Champion Homes: not a champion of free opinions or expressions

As evident by the title of this post, the topic under examination is not Plantation Homes and Henley Properties. My increasing interest in understanding the Australian Building Industry to further prepare myself for the future has led me to the Champion Homes article on Domain.com.au, which provided (non-equal parts of) amusement but also anger and curiosity.

Let me preface this post by saying:

1. I have very limited knowledge of both Champion Homes and the dispute outlined in the article. My views below is of a general nature based purely on the contents of the Domain article and what my own research has revealed.
2. I am no legal expert. My love of over-dramatise American courthouse television (currently watching The Good Wife anyone?) often leaves me day-dreaming about a fictional me, spouting half-intelligent legal mambo jumbo just like the actors on television, alas that is not the case. 

Firstly, to address Champion Homes and what they attempted to do (and failed thankfully) to achieve earlier this year - kill peer reviews and silence personal and individual opinions by suing the individuals that posted on ProductReview.com.au, which angered me in ways I cannot describe, and dare I say a very un-Australian thing to do. If I remember my primary school and high school lessons properly, millions of people died fighting the World Wars to protect freedom, including the freedom of opinion, the freedom from hate and bigotry. Freedom - which is such an overused yet undervalued word until it is taken away from you (or threatened to).

From what I can gather on the ProductReview.com.au website, Champion Homes has received mixed reviews for their end product and customer service (see my previous views on customer service), left by consumers who have made a verified purchase. To explain my experience of what a Verified Purchase process involves - whereby the reviewer is asked to provide proof that they have in fact purchased a product or service they are reviewing - in this case - built a home with Champion Homes. Reviewers are asked to upload an invoice or contract information, checked by ProductReview.com.au to ensure people are not making completely baseless claims. It is true that the process only proves reviewers were clients, but do not prove the accuracy of their claims, however, it goes some way to giving weight to their side of the story.

So these verified customers, some have left very positive reviews and some have left very negative reviews of their experience (I can't emphasise this enough), so that others doing their own research on builders may take the expressed views into account when making their own decisions. That is all! Yet in the article, Champion Homes reportedly considered taking the negative reviewers to court for expressing their personal opinions - reviews that contained no cuss words or vitriol of any kind (a key point I will return to later). Why isn't Champion Homes indiscriminately upset about the positive posts to their name, but have only targeted the negative reviewers?

It seems Champion Homes only want positive reviews and want to silence the negative reviews...

Now, let me get back to the point about the reviews themselves and how they fit with the Australian Law (as I understand it). Unlike the United States of America where Freedom of Speech is a part of their Constitution, Australia has the Freedom of Opinion and Freedom of Expression.

Freedom of Opinion: is where parties (people/organisations) are allowed to hold their own views - and I would interpret this as in private settings. Basically, we are allowed to think and talk amongst ourselves however and whenever we want. We are not limited by the law on this.

Freedom of Expression: parties (people/organisations) are allowed to express their views barred a couple of exceptions: Defamation, Discrimination and anti-vilification and gag orders (Google it and numerous references on the exceptions can be found).

My take on people posting on ProductReview.com.au, forums and blogs with regards to current laws is this: personal opinions can be expressed, as long as it is not in breach of Freedom of Expression. If the reviews were unjust and defamed a company or person, then there may be a breach of the law. If your reviews are factual and you have evidence to back up your review/opinion and express it in a dignified manner (I use dignified because it cover a multitude of areas including bad language and discriminatory language), you are well within your right - as I am here with my blog posts.

It is great that Champion Homes have since backed down and canned their law suite, however, I believe it is only a matter of time before other parties attempt this again, which may set a bad precedence for Freedom of Expression and its future. I believe we are living in times where we are increasingly monitored and persecuted for our views and expressing them. It will be a sad day when we are too terrified to own our opinions and be guarded in everything we say and do.