Slashdot Mirror
Australian Prime-Minister Sends Spam
Boricle writes "The Australian Prime Minister has been personally funding the sending of political spam to the members of his electorate. The spam has been sent under contract by his son's company of whom he is 'very proud.' Political Spam is permitted under Australian Spam Legislation."
We, as Australian's vote him out!!!
it is only after a long journey that you know the strength of the horse.
It's 20 million people AC...
And more than 50 of us have email addresses.
... such as a prior low-level scandal where he initiated a government bail out of his brother's failing company (in preference to a number of other high profile corporate crashes). Now he's contracted his son to send spam.
not surprising at all.
Screw you all! I'm off to the pub
It's interesting to note that it was John Howard's Government that brought in these Anti-SPAM laws - as well as the exemption for Political Parties. link
I'm sure Troy Rollo (a candidate for John Howard's seat of Bennelong) will milk this for all it's worth - as he's also on the anti-spam group "Coalition Against Unsolicited Bulk E-mail in Australia (CAUBE.AU)".
they even managed to spam the anti-spammer.
Probably not the smartest thing to do.
I mean, is it a clause that SOLELY allows political spam, or is he exploiting a loophole
Charities and political parties are exempt.
Why political parties? Same reason as hard-core porn, prostitution and pot smoking are permitted in Canberra. Politicians aren't like everyone else.
Screw you all! I'm off to the pub
I'm interesting in HOW he's able to do this. I mean, is it a clause that SOLELY allows political spam, or is he exploiting a loophole, as a previous poster pointed out, about pre-existing business relationships. If the former is true, then its very amusing how these politicans make "backdoors" for themselves in law.
He is able to do this because of a "so called" loophole in the anti spam law that allows political parties, not for profit and charity organisations to send unsolicited emails.
Funtage Factor: Purple
He was using Windows on his machine, so he can't be blamed for the inadvertent transmission of personal files!
(This is not a troll. I believe a spammer got acquitted citing this ground).
-
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
Poltical spam and spam from charities have been exempted from the recently enacted anti spamming laws, just as the pollies have exempted themselves from the truth in electronic media advertising laws and political leaflets can be deposited in letterboxes marked 'No advertising' without penalty.
Slander is perfectly acceptable under parliamentary privilege, but not once the pollies step out in public, though parliamentary sessions are often aired on public television! It seems like the politicians have their arses well covered.
Yes. The Australian anti-spam act made exlusions for charity organisations and political parties. The labour party supported this legislation when it went through parliarment so they have no platform to complain about this either.
A quick browse through his sons' company shows that they also offer Bad HTML and Service Level Agreements as low as 80%.
And their mission plan is "Net Harbour delivers unparalleled, innovative and trusted IT solutions to Australian businesses. We understand that your investment in technology needs to deliver a measurable return. Our mission is to help you identify the technology solutions that will deliver this return."
I might wander past their door on Monday (Suite 516, Level 5 15 Lime Street Sydney 2000) and see what sort of hole-in-the-wall refugee from 1999 this company is.
Nepotism aside, the problem with what this person is doing comes down to the responsibility of governments. The idea that what is otherwise considered an illegal nuisance is allowed under law for government figures is incredible.
Participating in one's government in a free society should be a choice - but here people are having the system forced on them through automated means.
There is no compelling state interest to allow this sort of behavior, so why are political mailings legal where commercial mailings are not? What's next, concentration camps with mandantory viewing of political TV ads?
Er... oops, thinking I should have kept that last thought to myself...
M
Our national youth radio station ran a program this afternoon getting people to email the prime minister (john.howard.mp@ahp.gov.au) telling him they supported his policy of spam.
Australian sarcastic humour, at its best!
whois netharbour.com.au
Domain Name: netharbour.com.au
Tech Name: Tim Howard
Tech Email: tcwhoward@yahoo.com.au
which also features a form for sending him (his office staff) a message.
Although perhaps I should have thought about this before posting to /. - given the close relationship between John Howard and George W Bush, I may well find myself on a do not fly list next time I'm in the USA!.
Irrespective of your political beliefs (which have left out deliberately) spam is spam is spam is annoying.
Cheers,
Boricle.
I always knew he was a slimy 'orrible piece of shit.
And he is stuffing up our copyright laws even more. I won't be voting either Labor (sic) or Liberal until at least number 4.
(note to non Australians:
We are compelled to vote in Australia.
We are also compelled to list a preference for all candidates on a ballot paper (at least in a Federal Election in the lower house).
So while we may have a slightly better system then Yanks and Brits, it isn't that wonderful (don't you just hate first past the post?).)
It's the Australian Labor Party you insensitive clod!
Patent litigation: A doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction... in which everyone seems willing to push the button
Can I just say how much, much, much easier it was under the GST and the simplifications than under the previous system.
I still get the GST forms sent to me in London. All I have to do is write NIL in four boxes and post it back. Please tell me where I'm struggling under the weight of that?? If I resumed trading, there would still only be 4 boxes to fill out, which Quicken does automatically.
crushed by the weight ??
Come on. That's just plain wrong.
Also all the Australian tax sites are clear, and you can lodge returns all electronically. I don't see any British equivalent. All these were brought in under Howard too.
[% slash_sig_val.text %]
Congressman Jeb Hensarling spams my vanity domain regularly, even after being told I don't want any "updates."
I've also regularly been targeted by various Texas Republican mailing lists, despite past assurances I've been removed from their lists.
I'm an independent that often votes for Democrats, and this just bolsters my opinion that many Republicans, at least in Texas, don't care about individuals' wishes, just want votes. I don't care if they want to litter my postal mailbox, except for the environmental impact of all that trash, but email costs me a lot more to read than for them to send, even when I'm filtering. They're the majority party down here - can't they just leave me alone?
After all, you have a pre-existing business relationship with them, right?
Jokes aside, the reason it is permitted is that the High Court has found an implied right to political communication in the Constitution. A federal law banning political spam would be invalid.
Inveterate Howard hater though I am, and as much as I dislike spam, I have to concede that it is his perfect right to do this, as it ought to be his right.
Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
has a really fucked up idea of "free speech".
but at least in the USA, free speech does not mean "a guaranteed audience".
nor does it mean you are free to force your speech upon unwilling recipients.
yet this is exactly what political spammers try to achieve. they purchase "opt-in" lists then carefully and deliberately tailor their emails to evade filtering.
"free speech" also does not mean you can steal other peoples resources in order to "speak in public".
relay rape and using compromised PCs to send spam has been a favorite of political spammers (as well as "regular" spammers).
recall that the recent california political spams were sent through compromised school network PCs in korea.
there is also quite a difference between public speech and spam. with public speech you are not trespassing on individual private property in order to "exercise" your "free speech". with spam you always are.
your right to free speech does not override my private property rights.
"We therefore categorically reject the argument that a vendor has a right under the Constitution or otherwise to send unwanted material into the
home of another. If this prohibition operates to impede the flow of even valid ideas, the answer is that no one has a right to press even 'good' ideas on an unwilling recipient. That we are often 'captives' outside the sanctuary of the home and subject to objectionable speech and other sound
does not mean we must be captives everywhere. (cite omitted) The asserted right of a mailer, we repeat, stops at the outer boundary of every person's domain. " - Justice Burger, for the majority, in ROWAN v. U. S. POST OFFICE DEPT. , 397 U.S. 728 (1970)
thank you US Supreme Court for one of your saner rulings.
and just to make it clear:
my domain = my pc, my hard drive, my mailbox. my property. not yours to abuse.
"During the early years of the ALP, the Party was referred to by various titles differing from colony to colony. It was at the 1908 Interstate (federal) Conference that the name "Australian Labour Party" was adopted. In its shortened form the Party was frequently referred to as both 'Labor' and 'Labour', however the former spelling was adopted from 1912 onwards, due to the influence of the American labor movement." More here.
I think Howard can be called a dipshit for pretty much everything he has done.
-- "So, what's the deal with Auntie Gerschwitz et all?"
for those on broadband it doesn't cost a thing
Perhaps where you're from, broadband doesn't cost anything, but for everyone else, we have to pay for it.
Your bandwidth isn't free, moron.
Server storage space isn't free, either.
Your ISP pays for it, and guess where your ISP gets their money from? Spam accounts for approximately 30% of our bandwidth costs. It *DOES* cost something.