Australian democracy under immediate threat!

The internet, like all human technologies, can be used for good or bad. I heard a statistic that claimed that 90% of the internet is used to traffic pornography. Whether that is true or not, it is clear that the internet reflects the most depraved and the most noble of human qualities. It is an expression of human community in digital form. And like any open community, it's difficult to pick your neighbours.

For this reason, we live in houses or appartments with locks on the front door. It's my responsibility at night to ensure that the doors are locked and that my family is safe. If I leave the front door open and my home is burgled during the night, I will not be met with much sympathy from the police.

We also, as responsible parents, are responsible for the comings and goings of our children. To ensure their safety, we should be aware of where our kids are at any time until they are mature enough to fend for themselves.

Controlling the family computer is no different than controlling your household. A responsible parent should have filters installed on every PC. It's the only way to monitor where the kids go on the web and to stop unwanted visitors at the virtual front door.

The Australian Government has provided internet filtering software at no cost to all Australian households. This is a good and responsible policy and they are to be commended. Why is it then that the government is now attempting to legislate for a compulsory censored internet along the lines of the Chinese and Iranian model? They propose to censor undesirable material at the ISP level. You have no choice in the matter. Who decides what is undesirable? From who's point of view?

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24571118-15306,00.html

Oppressive governments control what their citizens read as far as possible in order to suppress public protest and criticism of the regime. Look at the recent censorship in China during the recent Olympic Games. Is it any surprise...a free and democratic internet is the biggest threat to tyrannical and oppressive regimes? For this reason, a severely limited web called Internet 2 has been planned for a long time by the controlling elite. The plan is to limit the web to channels provided by the mainstream media conglomerates under a subscription basis. Small independent websites will be made inaccessible by the imposition of additional fees. Who will pay to view your blog? Who has the right to charge you to stand on your soapbox in the Domain? No-one. This will kill the internet and democracy dead. This is censorship by taxing the web.

Internet 2 explained:
www.infowars.com/?p=2640

If you think about it, the internet has been the greatest tool for true democratic expression in history. Despite the censorship, the Chinese still get around the filtering with secret codes and disguised words that slip through the filters.

Why on earth is Australia leading the western world in this killing of the internet for its citizens? This move has really drawn international attention from other free democratic countries. If these laws are passed, what prevents the government deciding that alternative news sites like http://www.infowars.com/ or http://www.democracynow.org/ or http://www.truthnews.com.au/ are undesirable and filtering them? What if this blog was considered undesirable?

Believe me, the internet must be censored, but that is my responsibility, not the government's. It is totally unnecessary to do this as satisfactory filtering strategies are available already. Again, it's part of an ongoing agenda of enveloping the population in a control grid and we the people have not asked for it. Looks like Australia wants to beat the rush to oppression.

To protect your democratic freedom of speech it is essential that you write to your local member and protest against this proposal. Don't complain when it is too late and the laws are in place. This is the thin end of the wedge. Get active and exercise your right to representation while you still have it.