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Australian Government Delays Internet Filter Legislation
An anonymous reader writes "It seems the Australian federal government is being forced to delay the introduction of its proposed and much-hated, much-maligned Internet filter. It will not be introduced in the next two sittings of parliament, which realistically delays it until after the next election. News on withdrawing the filter, which was a promise from the previous election, has disappointed lobbying groups such as the Australian Christian Lobby."
The Australian Christian Lobby can go fuck themselves sideways with a 40-foot barge pole. Fucking morons.
Frankly the Coalition scare me more then Conroy. Both the leader of the Liberals and the Nationals are ultra conservatives (not in the good way, they are religious nutbars) so voting them in would be just as bad, probably worse then another 3 years of Rudd. Personally my vote is going to a minor party (likely the greens) who, if given enough power can keep out bad legislation, just like the last filter vote.
Also Rudd and Conroy are getting a lot of heat from the Labor back bench, even Kate Lundy has openly questioned the filter after towing the party line and defending it. The prospect of Rudd facing revolt from his own party this close to an election is not a good one.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Sorry dude, it won't work.
I can promise you that no-one keeps track of what is written on ballot papers -- all the AEC staff and party scrutineers care about are whether a ballot paper is formal or not and the way the vote is cast.
(I speak from extensive election night experience)
That's true, but it shouldn't be about the content, it should be about toning the internet down so we have far less crime on the internet. It was never looked that way and the "pr0n" card was played.
Mess with peoples porn expect failure (which it has) but talk about the real issues like china and some of the nasty stuff that's happening there at the moment.
I urge you to watch this, story on the Australian News. It is 40mins long, but trust me when you get into the thick of the story you'll love it.
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20100419/cyber/
I recon the filter was being pushed because this shit started showing its ugly face here in Australia, just the pollie who was trying to pull it off took the wrong path and pissed everyone off in the process.
What is worse, I asked about 5 friends that frequently use the net and are quite intelligent what thye thought of us having a filter and they had no idea one was coming.
Agreed. I've counted votes. Writing on the ballot papers is not only useless, it increases the risk of your ballot paper being declared invalid.
If you feel strongly about this, or any other political issue then you might want to watch this TED talk by Omar Ahmad on Political Change with Pen and Paper.
He talks about the best way to get your voice heard by politicians, which turns out to be a hand written letter once a month.
Unexpect the expected!
Care to elaborate on "insane policy blockers"?? Sure they helped defeat the ETS bill on environmental grounds.
The current make-up of the Senate is: Coalition 37 seats, Labor 32 seats, Greens five seats, Family First one seat, and one independent, Nick Xenophon. To be "insane policy blockers" would mean that Lord of sensible, grounded in reality and not even slightly influenced by his invisible sky wizard, policy Stephen Fielding and Nick Xenophon agreeing with policy being put forward by the Government and that the Greens are blocking those every single time.
Ummm ... you do know you got that exactly wrong, don't you?
The Upper House is the Senate.
The Lower House is the House of Representatives.
Together, they make the Parliament of Australia.
And voting anything other than Labor / Coalition in the House of Reps is far from a wasted vote. It's been a while, but we have had minority governments that've had to cuddle up to minor parties in the HoR in the past. It's not quite like the crazy 'major parties take all' system in the US. Not yet, anyway...
What part of "a well regulated militia" do you not understand?
I disagree. Abbott already has a proven record of forcing it down people's throats.
(see http://www.theage.com.au/news/sushi-das/mr-abbott-minister-for-meddling/2005/11/23/1132703249708.html)
Unfortunately Abbott is not on his own in this regard, I believe this may be something that Abbott and Rudd actually have in common.
For example, the ridiculous taxpayer-funded school chaplaincy program introduced under Howard, has been continued with additional funding under Rudd.
http://www.deewr.gov.au/Schooling/NationalSchoolChaplaincyProgram/Pages/home.aspx
I don't see how my taxes should be paying for someone to evangelise at what is meant to be a secular school. If they wanted a school counselling program with actual psychologists, I'd be all for that. And don't get me started on 'religious education' at secular schools...
Also while we're talking lobbies, I'll point out an alternative: http://australiansecularlobby.com/
Ha, and thus far the only party to actually implement their scheme are who... But I have to ask you, do you know why Rudd was elected in the first place.
Work Choices.
It sounds like you are trying to water down a party that has been taken over by extremists and was not that moderate to begin with.
If Rudd didn't get into power things would have been very different during the GFC. With Work Choices in effect wages for every profession would have dropped through the floor, mass layoffs would have been commonplace and working hours increased. We are extremely fortunate that Rudd repealed Work Choices before the GFC actually hit.
Contrary to popular belief, the last three years under Rudd have not been a total disaster, our national debt is not spiralling out of control, in fact we are one of the few nations to come out of the GFC. Debt is at far less then 10% of our GDP, right now I have more cash in the bank then is required to pay my share of the national debt (A$9,050, BTW, my state of WA is in the black) and this is during a global recession. To say the last three years has been bad is bullshit, we are the only advanced (first world) economy that is showing positive growth and we still have all our rights as workers.
Also Howard was not a religious leader, he got through on his economic credentials (well earned, I insist on being fair, Howards economic policies were very good whilst education and IR suffered horribly) whilst Abbott is appointing his church buddies to the shadow cabinet. The Nationals at the moment are even more extreme then the Liberals. Abbott is extremely religious and I can not rely on him to be able to make decisions without this influencing them.
Here's where you go horribly wrong. right now Labor cant do anything without the Greens and independents, I want to keep it that way. Green preferential vote goes towards Labor so Labor remains in power whilst being reliant on the Green party who has openly opposed Labors more insane policies this term such as the filter and ETS. My interest is in keeping a minor party in a position of power as they are actually afraid of being voted out. My preference is two or three minor parties but I'd also like a pony.
Now voting Liberal or National just delivers the power directly into Abbott's hands as the Nationals will just tow the Liberal line. Abbot will get senate majority and rule by edict in the same way that Howard put the incredibly unpopular Work Choices legislation in. I don't care who is leader in so much as long as the disruptive balance of power in the senate is maintained and no-one can implement insane policies like Clean Feed or Work Choices without serious opposition.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
He was going to be a priest but he screwed up, and down, and sideways, and anything nearby in a skirt that didn't move fast enough.
I'd call him a "Godless Christian" in that he's doing it for appearances but in his own words has broken every commandment but one. His beliefs are whatever it takes to get the job done and change daily.
The Australian is the local NEWS Corp. paper. Rupert essentially on record as saying that the internet is a bad idea...
-- Andrew
You could always vote for the Australian Sex party. They're new for this election and actually have some pretty sensible policies revolving around civil liberties, freedom of speech and keeping religious fundamentalism out of Australian politics.
Pre-canned Evolution Links for all those Slashdot holy wars.
> I mean, I agree with filtering stuff on graffiti
WTF?? Why? Two of my favourite sites is streetsy.com and woostercollective.com, both street art sites featuring *shock* graffiti. Why on earth would anyone want to manditorily ban Australia from some of the best new art and artists of our time? Please explain
Those who can, do. Those who cannot, sue.