David – congratulations to yourself and to Sky News Australia for landing the role of moderator and convener of the upcoming first leaders debate for the 2010 Australian Federal Election. Top Notch.
On behalf of the many thousands of law-abiding internet users who believe in democracy in this country, please raise the issue of Federal Labor’s ridiculous, unworkable, and unwanted mandatory internet filtering plans. Do not just raise it towards Labor and their uncommunicative and bullying, so-called “public consultation”, but also to the Coalition, and their seeming inability to come up with any clear position on the plan. A plan that many Australians are extremely passionate about.
Raise the issue of Mark Newton’s well-reasoned submission to the Joint Select Committee on Cyber-Safety and its subsequent censoring when the submission was released by the government.
Raise the issue of Turkey’s internet censorship mechanism, which was originally aimed in a very similar area to Labor’s stated aims of the Australian filter, but within a year deteriorated into a nightmare of restrictions of freedom.
Raise the issue of the extensive litany of utterly stupid statements made by Senator Conroy in trying to sell the plan to Australians.
He would see his attempt to sell the idea as a success, because mainstream Australia doesn’t see it as an issue – but that is because he refuses to adequately present it to the Australian people.
Please, make it an issue. Make it a very public issue – before freedoms online, and freedom of speech in general, are put at the top of the slippery slide towards disappearance.
Please.