Tough titties for ‘tweens
Just when I thought that the Australian Labor party couldn’t sink any lower into the quicksand of irrelevancy they manage to submerge themselves yet again.
Opposition Leader Kim Beazley says a Labor government would introduce laws requiring Internet service providers to offer a “clean feed” without pornographic and violent sites, thereby limiting offensive content.
“The reality is … only about a third of the parents put some sort of blocker in relation to the sites on their home computers, it’s too hard for most of them but if you did it at the level of the provider, probably very few people would opt in.” -Kim Beazley.
Why do parents not bother Kim? Maybe because by and large parents aren’t concerned enough to monitor (actually or electronically) their children when they surf the net.
Or perhaps parents, who are also consenting adults, create, consume and enjoy erotic images and stories found on the internet and do not want it filtered out.
The greatest offensive content out there now is the pathetic, irrelevant excuse for an idea that Kim believes passes for opposition policy.
Image from here
March 22nd, 2006 at 7:54 am
Suki, whatever happened to parental responsibility? If one has young children and a computer in the house, one must supervise their access as one might supervise their television viewing.
Moreover, why should the Net be dumbed down to the level of a 5 year old simply because there’s some indifferent or digitally incompetent parents out there? If you have kids, supervision of your kids’ access or PC level nanny filtering is the go.
Why isn’t Kimbo hammering on the poor to non-existent broadband internet access in rural and regional Australia? If Telstra started laying fibre-optic cable in the ground tomorrow, it’d be 10 years before the nation was cabled… and we’re already 10 years behind the USA.
Telstra’s failure to install 4 copper wires per home instead of 2 to save money over the last 20 years or so means even ADSL or a second dial-up line are not an option.
So much for the ‘knowledge nation.’
March 22nd, 2006 at 10:54 am
dear oh dear.
March 22nd, 2006 at 12:02 pm
Spot on Sukie, as usual.
March 22nd, 2006 at 12:34 pm
This really reeks of desperation.
Isn’t the AWB or the Iraq war or the IR changes (and the list could go on) more ammunition than any opposition has had for many, many years?
But then again the federal opposition is not really an opposition, it’s not far from being a member of the coalition.
March 22nd, 2006 at 1:27 pm
Labor isn’t a political party anymore, Ron. It’s more like a PR firm… and not a very good one at that.
Labor is completely out of touch with the electorate mainly because it is comprised of the same sort of career politicos as is the Liberal Party. You couldn’t expect them to be visibly different.
March 22nd, 2006 at 4:21 pm
Beazley is trying to gain a footing by outdoing the coalition in the conservative stakes. In my opinion Labor has been on a steady decline since failing to take a moral stance on Tampa.
Labor are absolutely doomed unless they can reinvent themselves as a viable opposition.
March 22nd, 2006 at 5:04 pm
Being a computer novice, I was caught off guard when my grand-daughters visited and I didn’t restrict content. I’ll be much stricter next time but it was nice of them to sign me up for LavaLife.
March 22nd, 2006 at 5:05 pm
Too right, David. I’ve certainly never forgiven Beaz for allowing Howard to get away with Tampa. The Greens got 16% of the popular vote in the last federal elections for a bloody good reason. Centre right isn’t left.
JT, you’re lucky if the raciest site they visited was Lavalife. I’ve repaired laptops belonging to teens (boys and girls) that had stuff on them that made 40-something me blush fuschia.
March 22nd, 2006 at 11:58 pm
It is like labor is attempting to get the jump on future liberal party policy. Weird.
March 23rd, 2006 at 8:09 am
J, it is weird, but it is not a new practise for Labor. Co-opting the policies of your successful opponents is something all political parties do, to one degree or another.
Howard co-opted the crypto-racism of Hanson’s One Nation- and is still doing so. Remember John Howard saying that 5000 people screaming ‘fuck off lebs! fuck off lebs!’ at Cronulla last December was not racist?
Beaz put a liplock on the xenophobia nipple going back to ‘children overboard’ & SIEV-X.
Labor isn’t going to have any electoral success at the federal level until they start openly and vociferously opposing Howard’s policies.
March 23rd, 2006 at 11:05 am
Well the world is going rightwards — and the more the herd runs to the right, the more it runs to the right.
But part and parcel of this rightwards move has to do with people feeling overwhelming by the complexity of life, especially on the levels of morality and their ability to integrate knowledge. People want simplicity –clear moral stances — which is what the right has to offer.
March 23rd, 2006 at 11:44 am
Also, I think it true that the way the left has dealt with the problem of the complexity of life (“the information age”) has, in many ways, directly fed towards the right wing and its agenda. What I see in the education system is the transmittal of a worldview which urges: “You deserve never to feel uncomfortable about anything.” Well — fine, in so far as that goes. But it is education towards a passive stance. If Immigration detention centres make me “feel uncomfortable” I will turn a blind eye. If trampling on the rights of workers makes me feel uncomfortable, I will refuse to think. Taking a strong stand is considered PASSE. We (leftists) consider it too simple an an answer to very complex questions. Above, all we feel superior to those issues and individuals who would be inclined to rattle us.
The right has no such qualms about oversimplifying, though. They march on through!
March 23rd, 2006 at 4:59 pm
Kim obviously reckons a little pitch, to the ‘god-bothering’, will help his cause. Let us remember, that Senate numbers would be much more interesting, if Labor preferenced Greens, rather than Family First in Victoria, at the last fed election.
Some great stuff on Rodney Croome,gay activist, site. He warns the LGBT, mainland generally , about conservative tactics in recent Tassie election……..particularly, ‘Exclusive Brethren’. Well worth a link for those who have not seen.
Thanks, Suki.
xxxooo
see……….
March 23rd, 2006 at 6:25 pm
Thanks Joe2,
Rodney’s been in the good fight a long time.
March 23rd, 2006 at 8:10 pm
Yes Suki, and his 13 steps to fight/pamper are well worth reading. Though, further down the blog.
March 27th, 2006 at 8:41 am
Did anyone catch Clive Hamilton speaking about federal Labor last week? Still not sure if I entirely agree with him, but he does raise some good points.
March 27th, 2006 at 6:44 pm
Today I have been busy trying to work out just where Kim and Tony (good mates as well as Laborites) intersect.
Having Johnnie praise Tony’s work is a clue…
*sigh*
March 27th, 2006 at 8:02 pm
If Little Johnny has a crush on Bliar, you can bet there’s an Australia Card in your near future.