John Singleton with Bob HowardRip Van Australia (Stanmore: Cassell Australia, 1977), pp. 94-95, under the heading “Fascism”.

fascism 1. Often cap: the principles of the Fascisti; also; the movement or governmental regime embodying their principles.
2a. any programme for setting up a centralised autocratic national regime with severely nationalistic policies, exercising regimentation of industry, commerce, and finance, rigid censorship and forcible suppression of opposition; b. any tendency towards or actual exercise of severe autocratic or dictatorial control (as over others within an organisation).

UNABRIDGED — WEBSTERS THIRD NEW INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY

The major technical distinction between fascism and socialism-communism (excluding the totally voluntary varieties) is that under socialism-communism, the centralised autocratic national regime not only regiments or controls industry, commerce and so on, it also owns them. Under fascism, the pretence of private ownership is kept up. But this is totally meaningless because central to the concept of ownership is the right of control and disposal, which is not recognised under fascism.

It should be obvious that our Australian society is at present more fascist than free. We have an alarming degree of “centralised autocratic national” government, exercising an alarming amount of regimentation of industry, commerce, and finance. Plus we have government censorship through licencing requirements for all TV and radio, prohibition of pornography, censorship of films, and more, but so far only a few examples of forcible suppression of opposition — for example, Murphy’s infamous dawn raids, and the occasional gerrymander.

The Australian trend is definitely towards more and more fascism, with the only alternative being a (non-voluntary) socialist State. Either way in the short term we can expect more centralised government control and less freedom.

The Country Party, possibly, is a shade more fascist than the Liberal Party, and both are more fascist than the Labor Party. The Labor Party tends more to (non-voluntary) socialism-communism than fascism.

The only opposite of fascism then, is the ideal of full civil liberties, real free enterprise, limited government, individual rights and a non-interventionist foreign policy. In practice the difference between fascism, communism and socialism: Labor/Liberal-N.C.P. is one of semantics only.