Democrat press release.
Under the recently-passed Broadcasting Service Amendment (Online Services) Bill, this mailing list would be subject to filtering and censorship. ISPs who fail to filter this mailing list would be subject to fines of up to $27,500 a day. If you think this is ridiculous, attend the protest march in your capital city on May 28th 1999.
See http://netizen.com.au/community/politics/censor.html for more details.
Newsgroups: netizen.lists.aussie-isp
Subject: [Oz-ISP] Democrat press release..
Date: 27 May 1999 16:56:32 +1000
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http://www.democrats.org.au/media/1999/05/0290nsd.htm
26/5/99
Government supports bad laws
Internet censorship remains unworkable but will become law
The Australian Democrats have voted against the Government's flawed Internet censorship regime. Despite this, support from Senators Harradine and Colston has ensured the passage of the legislation.
"Before the Minister makes another rhetorical reference to opponents of this regime as pornographers and friends of paedophiles, I want to make it clear that the Democrats are not in favour of inappropriate materials being available to minors. This legislation is not the answer. It is bad law and it will not be successful in controlling content," said Senator Stott Despoja.
"If the Government had paid attention to the evidence presented to the Senate Select Committee investigating this proposal, it would have become obvious that there were serious problems with their proposal. Unfortunately, the Government again used the Committee process as a rubber stamp.
"The Australian Democrats have repeatedly drawn attention to the many undesirable aspects of the Bill. These include civil liberties concerns, the creation of broad discretions and uncertain law enforcement provisions, the differing treatment of material in different media, the economic impact of the proposal, and the failure to address problems with filtering technology. The Government claims that they have balanced all of these interests against ‘overwhelming community concern’. The Government has still not provided any evidence of these community concerns.
"Senator Alston has now admitted that there has been no comprehensive analysis of the costs of implementing the proposed Internet censorship regime. The Internet industry has indicated that the costs of compliance are likely to be significant and are likely to be detrimental to the development of the information economy in Australia.
"We know that there are workable approaches to the control of Internet content. These would probably be based on education, regulated client-side filtering and the empowerment of responsible adults. The Australian Democrats would be willing to assist the Government in creating a workable approach, but there has been no willingness to negotiate or listen.
"The Government’s approach to the Internet is based on spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt. This is astounding given their repeated claim that they are friends of the Internet and electronic commerce. The process leading to this legislation indicates that the Government has no interest in the views of Internet users or in the long term future of the Australian Internet industry. Clearly, there is little understanding of the problems that will be arise in the implementation and enforcement of this legislation.
"Today marks the day that the Australian Government turned their back on the Internet. The Australian Democrats will continue to work to provide a cooperative and workable approach to Internet content," concluded Senator Stott Despoja.