It's not meant to prevent harm. It's meant to:

* Appeal to morons, a key voting block of the current government * Appease all sorts of crazies from the religious to the billionaire tabloid owners. * Allow selective prosecution of people the government wants to make an example of * Distract from the total failure of government policy in basically every area (defence, energy, foreign affairs, trade, treasury, education, health, transport, justice and others).