Even More Dangerous

And while we're on the subject of "dangerous to democracy", there's something happening in Australia right now that is, perhaps, the most dangerous of all.

The Labor Government is trialling new net censorship technology. They say it's to block access to child porn (which I would support... the blocking, not the porn). However, child porn clearly isn't the government's true intention, because the way they're implementing the filtering system is cloaked in secrecy, has no independent oversight, amd no right of appeal.

Last month, for example, the filters blocked access to a US anti-abortion site which the government deemed "inappropriate".

So now it's "inappropriate" sites that are to be blocked, and child porn is just a subset of that. And who decides what's inappropriate?

The government.

No. Stop. You're talking about Australia Chester. It's one of the few places left on earth where freedom and democracy are cherished, isn't it?

Well it used to be, but apparently no longer.

The web content filtering trial isn't about censoring child porn. It's about implementing technology that can censor ANY information that doesn't fit with what the government (or some nameless, faceless bureaucrat) deems 'appropriate'.

Last month, it was the anti-abortion website. This month, it's a Danish site that reveals something of the inner workings of the censorship itself. Next month? Maybe they'll switch off sites that raise concerns about union right of entry in their new IR package, or maybe they’ll turn attention to criticism of their ill conceived stimulus package And after that, how long before they find something on chesterbear.blogspot.com that they deem ‘inappropriate’?

Don’t you get it? Whatever the excuse, and whatever the merits of censoring genuinely objectionable sites (like child porn), no government should be allowed to implement technology like this without independent judicial oversight, because once that technology’s in place, it can be turned on anything a government doesn’t like.

What are we, China? Saudi Arabia? North Korea? Zimbabwe? I'm sorry, but I'm not comfortable with my nation being on that list.

I know the economy is at risk. I know the government’s got the proposed Emissions Trading Scheme all wrong, but there is no greater threat to this nation than giving a government the ability to arbitrarily censor criticism, and if you don’t believe that once the technology’s in place, sooner or later they’ll use it, then you are out of touch with the true nature of politics.

I urge you to write to Senator Conroy, the Minister responsible. His email address is senator.conroy@aph.gov.au.

Also write to people who are in a position to oppose this. Here's a short list.
Malcolm Turnbull, Leader of the Opposition - Malcolm.Turnbull.MP@aph.gov.au
Senator Nick Xenaphon, Independent Senator - http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/senators/homepages/contact.asp?id=8IV
Senator Steven Fielding, Leader of Family First - senator.fielding@aph.gov.au
Senator Scott Ludlam, Greens Telecommunications Spokesman - senator.ludlam@aph.gov.au
Senator Nick Minchin, Opposition Telecommunications Shadow Minister - http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/senators/homepages/contact.asp?id=JX4

And write to your newspapers, call your radio stations, talk about this with your friends and work colleagues.

If we do nothing, we won't have a democracy.