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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.
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
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.
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)