Australian Internet Censorship Run-Down

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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

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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/

House of Representives Petition against Mandatory Internet Censorship in Australia

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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


Senator Ludlam: “The time for Australians to stand up is right now, and we are standing up.”

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By Andrew Middleton, House of Representatives Petition Coordinator

Greens Senator Scott Ludlam (pictured, image credit: David Howe) has given a conclusive rebuttal to comments made by the Labor Government’s Communications Minister Stephen Conroy on the Four Corners documentary, Access Denied, aired on the 10th of May, 2010. The documentary, still viewable online at ABC iView, reveals “how an apparently well meaning attempt by [the Australian] government to protect children from video nasties on the net turned into a policy that critics say promotes censorship and reduces personal freedom.”

During the documentary, the Communications Minister has the following pledge to the Australian public:

“If a majority of the Parliament in the future want to broaden the classification – meaning of material caught by the filter – well then, Australians should stand up and say ‘just a minute’, and I’ll be one of them.”

To which Senator Ludlam quoted and responded to, just two days later in the Senate:

“Of course, by that time it will be too late. That is the future of this filter: a majority of a future parliament, probably under pressure of some kind of moral panic-whatever that may be-broadening the filter to include a larger scope of banned material and Stephen Conroy standing there in the minority, saying, ‘Just a minute,’ shortly before losing the vote. Once the architecture is in place, the idea that future governments will not be tempted to expand its scope is impossible to entertain. The reasons are technical, as well as political.”

(Senator Ludlam’s full statement in the Senate can be read in transcript, or viewed as film)

This is an important distinction made by Senator Ludlam in why he opposes the mandatory ISP filtering plan, and it’s one that all reading this should consider carefully. Later in the Parliamentary statement, the Senator had this important message relating to Mr. Conroy’s pledge, which is worth emphasising:

“In terms of the minister’s comments about people standing up and saying no if future governments proposed to increase the scope, and saying that that would be the time for Australians to stand up: the time for Australians to stand up is right now, and we are standing up.“

Scott Ludlam has good authority to speak as an Australian standing up on the issue of the Labor Govnerment’s mandatory web filtering proposal, having attended and spoke at both the December 2008 and March 2010 rallys held in Perth which were aimed at informing the public and expressing opposition to the proposal. Scott also regularly asks questions and makes statements in Parliamentary Question Time and Senate Hearing about the matter, along with making public statements on his blog and taking media interviews, as he happened to yesterday on the ABC’s Triple J program Hack.

Scott’s message to Australians in his May 12 Senate statement pre-empted the May 22nd National Day of Action, which occured in 3 locations around Australia on both sides of the continent. The campaign for these Days of Action were driven by the official anti-censorship paper petition addressed to the House of Representatives, which now has around 6500-7000 signatures penned in total with 4400 already received by Principal Petitioner Melissa Short. It will be presented to the House of Representatives and put on the public Hansard record on the 21st of June, 2010 with the  Australian Petitions Committee accepting signatures no later than the 11th of June, 2010. With this recent extended submission deadline, the decision has been made to ask concerned and active Australians to continue gathering signatures, and for them to be mailed to Melissa no later than Tuesday, the 8th of June. The earlier sent the better, so they can be checked & counted before submission.

Review of the May 22nd Day of Action

BRISBANE

The Brisbane Day of Action was the most successful from the day in terms of petition signatures, with a massive 461 signatures acquired in just 3 hours. The Sunshine State delivered a beautiful day for Mel Short, Matt Anderson, Tim Hunt, Gregor, Ben, Eris, Fritz, Shonika, & Warrick to setup tables, petitions, and paraphenalia at Central Station, Brisbane, and ask the public passing by if they’re aware of the Government’s proposal, and if they’d like to sign the petition. The last person mentioned in that list, Warrick Fraser, edited the following video from the Day of Action in Brisbane and many thanks to him for doing so:

Warrick was also good enough to take some photos on the day too. Here he is on the video camera:

Table setup with petitions and information sheets:

Josh Meney’s “Censor This!” poster displayed:

A big thanks must also go to Matt Anderson for funding the printed poster and the table, and generally putting in a big effort in organising and promoting the Event.

MELBOURNE

In Federation Square, Melbourne, a fascinating piece of street theatre was carried out by Nicholas Wheeler:

Nicholas was shortly asked to move on by Federation Square security and did so, but this photograph is testament to a statement made about the inevitable possibility of legal freedoms being reduced under the mandatory ISP filter. There is video footage of the moving on of the display and attempted interview with Nic by media crew below. Afterwards, Nicholas was joined by other activists to gain petition signatures, and in all nearly 200 were gathered. A super effort and many thanks, Nic and co.!

PERTH

Despite the inclement weather overnight leading into the Saturday, Petition Coordinator Andrew Middleton, Julian, and Daniel Kruppa still managed to find a couple of hours in the afternoon to campaign for petition signatures out the front of Fremantle Town Hall. 37 signatures were garnered from the sparse Fremantle crowd, with many viabrant conversations being had with people from all walks of life. Those who were aware of the issue, had a good understanding of the problems associated with the proposed mandatory ISP filtering plan which was pleasing. In particular, an exchange with an English tourist, who despite not caring what happened in this country, was eventually turned around to signing the petition after agreeing with us that what occurs in our political landscape is highly likely to effect England’s political landscape, and vice-versa.

Next two Saturday’s complete Trifecta of Days of Action

In keeping with Scott Ludlam’s urgings for Australians to stand up, locations this Saturday and next Saturday (May 29th, June 5th) around Australia will again have grassroots activists present with petitions in hand, and the more people & signatures the better. So if you’re interested in just coming down and signing the petition, joining a posted location below and help get more signatures, or starting an Action in your local area that you’d like promoting on this website and/or on social networking sites, please take note of the location details posted below and get in contact with the following organisers!

PRINCIPAL PETITIONER & BRISBANE ORGANISER:
Melissa Short

SEE PETITION CAMPAIGNING IN BRISBANE ON THE 6TH OF JUNE, IN THIS SHORT VIDEO:

Meetup.com Calander page:

http://www.meetup.com/WeAreChangeBrisbane/calendar/13669591/

ARTICLE AUTHOR, PETITION COORDINATOR & PERTH ORGANISER:
Andrew Middleton, middle11@hotmail.com

Where: Outside the entrance to the Alexander Library, Perth Cultural Center (25 Francis Street, Perth)
When: Saturday, June 5, 11:30am – 2pm
Bring: Copies of the 14-box petition, available here. A clipboard and a pen (black or blue)

Facebook Event page:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=125091344181741

Posted links on this article: (in order of appearance)

  1. 10 May 2010: Access Denied, ABC "Four Corners" documentary still viewable online at ABC iView
  2. 15 Dec 2009: Measures to improve the safety of the internet for families, Minister for Communications Media Release
  3. 12 May 2010: Senator Ludlam's full statement to the Senate can be read in transcript, or viewed as film
  4. December 2008 and March 2010 Perth rallys against internet censorship
  5. 3 May 2010: Senate answers shed some more light on filter, Electronic Frontiers Australia
  6. 26 May 2010: The Hitchhiker's Guide to Net Filtering, Senator Scott Ludlam
  7. 25 May 2010: Senator Ludlam interview on the Hack program, ABC Radio
  8. Ongoing until June: Official anti-censorship paper petition addressed to the House of Representatives homepage
  9. 22 May 2010: Video footage of Brisbane's Day of Action
  10. Ongoing until June: Official anti-censorship paper petition addressed to the House of Representatives printout
  11. April 2010: "Censor This!" poster produced by Josh Meney
  12. 6 June 2010: Anti-Internet Censorship Petition Campaigning Video - Fortitude Valley Mall, Brisbane
  13. 30 May 2010: Meetup.com calander post for Brisbane's Day of Action this Saturday Sunday
  14. 5 June 2010: Facebook Event page for Perth's Day of Action this Saturday
The personal views, beliefs and opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the beliefs and opinions of “Stop the Filter” as a whole.