ISP filtering bill delayed indefinitely
- 21 April, 2010 17:58
- Comments 13
The Labor party has delayed its internal vote on mandatory filtering indefinitely and revealed the draft bill has not been completed. The vote was originally expected to be held mid-March.
According to a spokesperson for the Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, the final draft to be considered by caucus will be completed after considering the 174 submissions it received on its filtering discussion paper.
“The submissions will feed into the development of the legislative framework,” a ministerial statement said in March. “Once these processes are complete, the legislation will be introduced into Parliament.”
Government Senator, Kate Lundy, has spearheaded a movement to use internal Labor politics and force the bill to let Australians choose if they want to be filtered. She said the party had not seen any draft legislation and was waiting on Senator Conroy to release it.
“When it didn’t happen in the last sitting fortnight, the expectation was that it would happen in the next sitting period in May,” she said. “It’s completely up to the Minister’s office when it gets released.
“The feedback I’ve got is that the legislation is still being drafted, but I don’t know the status of it or the timing. I’m ready for the debate when it occurs.”
But despite her willingness to take up the fight during internal debates, Senator Lundy said she would not go against her party in a Senate vote to prevent the legislation going through. According to Monash University senior lecturer in politics, Dr. Nick Economou, Senator Lundy is fighting a battle she has probably already lost.
“It’s a party rule that caucus can direct ministers on policy, but for political reasons, it rarely happens,” he said.
“I feel it’s very unlikely that any attempt to try and divert Prime Minister Rudd and Senator Conroy would succeed. Firstly, it would be a terrible embarrassment for two very powerful members of the Government and secondly, Rudd and Conroy will feel they have the vast weight of public opinion on their side.
“Presumably, she’s doing it because her constituents would expect her to do it. But I think Conroy and Rudd have their eyes on the outer suburbs where the marginal seats are very conservative and easily spooked on matters of Internet nasties.”
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Comments
Bruce
What a nail biting election we have to look forward to. Labor attempting to alienate voters (especially younger ones) with a filter and the Liberals attempting to alienate younger voters by threatening to withdraw unemployment benefits.
Ben
Too politically toxic in an election year?
tom
I know the system is rigged and designed to slowly erode our freedoms and liberties. Labour will suffer massively because of this filtering idea. People believe that Liberal may change things and will probably vote that way next time. I do know however that they will eventually bring in a filter also if they stay in power and will take our freedoms and liberties away just the same way. There is a collusion going on and an agenda. It should be obvious to everyone considering those in power and presumably elected by the people are not listening to the people and doing whatever they like.
David Fox
Government filtering of the net is misguided at best. Thankfully we have informed politicians like Kate Lundy to work on the side of sense and reason.
Benno
I don't believe for a second they will take into account anything put forward in the submissions. Labor don't listen to advice or consider evidence, if they did, they would have abandoned this ages ago. The submission thing was just a stalling device to give us the impression that they are open to ideas. Hurry up and get this legislation tabled so we can all have a laugh. It's getting to the point where I hope we do get the filter, just so we can relish the moment when it all comes crashing down around them. They can't do anything with this, it's a useless unworkable policy, how on earth can you actively filter something that grows by one billion every day?
pasc
Conroy has indicated before he wasn't sure legislation was even needed. Maybe he's decided to bypass parliament?
enjaysee
I agree with Benno. Personally, I don't see the Liberals winning the next election (gut feeling? I don't know). I'm almost at a point where I want this filter enabled just to see how quickly it will take to kill the internet in Australia. How fast would it take for some malcontent to add '*' to the ISP filter, thereby blocking every single web page. I will laugh long and hard.
adam
If Rudd and Conroy "feel they have the vast weight of public opinion on their side" then they must be using researchers and advisors who are as thick headed as they are.
The Sydney Morning Herald ran 2 recent online polls on the proposed filter. One had 45,152 respondents voting 96% 'No' to the filter, the other had 68,105 voting 99% against the filter.
Though these aren't scientifically accurate polls, there's not very much ambiguity in the numbers as to where the public stands on it.
gth
They're delaying the legislation so debate about is effectively stymied.
I predict Labor will continue these delays, and finally release a raft of complex (draft) legislation within a week or two of the election. Lots of conflicting goals and methods will be buried in the wording to bog down their opponents, whereas Labour will stand before the cameras and give nice broad sound bites to the masses about their great glowing saviour of an entire generation of Australian komputer-kids from parents without a clue.
Leak the draft legislation ASAP, please. Australians need to know what these nutters are trying force down our throats.
Th
Tom, the liberals have quite clearly indicated they are against the idea of mandatory filtering, they did provide a filtered feed for a while but this was optional, furthermore they scrapped it after it proved useless.
Liberals are against this as are the majority of the greens
http://www.zdnet.com.au/several-liberal-mps-oppose-filter-339300117.htm?omnRef=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com.au%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dliberals%2Boppose%2Bfilter%26ie%3Dutf-8%26oe%3Dutf-8%26aq%3Dt%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial%26client%3Dfirefox-a
Basically don't jump to conclusions on any party.
lazerzap
TY Tom... Perfect..
I know the system is rigged and designed to slowly erode our freedoms and liberties. Labour will suffer massively because of this filtering idea. People believe that Liberal may change things and will probably vote that way next time. I do know however that they will eventually bring in a filter also if they stay in power and will take our freedoms and liberties away just the same way. There is a collusion going on and an agenda. It should be obvious to everyone considering those in power and presumably elected by the people are not listening to the people and doing whatever they like.
Tom said everything.. Please RT lmao
lazerzap
3 posings in comments?.. ok.. let me do this right then..
Quote: "Senator Lundy said she would not go against her party in a Senate vote to prevent the legislation going through."
No surprise there...
Did anyone (with some political nouse) really think that Senator Lundy would go against her political party LORDS?
Did anyone really believe that a PARTY POLITICIAN would have the intestinal fortitude (guts) to standup for what the public want against the whims of some wantabee controlling faction?
No thats not the way the PARTY operates. Tom has it 100% correct. Both MAJOR (and probably some minor) PARTYS want MORE control over us.
To actually cast a vote that represents the will of the people is the way things used to operate before the political parties got involved in corrupting parliament.
To continue to vote for a PARTY representative is in my opinion, casting a vote to continue the corruption.
Vote Independent and at least have a chance at obtaining representation.
xxx
Charles
I am a strong Labour supporter in my 50s...
Until they quash this idiotic idea, I will absolutely not vote for them. God help us, but I predict the Tony "The Pontiff" Abbott will win this election because of this. Every one of my friends that votes Labour has said the same thing to me...at all costs, we will not go the way of China with secret bans and censorship, even if it means years of suffering the arrogant Liberal fools.
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