Compiled by Andrew Middleton

With no legislation yet tabled, the Government’s position is best put forth by the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy – Stephen Conroy’s – initial media release on the proposition:

http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media/media_releases/2009/115

As well as Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s comments on Channel Seven’s “Sunrise” Program, 26th of February, 2010:

“We have a very hard line approach on this. Is any system perfect in dealing with it? No. But is our challenge to reduce it to the absolute extent – ah – possible? Yes. And remember, what we’re doing here is the same treatment that you extend to any piece of, ahh, material out there in movies, in videos.”

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbqJ0P5M71g (from 1:28 to 2:16)

WAYS YOU CAN STOP THE FILTER
A couple of suggestions are to write to Politicians from all sides of the House of Representatives & Senate about your concerns and opposition to the filter concisely.

21st of June 2010, House of Representatives Hansard transcript: Internet Filtering petition

Congratulations to Melissa Short and everyone involved in the petition addressed to the House of Representatives against internet filtering. Here’s the tabling of it in yesterday’s sitting of the House of Representatives (at around 8:30pm AEST):

http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/reps/dailys/dr210610.pdf

On page 94 is the tabling and reading of the petition against mandatory internet filtering. 2166 valid signatures make it the 4th largest in the sitting, but in total over 7000 signatures were submitted. This is as direct as our democracy gets, unfortunately. Please cite this petition in any future campaigning.

Petition homepage:

http://www.thecrowhouse.com/savethenet.html

Petition Signature Team – WA:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=267057358856

ELECTRONIC PETITIONS ARE NOT SUBMISSIBLE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

The electronic petition addressed to the Senate will be tabled by Senator Ludlam:

http://efa.org.au/epetition

_________________________________________________________________________

KEY FACTS AND WEBSITES ABOUT PROPOSED MANDATORY INTERNET FILTERING IN AUSTRALIA

Mainstream media coverage of the protest held in Perth against Internet filtering on the 13th of December, 2008:

http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/internet-censorship-wont-benefit-cyber-safety-protestors-say-20081214-6y3k.html

Federal Government measure we’re trying to prevent (no legislation proposed as yet):

http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media/media_releases/2009/115

Department of Broadband, Communications, & the Digital Economy: “ISP Filtering – Frequently Asked Questions,” 17th of December, 2009:

http://www.dbcde.gov.au/funding_and_programs/cybersafety_plan/internet_service_provider_isp_filtering/isp_filtering_live_pilot/isp_filtering_-_frequently_asked_questions

A comprehensive review of the history of Labor’s varying ISP filtering policies/’plans’ since 2006:

http://libertus.net/censor/ispfiltering-au-govplan.html#s_21

“Australian Internet Filtering Wiki Page”:

http://www.overclockers.com.au/wiki/Australian_Internet_Filtering

Websites, organisations, and political parties/members who oppose mandatory Internet filtering:

Greens Senator Scott Ludlam – who will be speaking at the Perth event – on the ABC’s PM Program, 16th of December 2009:

http://scott-ludlam.greensmps.org.au/content/greencast/scott-talks-abc-pm-about-net-filtering

Liberal Democratic Party, “OPPOSE CENSORSHIP”:

http://www.ldp.org.au/files/Censorship%20brochure.pdf

Australian Pirate Party Media Release, “Conroy Misleads Public with Filter Report,” 15th of December 2009:

http://pirateparty.org.au/Conroy-Misleads-Public-with-Filter-Report

The Australian Democrats “No Internet Censorship” page:

http://www.nointernetcensorship.com/

Liberal Party Senator Cory Bernadi, “Blanket Ban on Internet a Folly”:

http://www.senatorbernardi.com/2009/02/blanket-ban-on-internet-a-folly.html

Current Liberal Party Senate Leader Nick Minchin, 2nd of September 2009:

http://www.liberal.org.au/news.php?Id=3692

Shadow Minister for Broadband, Communications, & the Digital Economy Tony Smith, 10th of February, 2010:

http://www.tonysmithmp.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=197

LABOR Party Senator Kate Lundy opposes a mandatory filter, stating:
“I do not believe a mandatory filter will achieve the policy goals stated and I agree that mandatory filtering creates an issue around free expression and business confidence.”
Source: http://www.katelundy.com.au/2010/02/02/q-and-a-from-my-thoughts-on-the-internet-filter/

From the Government Department of Broadband, Communications, & the Digital Economy (Conroy’s Department!), 17th of December, 2009:
“A technically competent user could circumvent filtering.”
Source: http://www.dbcde.gov.au/funding_and_programs/cybersafety_plan/internet_service_provider_isp_filtering/isp_filtering_live_pilot/isp_filtering_-_frequently_asked_questions#9.0

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Channel 7′s Sunrise Program, February 26th, 2010:
“It’s called, ah – ‘refused classification material.’ What’s it involve? Acts of child abuse, acts of sexual abuse against children, including material which also – ah – provides ‘how to’ kits in terms of conducting terrorist attacks. We have a very hard line approach on this. Is any system perfect in dealing with it? No. But is our challenge to reduce it to the absolute extent – ah – possible? Yes. And remember what we’re doing here is the same treatment that you extend to any piece of ahh – material out there in movies, in videos, and now we’re seeking to do the same when it comes to this; ‘awful material.’ Ah, which I think mums & dads watching this program this morning would be really worried about.”
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbqJ0P5M71g (from 1:28 to 2:16)

Save the Children and National Children’s & Youth Law Centre (NCYLC) both oppose the proposed mandatory internet filter plan:

http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/330087/child_groups_slam_conroy_isp_filtering_plans/

Listen to co-Organisers of the Perth March 6th Rally Andrew Middleton & Ben Peterson on RTRfm’s “Indymedia,” 1st of March 2010:

http://www.rtrfm.com.au/restream/9955 (our pre-recorded interview comes in at about the 25 minute mark)

Listen to Melissa Short, Principal Petitioner of the Official anti-censorship Paper Petition addressed to the House of Representatives (http://www.thecrowhouse.com/savethenet.html), 5th May, 2010:

http://www.corbettreport.com/mp3/2010-05-05%20Melissa%20Short.mp3

Wikileaks released the ACMA Blacklist of sites for the internet filter on the 18th of March, 2009. Unfortunately, they are struggling for funding and the link is down. If you can financially support them please do: http://wikileaks.org/

Australian Internet Censorship-related Websites:
http://www.stopthefilter.org/, http://www.efa.org.au/, http://openinternet.com.au/, http://www.netalarmed.com/, http://nocleanfeed.com/, http://chairmankrudd.com/, http://www.internetblackout.com.au/, http://www.stopinternetcensorship.org/, http://www.somebodythinkofthechildren.com/, http://www.thegiftofcensorship.com/, http://www.block-the-filter.org/, http://www.censordyne.com.au/

Perth March 6th Rally Promo posters:

http://stopthefilter.org/download/Internet%20Censorship%20Promo%20Flyer%20-%20Poster1.pdf

http://stopthefilter.org/download/Internet%20Censorship%20Promo%20Flyer%20-%20Poster2.pdf

http://stopthefilter.org/download/Internet%20Censorship%20Promo%20Flyer%20-%20Poster3.pdf

Most of the Posters available on the net regarding this issue:

http://www.somebodythinkofthechildren.com/big-list-of-no-aussie-net-censorship-posters/

2010 CAMPAIGN UPDATES
January 14: http://wearechangewa.com/2010/01/14/tear-down-the-firewall/
May 6: http://stopthefilter.org/2010/05/06/australian-anti-internet-censorship-campaign-update/
May 26: http://stopthefilter.org/2010/05/26/senator-ludlam-the-time-for-australians-to-stand-up-is-right-now-and-we-are-standing-up/

By Melissa Short, Principal Petitioner (e-mail: melsy29@hotmail.com)
Edited by Andrew Middleton, Petition Coordinator

The petition addressed to the House of Representatives against mandatory internet censorship in Australia, has been presented on Monday, the 21st of June. If you would like to watch the petition being presented to the House of Representatives in Parliament, it will be broadcast live on Australian Parliamentary House webcast, and if you missed watching it live, it will be archived and still available for viewing for at least one month. The Hansard transcript of the June 21st, 2010 sitting of the House of Representatives includes the tabling and reading of this petition. Scroll down to page 94 of the PDF to view it, or download it as a single page.

Over 7,000 signatures were garnered in the six months that this petition ran for, and due to an extremely high amount of people not recording their first and last names, when signing this petition but rather just a first initial with their last name, this has resulted in only 2166 being accepted as the count of valid signatures attached to our petition. This was the 4th highest amount of signatures for a petition tabled in the sitting.

It is a terrible let down that not all submitted signatures can be counted, but according to the Standing Committee on Petitions, 2166 is still a very high amount to be collected for a petition and is a considerable amount of signatures collected by people of the public, people with no funding or affiliation with the media or any organizations to help push a campaign for this petition. So I won’t dwell on the loss of signatures for too long and just look very forward to Monday, too watching this document opposing internet censorship becoming an official government record with over 2,000 valid signatures!

Although any signatures garnered going forward cannot be added to this Monday’s presentation, I have recently been advised by the Petitions Committee that if we choose to we can keep collecting signatures, but it will not be added to the signature count for this presentation, but presented in the next sitting session (August) with mention of the original submission of 2166 signatures. Submitting further signatures will continue to show the government that we are strongly opposed. So the good news is, that if you are one of those people who signed the petition but didn’t record your full name, you now haven’t missed out on having your signature counted, you can still print out the petition and sign it and either send it to me or directly to the Petitions committee and this will count for the August session.

Hansard transcript of the June 21st sitting of the House of Representatives (page 94)

Hansard transcript of the House of Representatives tabling of the petition against mandatory internet filtering (1 page only)

House of Representatives Petition homepage (download links for petition available here)

House of Representatives Standing Committee on Petitions