence Australians who criticised far-left extremist gender ideology.
“I think it’s absurd that instead of just admitting defeat, the eSafety Commissioner and her office would rather use more taxpayer funds to continue this pointless litigation,” she said.
“I feel it is a truly a testament to how far this office is determined to go to censor everyday Australians who are concerned about what they’re seeing in their country.”
I’M GOING TO THE FEDERAL COURT
Celine vs eSafety Commissioner ROUND 2
Friday 28th NovemberJust when you thought this office couldn’t possibly spend more taxpayer money to fight pointless battles, they continue to surprise!
Please watch and share! @FSUofAustralia pic.twitter.com/AqLKIv4743
— Celine against The Machine
(@celinevmachine_) November 21, 2025
FSU Director Dr Reuben Kirkham described the appeal as “overreach”, and said it followed a series of high-profile court defeats where eSafety was found to have misused or misunderstood its powers.
“The eSafety Commissioner is appealing primarily because she does not like what the Tribunal decided, not because she has a strong case. Unusually, the grounds primarily object to the facts found by the Tribunal, rather than focussing on issues of statutory construction,” he said
“This matter goes to the heart of whether government bureaucrats can quietly order global platforms to erase lawful political speech without ever facing scrutiny from the courts.
“What we’re seeing is a pattern of overreach. The Commissioner’s office is treating the law as a suggestion and accountability as an inconvenience. If this appeal succeeds, Australians may never know when or why their speech has been censored – let alone have a right to challenge it.”
The appeal will be held on November 28
Ms Baumgarten’s post revealed that Montmorency South Primary School was running a club for students in Years 3 to 6 who “identify as LGBTQIA+”, and used “gender inclusive” language models, resulting in students not being referred to as boys or girls.
The appeal comes just days after Ms Inman Grant, an unelected American-born bureaucrat who earns a $450,000/year taxpayer-funded salary, was called to testify before US Congress for her repeated attempts to force tech companies to censor the global internet.
Republican Jim Jordan said her office “imposes obligations on American companies and threatens speech of American citizens” and described her as a “noted zealot for global takedowns”.
Ms Inman Grant said last week she was accountable to the Australian parliament and the Communications Minister, not US Congress, but was considering the request.
She is also facing a Federal Court challenge from messaging app Telegram over a $957,780 fine she handed out on earlier this year for not answering questions required by a “transparency reporting notice” within its deadline. That case will be heard in December.
In September Ms Inman Grant threatened to fine X $X825,000 per day unless it removed 23 posts containing CCTV footage of the brutal murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska by a black career criminal in the US, sparking global outrage about censorship overreach.
The eSafety Commissioner is spearheading the Australian government’s social media age restrictions, which come into effect on December 10, is responsible for bringing in mandatory search engine age checks, and coordinated with a shadowy global “advertising cartel” to silence free speech.
She was also criticised by Mr Jordan and Elon Musk for her failed legal attempts to impose a global censorship regime by forcing X to delete videos she claimed were illegal, and last year threatened to fine X $800,000 over a post calling a biological female a woman.
Header image: Left, Celine Baumgarten (Instagram). Right, Julie Inman Grant (eSafety).
The post Australia’s online censor drags woman back to court over post exposing school ‘queer club’ first appeared on The Noticer.
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