The content on this webpage contains paid/affiliate links. When you click on any of our affiliate link, we/I may get a small compensation at no cost to you. See our affiliate disclosure for more info -----------------------
Last updated on July 12th, 2017 at 10:05 am
We heard a whole bunch during the election about Labor’s broadband delivery plan, but we didn’t hear much about this:
Labor is committed to introducing mandatory ISP filtering.
It’s a little like satellite TV at the Flanders house; 230 channels, all of them blocked.
… it just proves yet again, that you can’t trust leftists.
Ah, but you CAN trust Leftists–to have always a hidden agenda.
Posted by Harry Bergeron on 2007 12 30 at 10:54 PM • permalink
I look forward to accessing my black market copies of timblair.net from my contact at the Russian Embassy.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 12 30 at 11:00 PM • permalink
Tim Blair’s new comment section.
It’s not like we don’t know how much Dear Leader prefers the Chinese way of government to our own.
Gagging his ministers, screening the output of supposedly autonomous and apolitical departments, now censoring the net.
I can sleep soundly in the knowledge that I didn’t vote for this petty public servant.
Of course, he’s forgotten that his role is to actually serve the people, but so have a lot of the idiots who voted for him, I guess.
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2007 12 30 at 11:07 PM • permalink
#3 IT does this mean I can still access rokmykok.com?
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2007 12 30 at 11:08 PM • permalink
Well, I think it’s a great idea. How else are you going to stop the spread of canine fascism?
More draconian censorship from the ‘leftist’ ALP…
‘Croatian singer Marko Perkovic and his band Thompson have been granted visas to enter Australia and play a series of concerts beginning in Melbourne on December 29 at Festival Hall.
Despite petitioning from the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) and a letter from Croatian Jewish community leaders to the Australian ambassador in Zagreb, visas for the band’s Australian tour were granted.
Perkovic has publicly expressed his support for the Ustashe, a pro-Nazi regime that was responsible for the murder of tens of thousands of people, many of them Jews, during World War II. According to reports, audiences at Thompson’s concert wear Ustashe insignia and chant World War II slogans.
Executive director of the ADC Manny Waks met earlier this month with Immigration Department representatives to persuade them not to allow Thompson into Australia.
“We are certainly disappointed that the Labor Government, as one of its first acts, has permitted the entry into Australia of a person who is a beacon for racist and neo-Nazi youth,” Waks said.’
Posted by Terri Nichols on 2007 12 30 at 11:16 PM • permalink
Well, bloggerinos, I have to say I’m with the Prime Minister on this one. Rod and Todd were Googley-doogling their favorite Bible characters, and accidentally happened across a website talking about that eeeevil-ution! Well, right there I declared myself an Inter-NOT! This kind of open exchange of ideas just gives people – well, the wrong ideas, by Golly!
Is Kevni still going to give all the kiddies free laptops and super-fast broadband?
Posted by spot_the_dog on 2007 12 30 at 11:31 PM • permalink
- The free laptops somehow morphed into “every student will have access to a computer at school” at about 11.30 pm on November 24. Funny how I don’t hear any screaming about lies and broken promises.
And the big broadband rollout got hit by Sol Trujillo’s brilliant smackdown of the waxeater along the lines of “Telstra won’t be taking part in any holding hands, Kumbaya bullshit”.
Meanwhile on the other side of the Tasman Comrade Clarke is also busy chipping away.Her(his?)Electoral Finance Bill will restrict the ability of opponents of the Government to compete in spending on advertising in an Election year,amongst its interesting provisions is a requirement that anyone proposing to spend more than $12000 on advertising will be required to be registered.It seems that this restriction applies to anyone wishing to express an opinion by paid-for advertising not just candidates standing for Parliament.Once registered one can spend up to $100000 but Government Ministers will be able to use their taxpayer provided allowances to exceed this limit.
#14 spot_the_dog said: Is Kevni still going to give all the kiddies free laptops and super-fast broadband?
I wonder if there are some who want kiddies on their laptops.
This will be filtered. Yes? We shall see.
Posted by stackja1945 on 2007 12 30 at 11:47 PM • permalink
- kiddies on their laptops.
What does this mean?Posted by stackja1945 on 2007 12 30 at 11:49 PM • permalink
My dreams of attracting a beautiful Eastern European woman with my massive cock, cost priced viagra from Canada, a cheap Rolex watch plus the inside scoop on stocks that are about to rocket, have been dashed by Rudd and his henchman.
Happy New Year, my arse.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 12 30 at 11:50 PM • permalink
Moving anywhere from just slightly right of center gives a nasty tug on the many treble-hooks Kevni’s backers rammed up his wazoo during the (cough)campaign(cough).
Posted by MentalFloss on 2007 12 30 at 11:58 PM • permalink
stackja, you’re a very, very naughty boy…
Posted by MentalFloss on 2007 12 31 at 12:00 AM • permalink
You will be able contact your ISP and opt out.
Flaw with this is that you are then flagged as a porn-watcher.
The filter will considerably slow down internet access.
Probably wont work with P2P anyway. Another well thought out Labor policy. Unintended consequences get them every time.
Posted by walterplinge on 2007 12 31 at 12:03 AM • permalink
Maybe this was what the gloating illiterate emailers meant about Tim being “out of a job soon”…
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2007 12 31 at 12:08 AM • permalink
Wherever there is an attempt to restrict internet access, there will always be pimply 13-y.o.’s vying with each other to be the first to beat it.
Kevin’s just going to create a new generation of script kiddies.
Posted by spot_the_dog on 2007 12 31 at 12:13 AM • permalink
#16 RebeccaH, not only does “no one defeat the internet”, these whiz-kids will gain invaluable experience in challenging every bastion host, discovering (and publishing) every honey-pot, free-text port on firewalls, wi-fi hot-spot, %tc and start worming their way into our critical infrastructure—you didn’t here it from me, but we are sooooo f’ing vulnerable right now it scares me spitless.
And I get paid to be scared spitless.
Electrons, water, gas, sewerage or airline fuel—if it moves, there’s some patched and re-patched “proprietary” piece legacy of software so full of holes you could drive an (i)MAC through it just waitin’ for some script-kiddie who wants to brag to his virtual posse about how he’s brought Tullamarine Airport to a standstill.
KRudd took the DCITA and ripped its guts out just when things were starting to get done about Critical Infrastructure protection. The TISN and COI are abuzz with this latest “let’s look like we’re doing something” move by Labor.
(acroynms left for your searching delectation)
Posted by MentalFloss on 2007 12 31 at 12:20 AM • permalink
This has been the cause of much chortling in the Charles abode. I can’t wait for it to dawn on junior Labor voters who live at home with a web connection in the name of their parents that they’re going to have to ask mum to send in the ‘Yes! I Want To Look At Bangbus!’ form.
On a more serious note, how long before the opt-out request form includes boxes to tick for the number of children in your home and a field for you to describe your Household Internet Access Management Plan?
— Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 12 31 at 12:29 AM • permalink
Re: 3rd Paragraph, I just spat my lunch into my keyboard, we have enough trouble keeping the *&^%$#%$@# Scada system working without anyone messing with it!
The saving grace of all this critical infrastructure driven by archaic and outdated software is that virtually all of it still has handles, levers and push buttons hanging off it ie. driving it manually isn’t to much of a problem.
The actual agenda just keeps popping up- how long before we hear about “voluntary” power rationing, “voluntary” enviro-levies on tax refunds and all manner of nasty, petty, intrusive and expensive nanny-state programs?
I can’t believe anyone was stupid enough to not think that this purse-lipped lickspittle and his coterie of busybodies would be sticking their beaks into every facet of peoples lives as soon as they planted their pimply, flaccid bots on the treasury benches- it’s going to be an ugly three years.
I’ve an idea for the lovely Minister for IR as well- when she reintroduces the extortionate wrongful dismissal provisions, how about balancing it with a wrongful resignation act? After all, why should you have to shell out a bucketful of money to train someone only to see them bugger off to your competitor and disadvantage your business?
Seems fair to me.
I am sure access will not be restricted. That is as long as you are a card carrying union member. Whether you voted for them or not the actu was democratically elected you know.
Posted by surfmaster on 2007 12 31 at 12:42 AM • permalink
Here’s a handy guide to defeating censorware. I suggest everyone should keep a copy on their hard drive.
And here’s a link to the anti-censorship lobby group, Electronic Frontiers Auatralia. It has an analysis of Labor’s ISP filtering policy, among other things.
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2007 12 31 at 12:43 AM • permalink
#31 Not so much anymore, Mr Rick. DNP3 (as I’m sure I needn’t tell you) is a popular comms protocol whose packet spec (and every other detail) is two clicks away on the ‘net.
Dumb-ass Enterprise IT Manager-types who can’t tell a digital out from a digital in are running their SCADA Systems on their Windows based corporate backbone to save money on infrastructure—and I can assure you that gateway+1 to the SCADA network is not a firewall anymore than gateway-1 is.
Did you know that ASIO put out a bid to have all the Comms towers in Tasmania retro-fitted with GPRS so the can apply IP-SEC encryption to their comms?
Right now, if you’ve got a some smarts and a Pringles can, you could sit in your car in Tasmania and listen to unencrypted ASIO traffic all day long?
Funniest thing is the tender was accepted for $50+ mil—it’ll take the contractor all of 15k each to re-fit the towers.
This info isn’t anything you couldn’t learn with a simple search, by the way—so don’t pile on…
Posted by MentalFloss on 2007 12 31 at 12:49 AM • permalink
- Posted by MentalFloss on 2007 12 31 at 12:52 AM • permalink
…there will always be pimply 13-y.o.’s vying with each other to be the first to beat it
Bravo, #28!
Posted by Col. Milquetoast on 2007 12 31 at 12:53 AM • permalink
# 42 – or the actu motto – “you pay, we play”.
Posted by surfmaster on 2007 12 31 at 01:03 AM • permalink
Got it in a nutshell, all I hear every time net filtering is brought up is how much lag and slowdown it will add.
So we will have the “phattest pipes” but a trickle of data passing through it?
Nice own goal fuckheads.Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 12 31 at 01:09 AM • permalink
#25. I think Rudd is on to something here. How about I phone up the Australian Tax Office and opt out of the countless ridiculous programs in operation and get myself a significant decrease in my tax liability.
Posted by Hank Reardon on 2007 12 31 at 01:14 AM • permalink
Anyone else here old enough to remember when “2600” was a Big Thing? Should someone warn Kevin that the phreakers actually stopped eating Cheezles and drinking Dr Pepper at one point, long enough to spawn anyway, and that there are probably a few new generations of nerds out there willing & able to help us oldies retain our constitutional right to look at Big Norks whenever we want to?
Posted by spot_the_dog on 2007 12 31 at 01:31 AM • permalink
Or it sounds like Mentalfloss could set up a Pirate ISP for us all anyway. How far offshore do you have to be to be outside Australian jurisdiction?
Posted by spot_the_dog on 2007 12 31 at 01:34 AM • permalink
The fact that I am posting here might indicate that my Rudd filter needs some fine-tuning.
Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 12 31 at 01:40 AM • permalink
The national socialists insisted that the below was fiction.
George Orwell Nineteen Eighty-four Chapter 6 – Winston sat in his usual corner, gazing into an empty glass. Now and again he glanced up at a vast face which eyed him from the opposite wall. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption said. He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.
So there, now all repeat: We love Big Brother.
Posted by stackja1945 on 2007 12 31 at 01:45 AM • permalink
Well, this is hardly a surprise. Rudd could hardly resist following the path of soft fascism that New Labour has become so notorious for in Britain. We can look forward to many more intrusions into areas that the government should be keeping its nose out of – and some of them will be more damaging than this one.
Among other issues, there is just about no chance that filtering will not effect political comment on the web. For example, I expect someone is already getting ready to denounce this as a hate-site (look at what has happened to LGF with some filtering software – and this in the absence of government regulation). ISPs may simply filter on the basis of such complaints just to be safe. Of course, the existence of bad and stupid laws like the racial vilification law in Victoria (not to mention the bill of rights that will shortly be foisted on Victoria – does anyone actually know what’s in this?) will only make the situation worse.
Please do everything you can to protest this idiocy.
#38 MentalFloss – what does Asio actually do in Tasmania? Spy on feral greenies and Taliban wombats?
Memo to Most Revered and Glorious First Comrade Kevin: We need to ban imperialistic Pringles cans. Unenlightened subversive elements among the masses are using them to spy on the defenders of the people.
#48 Cocos Islands seems to have done nicely for that sort of thing…
#51 Does it matter? Even station briefs or updates are hackworthy…if only for frequency-hop patterns or the odd k-word in free-text…
I dunno, just seems day-late-dollar-short in 2008 (-7.5 hrs)
Posted by MentalFloss on 2007 12 31 at 02:25 AM • permalink
In re: Pringles…
Posted by MentalFloss on 2007 12 31 at 02:27 AM • permalink
#22 Infidel Tiger, look on the bright side. You can be the first in line for the job of getting paid to spend all day, every single day (except for your paid vacation) reviewing the suitableness or unsuitableness of websites. I hear the job comes with a complimentary stack of magazines so you’ll know what to look for. Please, Infidel Tiger, your keen eye and special skills are needed by your government!
Posted by Col. Milquetoast on 2007 12 31 at 02:36 AM • permalink
Looks like Kevin07 – Fascist08 to me!
Posted by Captain Sensible on 2007 12 31 at 03:02 AM • permalink
#54 But what will he do when all of the pages are stuck together?
Posted by jaycee1953 on 2007 12 31 at 03:54 AM • permalink
#58 Ian Deans, tomorrow’s newspapers will be full of the events of 30 years ago. The archives alway release the 30 year old secrets on New Years Day. But of course we still have not heard about all the events of 1945, regarding the letter from General Sir Thomas Blamey to Acting Minister for the Army, 6 January 1945, BP, 2/59 – notifying the Australian government that the Japanese had obtained secret Allied intelligence passed on by the Soviets. Dr David Horner discovered the letter in 1975 but has never got to the bottom of the story.
Posted by stackja1945 on 2007 12 31 at 03:58 AM • permalink
- The ALP right are nationalists.
The ALP left are socialists.
Put them both together and put them in government and it’s hardly surprising that they start legislating like NAZI’s.Posted by platey mates on 2007 12 31 at 04:05 AM • permalink
#15 The free laptops, after you read the fine print, are only available to those who qualify for Family Benefit Part A. It will be interesting to see how the legislation is drafted as Part A is applied on a sliding scale. The more you earn the less you receive. You may end up with enough of a rebate for a delete key.
letter from General Sir Thomas Blamey to Acting Minister for the Army, 6 January 1945, BP, 2/59 – notifying the Australian government that the Japanese had obtained secret Allied intelligence passed on by the Soviets.
So what are you saying here that someone in the wartime Labor government may have passed on the intelligence to the Soviets?
Posted by Captain Sensible on 2007 12 31 at 04:23 AM • permalink
When I working at IAG (Insurance Australia Group) a few years ago, the internet police under the directions of the commissar of the ‘Cultural and Communications’ group (no shit!), had this site, Tex’s Whackingday, Slatts and John J Ray banned as ‘Racist or Hate / Vilification Speech’ website. Funny how Web Diary was given a free pass?
This goes to show that on a relative scale as small as this, what may prevail on a national level is disturbing as where this can ultimately lead to and how much power the chimps in charge can wield.
So where are the champions of free speech.. Davd Marr, Clive Hamilton to challenge this breach of rights.
Sound of crickets chirping….
Yep, just what I thought.
Happy new year everyone (without irony)
free of pornography and other “inappropriate” material.
Who’s to decide what’s “inappropriate”, I wonder? Perhaps MW will get the gig. This is not something Australians should just lie down and let run over us. Totally unacceptable.
#60 stackja1945
letter from General Sir Thomas Blamey to Acting Minister for the Army, 6 January 1945, BP, 2/59 – notifying the Australian government that the Japanese had obtained secret Allied intelligence passed on by the Soviets.
So what are you saying here that someone in the wartime Labor government may have passed on the intelligence to the Soviets?
It is no coincidence that, following the war, several delegations from the UK (consisting of senior intelligence bureaucrats) were made to Australia, urging the government to establish a security service. The service, ASIO, was created in 1949 as a result.
Posted by Abu Chowdah on 2007 12 31 at 05:48 AM • permalink
Who’s to decide what’s “inappropriate”
“Inappropriate” will certainly include anything deemed to be hate speech. It will probably be decided both by a non-accountable government-appointed committee in tandem with the ISP’s understandable wish to limit their risk of prosecution for breaching the guidelines.
The government committee bit should really worry us. Think about the people who are likely to be on it.
I don’t like the whole “But it’s for the CHILDREN!” tone they seem to be taking with this.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said everything possible had to be done to shield children from violent and pornographic online material.
“We have always argued more needs to be done to protect children,” he said.
It automatically makes anyone who doesn’t like the idea of putting Australian internet access in the same basket as China’s or Burma’s sound like a child-hating monster.
Well there are actually a lot of things out there that are not good for children, but we don’t prohibit them all outright.
Didn’t some school over East recently allow a 14 or 15 year old to smoke at school with her mother’s permission because “she was addicted”? And anyone who dared to say that that sounded a little “off” got shouted down as some kind of Moral Majority nutcase.
The more I think about it the more this sounds like a trojan horse to bring in all sorts of content censorship.
And like many of you above, I wonder where the self-proclaimed “Champions of Free Speech” are. Maybe they would _like_ to dissent, but they are being silenced? Nah, it was only Howard who did that, wasn’t it?
Happy 2008, everyone!
Posted by spot_the_dog on 2007 12 31 at 06:22 AM • permalink
Due to the lefty lawyer being crook, we’re home tonight but I won’t be kissing him at midnight not because he’s so sick but because he thinks Kevin Rudd is wonderful
And Julia Gillard is even more wonderful in his eyes
Cheers everyone!
Posted by aussiemagpie on 2007 12 31 at 06:25 AM • permalink
There is already a shield for children to protect them.
It’s called Parents.
Too many can’t be bothered to look at what their kids are doing, or take an interest.
All the crap reported on programmes other than the news don’t help, either. What happened to children’s innocence? To protecting children from the bad things in the world. Shielding them from things that they’d find out about soon enough, when they are adults.
Mum was telling me of visiting a teacher at a small country school. He’s Teacher/Principal. He says global warming/climate change is a crock of shit, but he’s got to develop some sort of science unit for the children to teach them about GW/CC. He’s not happy about it.
I don’t like the whole “But it’s for the CHILDREN!” tone they seem to be taking with this.
Agreed. Also, this is the tone the British government has used over the last decade to bring in really damaging and draconian legislation. As someone once observed: Who can stand against evil done in the name of good?
Oh, and I don’t have any children, so why should I have to put up with this?
- I don’t have any children, so why should I have to put up with this?
I second that.Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 12 31 at 06:40 AM • permalink
“If people equate freedom of speech with watching child pornography, then the Rudd-Labor Government is going to disagree.”
Of course, no sensible and decent person could possibly equate it with such horrific behaviour.
But it is a truly classic ALP dirty tactic to throw up some implied slur like this to stifle any anti-censorship views. Don’t want a Labor Government filter on your internet? You must be a rock spider then, mate.
See how it works?
It’s like ye olde race card tactics from the 80s and early 90s: whenever someone disagreed with a foolish policy relating to indigenous peoples they used to be labelled a “racist” to shut them down.
Posted by Abu Chowdah on 2007 12 31 at 06:42 AM • permalink
#77, same boat here, Burbank. No kids, just a few rent-a-dogs, but according to my Net Monitor they mostly stick to DogBook and the Pedigree site. Oh, I did have to block their access to the local pizza-ordering site, that was getting expensive.
Seriously, a lot of households have no kids, or grown children only. What percentage of Australian homes actually have young children in them?
And I agree with you, kae. What happened to “parenting”? Are the majority of parents out there really happy to outsource everything to do with their children to the State?
Posted by spot_the_dog on 2007 12 31 at 06:44 AM • permalink
- The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.
–Robert A. HeinleinOf all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
–C.S. LewisI say to you that the VCR is to the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.
–Jack Valenti in 1982 in testimony to the US House of Representatives on why the VCR should be illegal.Posted by spot_the_dog on 2007 12 31 at 06:52 AM • permalink
No one is taking over my job as a parent.
It’s bad enough that I have to threaten the teachers at my son’s school with “dirt sandwiches” if they don’t get their act together regarding the GW shit. I work one day a week at the school canteen. Needless to say, we never have to listen to propaganda about GW doom and gloom on Mondays.
No NANNY state is going to tell me how to raise my child. Pity they can’t “filter” the slimy social workers that allow at risk children to stay with their scummy parents.
This sort of legislation only ever punishes the decent parents and the decent kids. It does nothing to help the abused and the neglected.
85. Conroy: “If people equate freedom of speech with letting small children play with phosphorus hand grenades, detonators and tanks of petrol, then the Rudd-Labor Government is going to disagree.”
Posted by Abu Chowdah on 2007 12 31 at 07:09 AM • permalink
LOVE fireworks! Back home my parents used to take us up to the Reservation to get the really good ones. I think the rule in most states was that they couldn’t sell you the good stuff, but once you had it you could go for it. And of course the Rez wasn’t subject to State control.
Us kids seem to have survived just fine, thank you. I think here in WA all you can get are sparklers. Pooh.
Posted by spot_the_dog on 2007 12 31 at 07:13 AM • permalink
See you early tomorrow with my predictions for 2008.
Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 12 31 at 07:19 AM • permalink
#73.It automatically makes anyone who doesn’t like the idea of putting Australian internet access in the same basket as China’s or Burma’s sound like a child-hating monster.
Well, yeah, so I hate kids. The problem with that is???
Seriously, this idea is appalling, and friends of mine who are on the wrong other side of the political divide (mostly) aren’t happy about it.
As for content and what children are able to access, my child does not touch the computer unless I am there. She is not allowed to, and she knows it.
She won’t even watch an ad for the Simpsons, because she knows it’s not acceptable for her to watch it!
Maybe if parents kept a closer watch on their kids and were more responsible then they wouldn’t be able to play the ‘for the children’ card so damned often.
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2007 12 31 at 08:15 AM • permalink
#75 Kae, your mum’s friend could always set them a research project based upon the Great Global Warming Swindle, and then send them off to the library to check the local histories for weather and environmental reports.
From there, they can develop experiments that show that global warming/cc is a crock of shit.
Or demonstrate that warmer temps are actually good for us all, as we can grow more food and use less electricity and gas for heating in the winter.
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2007 12 31 at 08:18 AM • permalink
- #64 Captain Sensible
We do not know the whole story.
Petrov and Venona tell us someone told the Soviets somethings. Walter Clayton NZ born appeared in Australia.
A comrade Zaitev visited Australia. Why? We do not know. Horner speculates there was an agent in Australian Government. Evatt?
One day the USSR archives may tell us who did what.
We know 1988 ALP PM Hawke said ALP secretary, David Combe, had been or appeared to have been compromised by the Soviet Embassy’s First Secretary, Valery Ivanov.
So there is always a doubt.Posted by stackja1945 on 2007 12 31 at 08:32 AM • permalink
I did have people over, but due to a hot and overtired toddler, the evening finished early.
So hippy gnu ear to us all!
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2007 12 31 at 08:46 AM • permalink
- Posted by MentalFloss on 2007 12 31 at 08:53 AM • permalink
- Really now, did not the Australian voter, in their haste to get rid of John HoWARd, realise what the ‘collective progressives’ would do to keep and secure their hold on power?
The Internet has been a pain in the arse for mainly leftist governments around the world. China made sure the quid pro quo would remain, the UN is still making subtle numerous attempts to get governments to introduce similar laws in the guise of ‘protecting children.’ Emotive excuses will do the trick. It won’t stop there though, if history is any judge. These ideologues, whose make up, is to tell us exactly what we should do or think, cannot tolerate free thinking and input that the Internet provides. So they resort to making any person who objects to this type of censorship, in a subtle way of course, as being a potential ‘child pornographer/supporter.’ Its been tried in the past by certain political ideologues, to shut down debate and opposition.
So Australia is joining the list of freedom loving nations, side by side with Saudi Arabia and China.
Grrrr.
We’re still in the old year here, so wishes tomorrow.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 12 31 at 09:05 AM • permalink
I just experienced Ruddville in action- a bit of light-hearted banter between myself and a rugby chum that had my quite reinforced noggin hitting the tarmac- it then resulted in the pubs local medico appplying swabs to my non bleeding wound, and a ratbag holding my nut until the Ambos came (wasting their time) and confirmed I wasn’t about to vapourlock.
While I found all the attention nice (in fact a pain in the arse, I would’ve liked a bevvie) I clearly just had a bump on my head through highjinks, not a matter for paramedics.
They seemed to think so when they turned up and I described what a twat their minister was.
Fuck me this is getting out of control.
Time to break out the proxy servers and other work-arounds.
My son is 6, and he’s allowed free use of the Internet. But I have to be in the room with him. If there’s a net-filter, I want to be in control.
It’s a matter of credibility. Do I trust someone else to blind me to information that they think is “unsuitable”? In a word, No.
I’m curious to know what Krudds’ own kids think about this.
Up until a couple of months ago, he and his missus weren’t around because they both worked. Who was keeping an eye on what his kids did online?
Now that Tubby Therese, the fashion plate from Bogan Central is back at home with the kids, you’d think she’d be keeping an eye on what the future Red Army commanders were watching and reading.
She’s probably spending all her time at the Kmart and Target after christmas sales.
“Right now, if you’ve got a some smarts and a Pringles can, you could sit in your car in Tasmania and listen to unencrypted ASIO traffic all day long?”
ASIO … isn’t that Audio Signal Input Output? That can’t be right … [quick google] Hmmm … Australian Security Intelligence Organisation? No, that can’t be right: that would mean that they’re as dumb as the CIA, and nobody is that stupid.
Floss, tell me I’m wrong. Please!Posted by Urbs in Horto on 2007 12 31 at 10:09 AM • permalink
This is being greeted some consternation over at the whirlpool forums. Labor voters there are coming out with “we didn’t expect this” type statements (idiots), so maybe it won’t have such an easy ride.
#117 This is one of the best posts I’ve read there so far.
- #118: Ash.
The Green voters will do as they are told. They will also be told what is good for them. The decisions on everything will be decided by the ‘collective’ after consultation with the ‘elected principles’ who, after exhausted inquiry, are found to be suitably and ideologically sound, with excellent superannuation benefits in the offering. Then, a final consultation will be sanctioned with her greatest majesty ‘Gaia.’ After which, all political interference in free thought and speech through technology will be deemed ‘unsound’ so it must be monitored/restricted under the guise of ‘protecting our children.’ That routine was tried in Europe in 1933/1934, I believe they called it the ‘enabling act.’
KRudd even looks like a ‘Net Nanny in the flesh.
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2007 12 31 at 11:36 AM • permalink
Were I to possess the knowledge of words and their usage, as many virtual friends across this great globe have (to many to list, but you know who/whom you are) I would write something worthy of your abilities…BUT I do NOT.
To me although I have one, vocabulary is a place that stores taxis. Grammar, as I’ve posted in many places, mine passed many years ago. Syntax, is what I pay every time I buy booze or ciggies. Diction, well I won’t get into that one (damn, that didn’t sound nor did it look to damn spiffy, either).
At any rate, to all that have turned the clock and calendar into 2008, a very healthy, safe and prosperous New Year.
To those who have not yet turned the clock and calendar, my wish is that you DO have a very healthy, safe and prosperous New Year.
Cheers to all, from the sword of El Cid.
Cross posted from my piece of this virtual world.
- Wishing you all Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind and
a Piece of the Action in 2008!Posted by Harry Bergeron on 2007 12 31 at 12:16 PM • permalink
- The first of many such actions from Mr. Rudd and his delightful Labor cohorts.
That it causes consternation among those besotted causes me no particular joy; it is not even necessary to say that they were told what would be the consequences of their actions.
This will make getting a lot of information more difficult, due to the limitations on ‘offensive material’. Linking it with child pornography is a nice covering tactic, but modelled a long time ago by Sir Humphrey.Happy New Year to all and theirs.Posted by Simon Darkshade on 2007 12 31 at 02:18 PM • permalink
#124 it looks like he’s just let off a silent but deadly fart, like a naughty school bou
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 12 31 at 03:22 PM • permalink
- Splice
“Remember, every little byte counts.”CheersPosted by J.M. Heinrichs on 2007 12 31 at 05:50 PM • permalink
#135 If YouTube is banned, can you just go through the MySpace Proxy server?
Posted by spot_the_dog on 2007 12 31 at 07:42 PM • permalink
The filter has nought to do with child porn. Shit, the party’s members have more criminal charges for child sex offences than any organisation Australia outside the Catholic church (names Orkopoulos, Wright, D’Arcy, Hilton and Collins come to mind). Labor merely wants the apparatus in place to control the flow of information. Control of the filter will be firmly in the hands of party appointees who will do the government’s bidding. Fully expect that on a day when some scandal befalls Labor, the internet in Australia will suddenly develop all sorts of ISP problems.
- # 69 Abu Chowdah just saw your comment.
FYI at DFAT
380 Shedden to Sillitoe
Letter, [LONDON], 30 August 1949
TOP SECRET AND PERSONALPosted by stackja1945 on 2007 12 31 at 08:19 PM • permalink
That’s right. The Yanks wouldn’t share the intel with the Aussies that they were sharing with the Brits, because there was known to be a serious leak (a Soviet mole) at the Department of External Affairs (now DFAT). The creation of ASIO (and a concerted effort to investigate all of the starry-eyed communist sympathisers stinking up the bureacracy) was the key measure in developing the trust needed to open up the bilateral intelligence relationship.
Posted by Abu Chowdah on 2007 12 31 at 09:28 PM • permalink
This is just going to be yet another pain in the arse for efficient operating of networks. My work has content filtering in place and the network folks (who I am connected to) spend half their lives responding to urgent requests from radiologists and skin cancer researchers who are demanding to know why their images are being blocked by the content filters for either exceeding size limits or because they have too much “flesh tones”.
If this sort of things become the norm for ISPs, I suspect they will just start terminating accounts rather than having the patience to either investigate and release as we do for the medical folks who can demonstrate a valid requirement.
Oh what a brave new world you are bringing us Mr Conroy.
Posted by Captain Sensible on 2007 12 31 at 09:41 PM • permalink
And give a thought to the poor beleaguered Geos who will be somewhat hindered in their net searches for core sample data, both “hard” and “soft”.
Posted by spot_the_dog on 2007 12 31 at 10:45 PM • permalink
- 139 Abu Chowdah
David Horner in Defence Supremo says:On 7 February 1948 Sir Percy Sillitoe. Director-General of MI5, accompanied by the director of MI5’s protective security division, Roger Hollis, arrived in Australia with information that it was two External Affairs officials, cover named MILNER and KHILL who had passed copies of British documents to the KGB.
And talk by Dr David Horner to the Australian Society of Archivists, ACT Branch, 27 October 1998 said:
When security began closing in, Ian Milner defected to Czechoslovakia and worked for its intelligence service.
Posted by stackja1945 on 2007 12 31 at 10:59 PM • permalink
What’s the problem? It’ll be piss-easy to filter out nasty stuff – including Phil Collins music – without affecting performance or restricting access to useful information. Witness how governments across the globe have completely eliminated SPAM!
Posted by Sensible Swim on 2007 12 31 at 11:19 PM • permalink
Here’s an analogy I’ve been working on:
What do we do when kids can’t swim? Do we put childproof fences around every lake, river and beach? Do we spend a ridiculous amount of money trying to prevent our children from getting near water? No – we teach them to swim. That’s because learning how to swim can get you out of danger even if all other preventative measures fail.
“Today, Jenny Macklin, Member for Jagajaga and Minister for Families, announced new legislation which will require all bodies of water, including lakes, rivers, ponds, private dams, bathtubs and all beaches to be protected by 12-foot-high child-proof electrified barbed-wire fences.
“When asked whether the project had been costed, especially the fencing-off of Australia’s entire coastline, Ms Macklin replied, “Costed, shmosted. This is for the children! Think of the children!!”
Posted by spot_the_dog on 2008 01 01 at 01:04 AM • permalink
#146 spot_the_dog.Never mind the children,think of the potential kickbacks from grateful fencing contractors and material suppliers.Your suggestion could turn out to be an even better earner than some of the tunnel projects which the NSW Labor fleas have inflicted on NSW taxpayers and just about as sensible.You have to remember that they have been away from the action for nearly 12 years and there’s a lot of catching up to do.They’ve started off well by announcing that the contract to buy much needed military aircraft to replace the 40 year old F-111’s is to be “reappraised” as it will “only” cost $300 million to cancel the order.The mind boggles at the possibilities and to think that the bloke who came up with that idea is regarded as a fuckwit even by his friends.Imagine the undreamed of riches now within reach of some of the smarties.Happy days are here again and they’ll do their very best to make every post a winner.
We have a dead simple filter in our house.
The computers are all out in the open in a room between the kitchen and the lounge room. Even Dad has trouble slipping in a bit of naughty when no one else is around.
Simplest solution is don’t put the computers into kids bedrooms and keep an eye on what they are doing (even if it is from the room next door). You might even get to talk to the little sods from time to time.
Posted by mr creosote on 2008 01 01 at 03:36 AM • permalink
#113 So she’s the Dolly Parton of Australian politics then.
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2008 01 01 at 05:06 AM • permalink
150. That’s my answer, too. Put the internet compudah in the lounge room, a few meters from the TV. Problem solved.
Posted by Abu Chowdah on 2008 01 01 at 05:13 AM • permalink
Looking around on a few other forums about this issue, I am amazed at the number of lefties who are blaming this on “religious nutters like Family First and Exclusive Brethren”.
They just can’t get their tilty heads around the fact that they can’t blame anyone connected with John Howard for this.
It’s actually a little sad.
But funny.
Posted by spot_the_dog on 2008 01 01 at 05:28 AM • permalink
Timely move, Kevin. But the net is small potatoes. The masses have run amok in the last few years. Some have been disagreeing with David Marr and we remember David Williamson’s concern about the lack of Proust readers on cruise ships. And this is not to speak of the orgies of Islamophobia, homophobia, planetophobia, materialism and spiritual aridity that Howard has unleashed. Those that some call so-called “ ‘terrorists’ “ in the so-called “ ‘war on terror’ “ have vividly reminded Australians of these faults but why shoudn’t we help ourselves too?
I suggest the creation of a Sensitivity Commission with sweeping powers, headed by Marr and Robert Manne. Right-thinking people will know that bringing racists into the light will not be easy. (A list is already being prepared.)
In the meantime, a little guidance for surfing won’t be a bad way to start. The BBC and crikey.com should be enough for anyone, unless they have something to hide …
Back when I was a wee lad, porn was all paper based. It was dead easy to get at school – our boarding house had a porn library, run by one of the year 12 students, and you could rent stick mags for 20 cents a go.
The library was an institutional thing, with it being handed down each year to a suitable member of the up and coming year 11’s. It was useful as an income supplement. Some flogged toasted baked bean sandwichs to the other boarders. Others ran grog from the local bottle shop. But the stick mag business was on the go day and night.
And I’m not talking about soft crap like Penthouse. I’m talking about the ridgy-didge XXX type stuff.
On visiting the school a few years ago, I sat through a very impressive talk by the latest housemaster on how every kiddie now had a laptop and the boarding house had plasma screens the size of waterbeds etc etc and what great edumucational tools they were.
I asked how they kept the porn out.
The answer was, “We can’t. We tried web filters, but they just emailed it to each other. Then we blocked email, so they setup ad-hoc wireless networks to pass it around. When we got onto that, they moved onto burning DVD’s and then thumb drives.”
What’s the bet that they’ll be so busy searching for hidden partitions and password protected folders that they’ll miss the stash of XXX mags under the mattress?
Posted by mr creosote on 2008 01 01 at 08:12 AM • permalink
- Spot_the_dog, I have just suffered a few days with a moonbat houseguest.
I asked her what she thought about Labor’s plan for compulsory ISP filters. That needed some explaining but she eventually understood.
Her response: It was definitely a good idea and long overdue to “protect the children”.
I then asked her to give me her honest thoughts on what her reaction would have been if John Howard had introduced it…stunned silence.We should never forget that half the population have a below-average IQ and about half the electorate votes for the ALP.
#156 and #157, about that ~50%, I can see a Jessica Hagy-style “indexed” entry on that one! (I love that site…)
And from talking to some tame, otherwise-nice, lefty acquantinces about this, the two over-riding agreements are (1) “For the children!” and (2) “Well no one should be allowed to watch internet porn!” The ones who are upset about it blame the “neocons” and “religious nutters like Exclusive Brethren”.
These are the people who believed Kevni about the “free laptops” scam, and that he would bring down housing, grocery and petrol prices and “stop global warming”. Luckily I don’t know too many people like that. I don’t want to be anywhere near them when they realise he was lying to them, and their heads explode. LOL!
Posted by spot_the_dog on 2008 01 02 at 10:00 AM • permalink
kitties on their laptops.
What does this mean?Laptops are warm and they smell of mommy. Gives the kitty a feeling of security. Cats feel safe around anything they think is mommy. (Yes, cats are incredibly stupid.)
Posted by mythusmage on 2008 01 02 at 10:36 AM • permalink
Don’t know whether anyone’s still following this thread, but Labor has goofed again…
Internet porn filter fails: experts
THE “clean feed” filtering system Communications Minister Stephen Conroy hopes will halt internet porn has already been defeated by British researchers.
Richard Clayton, of the University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory, said the innovative blocking system CleanFeed, devised by British internet service provider BT, could be circumvented in a number of ways.The report is more bad news for those hoping to block violence and pornography from the internet. Although filter salesmen talk up their wares, the reality has never quite matched the industry hype.
Posted by spot_the_dog on 2008 01 02 at 11:58 PM • permalink
Also, from when the Coalition was looking into this a year ago…
Six filters were tested under optimised conditions, but the best responder resulted in an 18 per cent reduction in relative performance, while the worst cut performance by 78 per cent.
Posted by spot_the_dog on 2008 01 03 at 12:00 AM • permalink
I wish we had decent TV news/current events shows that would cover things like this!!!
“Look, it’s expensive, all 6 configs of it have been shown to slow traffic way down (up to 78% slower), and it’s already been cracked anyway, and those cracks are probably on the web even as we speak. It was just a populist ploy to make it look like we cared “for the children” to distract attention away from what is happening under our watch to children really at risk, those being raped and killed whilst under the eye of the State Child Protection Agencies, and so we’re going to expose it.”
Think the 7:30 Report will do that?
Posted by spot_the_dog on 2008 01 03 at 12:28 AM • permalink
So, in a free market, paying my own cash, as a consenting and informed adult, I STILL can’t view whatever I want to?
Although essentially pointless, it just proves yet again, that you can’t trust leftists.