Rudd's plan to censor the Australian Internet will meet little opposition in Parliament?

 

The Rudd & Conroy plan to censor the Internet may not be a guaranteed vote winner, but Opposition Leader Tony Abbott looks like he's shaping up to head the Coalition towards supporting legislation once it hits the Australian Parliament in mid-2010.

This is the Mad Monk on internet filtering during a doorstop: Annabel, I am not really familiar with the technicalities of this proposal. I think that it makes sense to try to ensure that the homes of Australia aren't invaded with pornography via the internet. On the other hand I don't want to see wider censorship and I don't want to see the internet destroyed as a tool for people's education or as a tool for people's businesses. So it is question of whether this is technically feasible and I just don't know enough about it at this stage to have an opinion on that....We are open to proposals provided they achieve their objective without unfortunate side effects.

Not exactly mounting the barricades to preserve free speech is he?

 

The Greens have decided not to oppose any Internet filtering bill outright but will try and tweak it round the edges. Whiteanting from within the party had resulted in this weak-kneed position: Unless the Government changes tack, the Greens will be moving significant amendments to this legislation if it is introduced to the Senate.

With so few senators to call on these amendments will be going nowhere.

 

The only people who are going to stop the sub-text drive to neuter the Net as a source of unregulated political information and activism will be digital citizens who vote.

Tell the buggers in Canberra that you'll vote them out if they vote for Internet censorship!