It’s been reported today that the federal government now does not have the support to get any legislation required to set up their proposed Internet filter through the Senate. This is a fantastic day for Australia’s internet users.
The filter, initially proposed to stop child pornography, would have allowed the government to stop any content they deemed inappropriate from being accessible from within Australia.
This system was always going to be a miserable failure. The blacklisted websites would be controlled by the government, with no oversight at all, and gave them the potential to exploint it for political purposes. This is exactly the type of censorship that they have blasted countries like China and Cuba for doing. The next problem was that their proposed system would have completely crippled our already pathetic internet infrastructure.
The money that was going to be wasted should now be spent on education programs. Teach parents so they can teach their kids about how the internet should be used. This is a far wiser spend of public money. It also encourages parents to do their job, rather than rely on the government to do it for them, in the process ruining the online lives of millions of other Australians.
ISP, regulatory authorities and the internet at large have lambasted the government for this plan, and I couldn’t be happier that it now should never see the light of day. For a government to state that Australia needs to move forward technologically, then propose something as idiotic as this filter was so hypocritical it made me sick.
Today is a good day for Australia.
