This post is specifically directed towards our new Prime Minister, Julia Gillard – who has recently joined Twitter, in line with previous Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd.
Julia – (if I can call you that) – you are probably aware of the uproar in the community regarding your communications minister and his farcical mandatory internet filtering plan. Poll after poll after poll demonstrates well over 95% opposition to the filter amongst the polling sample.
Technical expert after technical expert have demonstrated that not only is the filter going to be largely ineffective, but the minister himself has no understanding of what he is even trying to achieve, yet he wants to spend buckets of taxpayer funds implementing it. When nobody wants it.
He himself has famously inserted his foot into his mouth on many occasions, warning us of ”spams and scams coming through the portal”, and even stating himself that ”you can’t regulate the internet”. His ineptitude is truly something to behold.
He lies about the plan – or at very least does not understand it himself – and constantly misleads the Australian people, while accusing anti-filter campaigners of doing the same. He regularly (potentially libelously) suggests the anyone who is against his filtering plan is in fact “pro-child pornography” – which of course is a treacherous statement.
If you want a bunch of extra votes at the next election, I suggest that you not only consider scrapping the plan, but in fact, I urge you to drop it. Most of all, this man has no place in this portfolio. Senator Conroy has done a good job with the NBN, but beyond that he appears to have no knowledge or understanding of the ICT industry.
Industry expert Mark Newton of ISP Internode, in a submission to the Joint Select Committee on Cybersafety sums the daftness of the entire plan up in the most succinct of ways.
Please save us from this lunacy!
Below is a list of articles that I myself have presented on the matter.
