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Internet Censorship in Australia?
Enaku writes "Right wing Australian Christian political party Family First wants an annual levy of $7 to $10 on all internet users in Australia to fund a $45 million mandatory national internet filtering scheme aimed at blocking pornographic and offensive content at server level. (Read Family First's Policy Statement on Internet Pornography and Children (pdf) ) Great firewall of Australia, here we come!"
A conservative christian party in australian politics would be a right wing party according to the convention.
Official GOD FAQ.
Somebody probably noticed that 'Family First' are allied with the Liberal Party.
;)
In Australia, the 'Liberals' are the right-wing party, something that confuses many septics (not that that's difficult
Quidquid Latine dictum sit, altum videtur (anything said in Latin sounds important)
It is generally considered that Labor is "left" in Australia whilst the coalition (liberal and national parties) are the "right".
The family first party is clearly a right wing party and is identified locally as such.
This party has been clearly shown to be essentially a front for the "Assemblies of God" church. See one of Australia's most popular political sites for an article on them
They're right-wingers guys!
#1 - Family First are a RIGHT-WING neo-christian fringe party, playing the percentages in the bible belt suburbs of the major cities ( cf http://www.hillsong.com/) - they'll poll +/-5% in those areas, not a real threat in the lower house, although they may get some sway if they get the balance of power in upper house, but I doubt it and) , it's anti-competitive, hard to maintain and largely ineffective.
#2 - they'll get this past on a cold day in hell, read their comments about smaller ISPs for instance (eg they're expendable - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/27/net_levy/
It's an attention seeking episode imho
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Same here in Canada, except our Liberal party's orientation occasionally varies wildly by party leader and member. Lately their policy seems to be to preach the left-wing NDP's platform, only less convincingly, and then promptly implement the right-wing Conservative platform, only less competently. Most Canadians see this as balancing out into being centrist, which is what the Liberals claim to be.
I'm represented by Liberals at the provincial and federal levels. The former loudly proclaimed during an all-candidates meeting that homosexual relationships are an "affront to God." The latter promised to champion against pro-choice bills, no matter what party policy might dictate.
The US Army: promoting democracy through unquestioned obedience
It shouldn't come as a surprise to slashdot readers ... the two organizations that are down on violent video games (both often mentioned here) are the Lion and the Lamb project (left-leaning outfit) and the National Institute on Media and the Family (right-leaning outfit). Guess which one supports (unconstitutional) legislation limiting sales of violent videogames? I'll give you a hint : it's not the right-leaning one.
Also, the US is probably one of the most right-leaning industrialized nations, and also has the best free speech protections of all of them.
Jack Valenti and the MPAA are to technology as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone
Well, yeah, but was the editor at Slashdot asleep? The story begins:
... whereas the original, article (to which Enaku links!) begins:
(Capitalisation in original story too)
I know almost no-one on Slashdot bothers to RTFA any more, but please credit some of us with an ounce of brain.
>It is generally considered that Labor is "left" in Australia whilst the coalition (liberal and national parties) are the "right".
An important point here - the primary party of The Coalition is the Liberal Party, not the liberal party.
The Liberal Party are *not* liberal in the true sense of the word - they are on the conservative end of the political spectrum.
This has lead to Australians referring to "small L liberals" and "big L liberals", to differeiante between the two.
> The family first party is clearly a right wing party and is identified locally as such.
Yep, they're religious zealots of the worst kind. The only parties worse than them are One Nation and the Citizen's Electoral Council.
Actually, I have some good news for you. My brother in law is one of the candidates for these god-botherers, and he's always been one of those "Your body is the lord's temple, put down that beer and repent." kind of guys.
Anyway, a couple of years ago, one of his daughters got old enough to fly from the family nest, and moved from her home state to WA, where I live. A few weeks later I get a phone call from the in-laws because daughter has stopped phoning home and they're worried, would I drop by her place and see that she was OK.
So I did the right thing and drove over the next Saturday about middday and knocked on the door. It took a while for the door to open, and when it did, I was just about knocked over by the fumes. The quiet little daughter was about as hung over as I've seen anyone, and there were empty Southern Comfort bottles all over the floor, an ashtray full of roaches on the lounge and masculine snoring in the bedroom.
I suggested that she give daddy a call occasionally and left without waking the boyfriend. If she had as much taste in blokes as she did in booze, I didn't want to know him.
So I don't think you have a lot to worry about. Kids'll route their own way around parental roadblocks.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
Stalin
According to the Bible, even Jesus cringes at public grovelling by Christians:
"But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." (Matt 6:6)
As with many of these fundaementalist parties in australia the reality is that they wont get very many votes. If they do they are more than likely to be 18-24year olds doing the donkey vote and not realising that its a serious issue. Good thing its compulsory to vote in australia so people are less likely to get into power through donkey votes.
Warning: that plover.com link is definately NSW.