This document (linked below) arrived in my inbox today after I had emailed the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (Stephen Conroy) with my concerns about this flawed and mandatory plan.
Unfortunately, besides wasting my bandwidth all this document does is summarize the position held by Senator Conroy and the Australian Labor party. It does very little to address any of the concerns raised, it does not even attempt to consider opt-in (optional) filtering, even though it points out that such filtering exists in other countries.
From the document:
It goes without saying that our Internet speeds in Australia are far behind the countries listed in the Minster’s diatribe. Filtering of higher speeds may not be “noticeable” (whatever that means, it is highly subjective) all of whom have unmetered (no caps) and had achieved ADSL2+ speeds in domestic residences many years ahead of Australia. In fact only a small percentage of Australians can even get ADSL2+ – for the record.
So despite the fact that it basically won’t work (can easily be circumvented – in the Senator’s own words), and a vast majority are against it (I can state unverifiable generalizations just as well as the next Labor MP), the Labor Government is going to press ahead anyway. Despite the colossal waste of tax payers money and after strong dissent from both ISPs and the wider IT industry.
We do not want mandatory filtering.
In this context filtering = censorship, which is exactly why China receives so much criticism. It is unbelievably hypocritical to besmirch China’s Internet firewall whilst simultaneously enacting one in our own country.
Once a mandatory filter is in place, it will (lets be realistic) never be removed. What will remain is the temptation to start blocking access to any number of legitimate websites, which is a power no Government can be trusted with, now or in the future.
#NoCleanFeed and #NoCensorship
Attachment: Document from the Minister
