Q&A with Senator Kate Lundy

If she won't cross the floor over a plan she doesn't believe in, that will make the Internet more expensive for EVERYONE and won't help protect anyone including children or those unfamiliar with the Internet then she is just part of the spin machine and worse than Conroy in some respects.

I was looking to Kate as the voice of reason in the ALP on this issue, but she's turned out to be a plant and has sold her soul at the expense of the freedoms of Australians who elected her.

Poor form!

"No filter is a good filter."

Before dismissing such a view, should you not prove it wrong?

"Nothing should be done."

About what, exactly?

"There is a better way."

To do what, exactly?

And what exactly is so "extreme" about wanting to maintain the status quo?

It's unfortunate that Ms. Lundy has characterized parts of the censorship opposition as advocating that "Nothing should be done."

I don't think anyone actually believes that, it's just that what the Government wants to do is wrong.

If the Government had been consultative instead of coming straight out of the gate with mandatory censorship as the only allowable outcome, we'd be having a different (and more productive) debate, and would probably be talking about things other than ISP content controls.

But as long as the Government persists with its view that forcing ISPs to censor the Internet is the only permissible outcome, many of us will persist with our own view that the Government has rocks in its head. That doesn't mean that we think "nothing should be done," it just means that we think Mr. Rudd's Government is wrong.

- mark

Kate, you've stated you won't be crossing the floor. This means that there will be absolutely no pressure on Rudd/Conroy to change the policy since the only vocal 'opponent' within the ALP has already stated they they'll just follow the party line. There's a word for how the ALP is run and it isn't 'democratic', it's 'dictatorship'

I think there is a better way as well, but to act as if this is not worth crossing the floor over, well, how else do you make your point.

When we are being compared to China in our filtering of the internet, I do not think the general internet using public even understand what the ALP are trying to ram down our throats...

The government still hasn't even made it explicit what goal they are trying to achieve with mandatory internet censorship.

Protecting children online: attempting to block 1-10,000 URLs, will not help in any way, as accidentally stumbling upon them, would be so such a minuscule chance, it wouldn't even be worth talking about let alone spending hundreds of millions of dollars trying to prevent.

Stopping people accessing 'illegal' content: No, its trivial to bypass and most illegal activity is done not over HTTP. But of course they aren't trying to block just 'illegal' content.

If this doesn't convince you Lundy is just another ALP politician.

"No. I’ve made that very clear from the start. What I’m trying to achieve is putting up sensible ideas within my own party to change our policy"

This will. To say that the protest against this unworkable useless filter is "extreme"? Get off it.

"The moderate concern should not be ignored because there’s a very vocal extreme voice out there against the filter; "

Nothing should be done...

Certainly not by the pack of technically primitive duncecaps and apologist party hacks in this regime.

Lundy is sadly all hot air. She can campaign all she wants but if the person calling for change won't even stand up and vote against it, then who will?

If she isn't prepared to make a stand and cross the floor if the need arises then why are we even listening to her? The message she is sending is "Well I have some good ideas to fix an otherwise moronic proposal but I won't show any backbone whatsoever if the madness continues". Does anyone honestly think the ALP will take her seriously with a spineless stance like that...? No. And nor should we.

as one of the so called 'extremists' who doesn't want ISP level filtering I'm offended that you'd say I want nothing done to combat online crime.

What I want done is more funding to the AFP to catch the people perpetrating said crimes. Wasting Millions of taxpayer money on a bury-your-head-in-the-sand approach that doesn't actually combat online crime and merely hides it is an extremely bad idea.

Online Filtering is on par with simply covering a murder victim up with a blanket and not bothering to hunt down the killer.

I thought the people proposing axis of evil style mandatory censorship were extreme but apparently I am the nutter. Despite her just dismissing the passionate opinions of the technical community I quite like Lundy as a potential future comms minister but don't think her compromise solution is one of her greatest ideas. She is doing the right thing fighting this from within her party however. It is about time true Labor stood up to the ALP Right neocons.

" In the long term, there will be a more stable IT work force in the ACT as a result of the Gershon changes, but that’s taking some time to bed down."

All small project wok has dried up, the only people getting work are the American majors CSC/Accenture/IBM/EDS-HP etc. Independents and SME's have only two choices, leave town or sub contract at reduced rates to the big players. I am sure that was the intended purpose of Gershon and Tanner.
Meanwhile few if any public service jobs have been posted, so paying the Americans double the previous rates seems to be the only solution. Not much of a saving.
The stable IT work force is code for just the big boys and no SME's. Its outsourcing all over again.

Well as we see yet again politics is politics. Most of them do not give two hoots about the actual issues. sure they stand up and argue and carry on but in the end they all follow the party line and consider their own careers first and foremost. This is why Kate Lundy will stand and go argue argue argue, then sit down and vote it in regardless.

1. I'm against any filtering of the internet, I would rather see the money wasted on this put to the NBN, or sorting out the Telstra dominance of the infrastructure.
2. As for the Gershon effect, well its not bedding down from my point of view, It has affected me and I'm seriously considering a change of career. Why should I do the same job for less money? Even if I did take a Public Service job I surely wouldn't be putting in the same effort I did when I was being paid well for the job and needed my reputation to obtain my next contract.

"There is a better way."

No kidding. It's called desktop filtering software. Now sit down, I am about to blow your mind, there is free internet filtering software available.

Worth noting that in the ALP, it has long been the case that to cross the floor is to leave the party forever. As much as I detest the internet censorship scheme, AND the two-party political system we have created for ourselves (which lends itself to party loyalty), I'm not sure it is fair to pick on Lundy specifically for not crossing the floor on this issue. How many of you would quit your professions due to a disagreement with your company's CEO?

What we need to do is educate the simpletons whose votes are worth as much as ours. The only way to affect this decision will be via the opinion polls and, if necessary, the ballot box. The problem is that the average joe is typically: technologically illiterate, unfamiliar with the works of John Stuart Mill, and far more conerned about a raft of issues than they are online liberty.

Until the simpletons are made aware of the problems with this censorship, it is as good as in. Don't hate players like Lundy - hate the game, which is run by millions ans millions of ignorant voters.