While in opposition under the HoWARd regime, Kate Lundy served as Shadow Minister for Information Technology and Sport. At the time, she made her views on mandatory internet filtering well known. In 2003, Lundy said:
Independent experts continue to expose flaws in filter technology. A 2001 CSIRO report found that, despite improvements in filtering technology over the years, there is no filter that is 100 per cent effective in keeping out all undesirable material without simultaneously blocking acceptable content.
Even the regulatory body responsible, the Australian Broadcasting Authority, acknowledged in relation to filter technology that none of the products currently available meet users’ expectations with regard to blocking accuracy, useability and system performance. Therefore, the suggestion that the entire Internet should be filtered is unrealistic and inappropriate.
Unfortunately, such a short memory regarding the debate in 1999 about Internet content has led the coalition to already offer support for greater censorship by actively considering proposals for unworkable, quick fixes that involve filtering the Internet at the ISP level.
Let us be clear about this: this would mean that all Internet content available to Australians would be prefiltered by ISPs in accordance with the standards of censorship preferred by the coalition government. This ridiculous proposition is made even more absurd when the weaknesses of filtering technology at this level effectively ensure that it would not work anyway.
In 2009, now government Senator Lundy said:
Finally, I want to be very clear that ultimately, as a Senator in the Labor Government I will be bound by Labor Caucus’ position on the matter. I remain supportive of Minister Conroy and will work closely with him to reach the best possible outcome.
Senator Lundy, meet Mephistopheles. Mephistopheles, Senator Lundy.
Hell of a way to keep a job, ma’am.
-weez
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Actually knowing our Kate, the “working closely” bit would probably go something like
“Steve, pull your head out of your arse. You’re a fuckwit who is going to be left with a big sticky mess once Fielding goes and you don’t have to crawl to him any more. Now grab some HTFU and kill this filter! Now!”
All is not lost…
Comment by inglourious_basterd 01.02.10 @ 12:18 pmI’d like to believe that Lundy is doing precisely that- but neither you nor I have any evidence that she is. At this moment, what we know is that Lundy intends to be bound by the policy set by Labor Caucus, no matter how completely wrong it is.
Conroy’s demonstrated that he doesn’t actually give two shits about whether the filtering scheme will technically accomplish what he is claiming it will, nor whether there’s actually any problem to address. This rubbish has been a longstanding Labor policy, going back to Beasley’s ‘leadership,’ which is doubtless based in complaints from moralist wowsers who are convinced that the sky is falling because no-one is in charge of content on the internet, as if someone HAS to be in charge of everything to prevent us poor errant humans from going astray…
Labor are chasing votes, nothing more nor less. However, the problem which Conroy & Rudd are trying desperately to ignore is that they’re going to lose a hell of a lot more votes by merely proposing (much less tabling and enacting) this bad policy, than they will ever earn with it.
The real danger is that ANY government which gets their grubby little paws on a filtering system will use it to suppress dissent. This will come back to bite Labor when they are invariably voted out at some future date.
Comment by weez 01.07.10 @ 6:44 amLeave a comment
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