The plot thickens (+ an update from Giordano)

Dear legends,

I just wanted to fill you in quickly on what's happening here. It's all rather exciting and surreal. As you might recall, I received a letter from the Prime Minister's office asking me to stop using the Australian "logo"; signed, the National Symbols Officer (whatever that even is). 

Well, it got even better: a few days later the justice minister Michael Keenan introduced a Bill in Parliament: "Criminal Code Amendment (Impersonating a Commonwealth Body) Bill 2017" - penalty 2-5 years jail!

So that escalated quickly.

(Yes there's an exemption for satire - but it's pissweak: it exempts works that are "solely genuine satire". Hm... who decides what's "genuine"? And what if it's not "solely" satire, but also for political/activist purposes?)

Don't worry... I'm getting legal advice. I'm fortunate that excellent lawyers have already offered to support me pro-bono.

At the same time, I'm not gonna miss this golden opportunity to have some fun; so I've just started working on an Honest Government Ad in which we impersonate the Government telling people they can't impersonate the Government. Very meta.

Needless to say... I hope you'll all come and visit me and keep supporting me on Patreon if I go to prison :)

On a final and more somber note:

There's a reason I'm only getting onto this so late in the month. For the past two weeks I've had to be back in Cape Town with my family. My dear grandmother, my best friend, passed away at the start of the month; and my mother is also very unwell, suffering with Alzheimer's - possibly the cruelest thing you can witness your parent going through. I don't want to go into details now - it's a topic I hope to cover in future work - other than to say this has been one of the roughest times in my life.

Anyway, I just got back to Melbourne yesterday and I'm getting straight back to work; so I hope to have this next video out soon. But, given the above, I hope you'll understand if my September video only comes out in early October.

Meanwhile, please enjoy this article about how the Australian Government is trying to crack down on our Honest Government Ads!  https://www.themandarin.com.au/83589-first-look-at-new-penalties-for-impersonating-federal-government-bodies/.

Giordano & team <3