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."

Comments

Software patents and spam can byte me.

[vivian]

I would have thought that with a son in the IT industry, Jonnie Howard would have been at least mildly concerned about the software patent/IP issues in the unpopular "free trade" agreement we recently got shoved down out throats.

Too much to expect, I suppose.

We don't even have an alternative come the next election because the Labor party has accepted them too. So much for democracy & having a choice.

So what can the average joe citizen do to fight crap like this, when all the parties seem to have identical policies on issues like this?

The Future of Australia?

[femto]

Here's the juciest quote:

"I'm very proud of the fact that my son has started a small business. He's in his 20s and I get a real buzz out of the fact that he's prepared to have a go in a small business, that's what the future of this country is all about."

So the future of Australia lies in f**ing up everyone else's life so one person can get ahead?

We can all pack up and go home now. Australian mateship is dead.

proud indeed!

[tuxette]

"I'm very proud of the fact that my son has started a small business in his 20s and I get a real buzz out of the fact that he's prepared to have a go in small business," Mr Howard said.

"That is what the future of this country is all about."

Oh, yes. It's all about the success of businesses due to nepotism.

This continues a long line of bad stuff

[Goonie]

This is the same government whose IT Minister was named the "World's greatest Luddite" by The Register. . Aside from the well-known stupid internet ensorship laws, this government has just signed an FTA with the USA which requires us to enforce software patents, among other things.

For this and a million other reasons (not the least of which is this government's terrible morals) I suspect most Australian Slashdotters will be voting for someone else.

Maybe it's permitted, but is it a good idea?

[Asic Eng]

Spam works for spammers, because the costs are low, and even if the percentage of people who react favourably to the spam is very low, they still get business.

It's different for politics though - if the number of people who react negatively to your spam is much larger then the number of people who react positively - in all likelyhood you'll lose votes.

Just because doing something is legal doesn't mean you'll benefit from doing it.

Vote the arsehole out.

[The Fanta Menace]

Every day I wake up to find that the idiot Australian Prime Minister has embarrassed me again.

Now he's spamming? And he's arrogant enough to believe that he's doing nothing immoral?

Get rid of the bastard.

Re:Of course it's permitted

[pjt33]

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.

That doesn't necessarily follow. Sending you an e-mail costs you money. If politicians want to communicate with you they can send you a letter, which only costs you the time to pick it up.

Besides, not all forms of communication are allowed regardless of how political they are. A horse's head in your bed with a note saying "Vote for me or I'll kill you" should get the sender a gaol sentence.