*CENSORED TO PROTECT THE CHILDREN*

I don't claim to be very political. Like most people, I "know" how the Government should have handled this situation or that situation or how better to spend the tax payer's money. I do admit that I like watching the late night airing of Question Time in Parliament, but not for the political insights, but because what usually takes place is worse then the bickering and fighting that took place in the Big Brother house. It's hilarious how much like children these adults can act. "Mr Speaker, that person didn't answer my question.", "Mr Speaker, that person completely gave us the run around", "Mr Speaker, that person made fun of me." to which the speaker will reply with "Will the Member for *insert constituency here* answer the question." and "The Member for *insert constituency here* will leave the floor for 2 hours." and so on. It's massive joke, and these people are running the country.



There is one issue that I have been following, however, because of how it will affect me, and that is the Government's mandatory ISP level content filtering policy. The basic idea is that, bowing to the hand wringing of lazy parents who demand someone else solve the problem, rather then they actually monitor what their child is browsing, the Australian Government has decided to implement an Internet filtering scheme. ISP level filtering will provide a "Clean Feed" of Internet into all Australian homes. It is mandatory and no one will be able to opt out of it. Currently the Government are conducting trials as to it's feasibility with a number of different ISPs, the tests to end soon. This has outraged many people in the country because it reeks of something that one would never expect a democratic country to ever think about, namely breaching of the basic freedom of speech. As it stands now, the Government is claiming that the filter will be used to block things like child pornography and things of that dark nature. However they have stated that it will also include everything that falls under the RC, Refused Classification, description.

RC is what is given to content by the Office of Film and Literature Classification when it feels it does not meet certain standards. Barring Western Australia and certain indigenous communities, RC content is not illegal to own, just illegal to sell in Australia. Things that will attract this ratings are games, as Australia does not have an R18+ rating, any games that cannot be classified as MA15+ are RC. This one is another whole issue in and of itself. Pornography that contains fetishes such as spanking is also deemed RC. Other types of media that are too long to list may also be blocked with this filter if it gets the RC rating.

Part of the problem is that putting it under such a broad scope, practically anything online could be given RC and put on the ACMA blacklist, blocking it from being viewed. This list will remain secret and there is really no way to appeal to get taken off this list. Recently a veterinary site was put onto this list, and the already available, government issued filtering software started blocking this site. It's scary that such decisions are left up to the shadowy and mysterious body to deign what may be appropriate and what isn't for people to view. If one were to exercise their basic freedom to criticise the government on something it did or didn't do, this body could essentially deem the comments as inappropriate and ban anyone from seeing it. It's a slippery slope from there.

Many people, including Christian organisations, social workers, child welfare groups, all groups the government is claiming they are trying to protect, say they do not want the filter and that it won't work. One ISP went as far as to put their hands up to take part in the Government tests just so they could prove that it wouldn't work, saying the would make public everything that failed during the tests. This ISP was promptly denied to take part in the trials. The Senator in charge seems ludicrously bereft of any idea of what this policy entails, whenever being presented with facts and figures on how it won't work, denies them, claiming that the other side does not know what they're talking about. He has also contradicted himself several times on what will and won't be covered with the filter.

An online petition has been created, which can bee seen here, for people to sign in order to voice their objection to the proposal. The same group has set up a parody website showing the dangers of the filter, cleverly called CensorDyne, a play on the toothpaste for sensitive teeth. They have produced a TV commercial as well, objecting to the plans, using humor. I personally found it quite funny. It can be seen here. A blog I frequent as well is following the issue and is quite a good read. Somebody Think of the Children, think Helen Lovejoy screaming this in several episode of the Simpsons, quite an apt description of the situation.

Another development, as recent as last night, news.com.au, reported that the PM's website suffered a DDOS attack by Anonymous. They said they were declaring war on the Australian Government for it's breech of human rights and are calling for the resignation of Senator Conroy, minister for communications, who is in charge of the effort to put this in place. This sort of thing really only gives ammunition to supporters of the filter, and while some might want to say good job to these people, it will only hurt the position of those trying to sink this idea using the correct channels. It unravels the work these people have put into the campaign to stop the filter. News article here. As it currently stands though, to bring this policy into being, the Government needs a majority vote in the Senate to ratify it, and currently they don't. The entire Coalition, which is the Liberal and National parties currently don't support the plan, as well as some Independent senators. Hopefully it will stay that way when it comes to be voted on and does not get through.

Another possibility of this is that, as the current Government does not have a majority in the Upper house, and they continue to fail to get policies pushed through, as what happened recently with a healthcare issue, it could cause a Double Dissolution. How this works is laws drafted in the lower house need to be approved in the upper house before becoming law. In most situations, the government has control over both houses so passing laws isn't a problem. However the current government does not have control over the upper house. This means that if they wanted to, the party controlling the upper house could stop any law being passed, meaning the government could not govern. This in turn would force the Governor-General to dismiss the Parliament, the upper and lower houses. This is the Double Dissolution. The people would then need to go to the polls and vote in a new government. This has only happened once before, in 1975. There is talk in the media that it may have a small chance of happening again.

One final thing. I love the irony of the All Powerful and All Knowing Emperor Rudd holding China up as the example of how ISP level filtering is working perfectly without any drawbacks, yet as recently as a few months ago, the Chinese govt ratified new laws saying that every computer sold has to have filtering software installed because ISP level filtering just isn't working. The Economy, Basic Human Rights, care to try for a hat-trick of screw-ups Emperor Rudd?