Hit delete on Rudd's new fascist regime
November 10th 2008 04:11
Alarm bells should be ringing for all Australians when our government is taking its cue from China on censorship matters! Hello people, we are talking about adopting the same laws here as those imposed on a communist nation!!
Somebody needs to remind the Prime Minister that he was elected by the people of Australia to represent us as a nation, not to control and dictate our rights and liberties. And certainly not to deny us the right to freedom of information.
I can not believe that Australian Tax payers would stand idly by while $44 million of their hard-earned money is frittered away by the Government to implement a system whereby they (the government) would have total mandatory control of what all Australians could, and more importantly, could not, access on the internet.
If I may digress for a moment, think of the other beneficial uses that $44 million could be put to during this economic crisis. That money could be put towards easing the strain for many Aussie families – and that actually was a major pledge in your campaign was it not, Kevin 07?
If this is not a major violation of our constitutional rights, then shouldn’t we be taking a closer look at the constitution? Regardless, it is most definitely a violation of our ‘God-given’ human rights!
It is also damn insulting that, although being capable-minded adults, our government feels that we do not possess the necessary abilities to decide for ourselves what is and is not appropriate for us, as individuals, to have exposure to.
I monitor my children’s internet in a similar fashion to what the government is now proposing for all of us. Do we really want to be treated like children?
Throughout history tyrannical establishments have used suppression of information as a means of controlling the people. By all logical paths this leads to suppression of opinion and the end of free-speech.
The thing that scares me most is the average Australian’s general apathy towards such matters, so many people think this doesn’t really affect them.
Well, perhaps not yet, but a day will come when you type something into your search engine and come up with no results… you will try to phrase it this way and that, then finally it will dawn on you that although you are innocently researching rape crime statistics for a social studies essay, your keyword ‘rape’ has now been added to the list of banned search items.
This still not hitting home to anyone? What about when you go to read the latest post on your favourite blog and find that you cannot view it because it contains material that the government have decided you shouldn’t be exposed to or informed about?
Or how about when you feel like a bit of consensual adult entertainment and find that you can only access material that the government (with the support of church groups) have decided are "decent" for you to see.
This is about the time that you start freaking out and searching the internet for more information about this, trying to find people who are speaking out against this disgusting perversion of your rights… only to find that again there is nothing.
Once this kind of technology has been put into place, the government has complete control and it is too late, they’re not going to get rid of it once it’s there. Just as no future government would relinquish such a tool of control and manipulation. In fact it’s quite the opposite, they’d be just itching to get their grubby little paws on it!
Just because controversial laws, such as those pertaining to euthanasia and abortion are in place today, does not mean that they will stay that way forever, people still have a right and a necessity to be informed, otherwise change is not possible. I am sure the people running our country are well aware of this fact, and that is the most worrying thing of all.
Another point to consider is the side advantages that will befall the possessor of this ‘mandatory filter’, without knowing too much of the technical side I imagine that all Australian IP addresses would somehow connect with this new government technology, providing them with all kinds of information on our individual internet usage.
Plus, if the filter will not be covering bit-torrent peer-to-peer downloads, then it does make you wonder if they know what they are doing? I don’t imagine there are all that many websites out there openly advertising child pornography! Or perhaps there are… I wouldn’t know because I have never searched for it, but now I will because it is relevant to this article… and what is most important is that I can legally and easily find this out.
Imagine not being able to do this. Not being able to find out a truth – an ugly truth yes – but again without information we have no knowledge and without knowledge we have no power to cause change.
Child pornography is a horrific thing (and, for the record, I believe offenders should be castrated - I think that would be a much more effective solution to the problem, and cheaper too), but I do not want to bury my head in the sand and ignore the issue, and I do not want any other person thinking they have a right to make that decision on my behalf.
This proposal for the violation of our right to freedom of information must never be allowed to come into existence. Here’s hoping we have more libertarians in the Federal Senate than in the Labor Party, and this disgraceful plan never sees the light of day.
But at the same time, it is the responsibility of all of us to ensure the continuation of our own rights… and tax payers in this country need to realise that they have more power than they are led to believe.
Just think about it for a moment… the country runs on tax payers’ money, it’s not like the pollies are out there actually contributing to the national surplus - the national debt perhaps. But, at the end of the day, without our money, they wouldn’t have the means to enforce their unwelcome laws upon us.
Please take a moment to visit some of the sites below:
EFA has a petition you can sign & heaps of info...
Uncensor, fighting for Chinese rights - a must see (a scary glimpse of our future?)
Hinet,Campaigning against Internet Censorship in Australia
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Comment by Movie Mall
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The Invisible Sky
You've really opened my eyes (so to speak) about this issue. I had no idea - something to do with having my head buried in the sand I guess. No more...
Something has got to be done people!
MM