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Australian Gov't Claims Internet Filter Legislation Still In Play
Dracophile writes "Contrary to yesterday's article about The Australian's report that the Australian government had put on the back burner plans to introduce Internet filter legislation before the next election, The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the government rejected claims that it had abandoned such plans, and that 'a spokeswoman for Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said the government remained committed to the policy.' Unless the Australian Labor Party abandons the plan altogether, will the timing make any difference to voters?"
I'm a voter and it makes all the difference to me, so to answer your question... yes.
Cheers, Chris
Election soon make your choice giant douche or turd sandwich. Whoever wins we get censorship like china mark my words.
I didn't know about the Wikileaks thing, so I went looking and read this. Thanks for that. This is getting worse every time I hear about the filter. I hope that one of the parties goes against this, otherwise I will have to vote greens... the only people opposing this travesty.
Cheers, Chris
The government does need some wins before the election. Being tough on enemies of the state such as people smugglers and Internet predators may appeal to conservative voters who might otherwise switch back to the coalition.
So don't expect this to necessarily be swept under the carpet as the govt don't want to give Tony Abbott any further ammunition on backflips.
Trying to remove child and violent porn is a good thing, but this filter will give the government unchallenged power to control what Australians read and hear online. It will allow them to silence critics and squash any kind of dissension and debate. Once in place ANY party, whoever is in power, will be able to control far too much information. If it goes ahead there is no IF it will be abused, only a matter of WHEN.
No, no they didn't. They stated they were supporting an opt-in filter. This was in all their media releases. If they slipped in a mention of it being mandatory prior to the election, it was either (deliberately) under the radar or they think if they repeat it often enough we'll all believe it.
Pro-tip - we don't.
Between the falling angel and the rising ape
I'm not at all sure the greens won't sell us out for environmental causes - but given both major parties want this "so stupid it's indistinguishable from evil" filter, and labour is already selling us out to the fundies while the liberals seem to be running around with their heads alternately chopped off or buried in the sand... I'm thinking it's one of those situations where we're better off with the devil we don't know.
It's a clever bit of politics. If they delay until after the election then they can claim they have a mandate for it. And fuck knows, only the most sociopathic would elect the mad monk so they will get in.
Scrap the filter policy and quite a number of us will vote for you again.
I really don't want the Liberal Party back in power.
Both parties support it. You don't think that raving fascist fundamentalist Catholic Tony Abbot doesn't want a repressive filter in place? Then you're more deluded than they are.
No vote for any government that supports censorship - whether they put it on the back burner or not. This just shows how dim and gullible they think the Australian public are. Unfortunately they are correct. The majority of Australians have no idea what 'the thin end of the wedge' means, and will just let this lithping fool stick the fat end right up there. Basically they have already lost my vote by supporting this conroy rubbish for years now with as little discussion as possible, and regardless of all points of view against it. In fact I find it despicable that the Prime Minister will not even stand up and support this censorship policy openly. He doesn't want to be tarred with the brush and instead just tacitly supports conroy. At this stage, the only way for them to win my vote back is by promising to completely scrap this censorship and to also denounce the attorney general M Atkinson for his deplorable efforts to restrict free speech. No doubt (in my opinion) he was just doing their dirty work anyway. So, no, the timing doesn't matter at all.
Why the hell would you elect someone you don't know? Did you know there's 21 federal parties such as the Liberal Democratic party? Non-custodial parents party? Here's a list of Political parties in Australia or officially from your independent electoral site: Current register of Federal parties
Our system is far better than USA with Preferential voting and Proportional representation. I'll give a quick example:
Guess who wins with USA's system? Plain party. With Australia's system, and Awesome party transfers 25% to Excitement party, Excitement party gets elected at 60%. A really good example in real life is 2007 Federal Election: South Australia
The independent electoral system works here. There's information provided if you simply google their websites. The media seems to not wish to report minor parties (probably because a few of them seem quiet). Voting for some unknown because you think you have no idea is just bloody stupid.
There's also a website to promoting awareness of other parties (Disclaimer: My website). There is:
I'm currently having trouble trying to get information from federal parties themselves. If you have any influence, ask them to respond to the contacts I have sent out. It may be because I have no power, or the like. I have only received one refused response so far. It would be greatly appreciated!
I implore you, please make a valid formal vote to a party that almost if not fully represents you.
I find it interesting that everybody is up in arms over this filter, and ready to vote Liberal second last; yet the Liberal party is ready to scrap the NBN, setting Australia's broadband infrastructure back another 3 years...
Wait! Whats a sig?
Until Tony Abbot says so they will not get my vote.
I think the main reason they never wanted a bill of rights is that it would immediately come in to play to point out violations of Illegal Immigrants rights who have been unlawfully detained. By not having a bill of rights they can just ignore the problem.
Cheers, Chris