Sneaking Through The Filter

Australians don't have the first amendment, which is becoming clearer everyday.

As Labour have done quite a bit of lately, they’re trying to get more sweeping changes through whilst everyone is looking away. This time, whilst the world is watching Copenhagen, Senator Conroy has suddenly decided that the Australian internet filter trial completed in September was a resounding success and will now become mandatory.

There’s an unending list of reasons why it won’t – or shouldn’t – work, but what concerns me more is the arrogant attitude with which Labour is approaching more and more legislation. They do not have the mandate of the public (nor those who are considered ‘professionals’ in the area) which voted them in not so long ago and should stop behaving as such. It only takes a quick search of Twitter to spot just how many people are baffled by what’s taking place. And once the Government takes control of website blacklisting (claims of an ‘independent board’ are dubious at best), it surely won’t be long before policy dissidents are quietly removed from public view.

So with this kind of attitude coming from those in power, it often feels as though people can’t make a change. And to be honest, it’s unclear whether Conroy will rethink his position. However, we can make as much noise as possible, to let the government know we not only have a voice, but are prepared to speak out against abuse of power. Using the internet against him, fill up Conroy’s inbox with sharp words at the excellent GetUp!, or get involved with those behind No Clean Feed. We may have to use our voices to keep them.

Update 18/12/2009: Bernard Keane has posted an article outlining the best way to ensure your letters to Conroy get noticed. Good advice that I’m betting will annoy a few public servants.

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The True Cost of Food

Bang those pots and pans. A food protest in Mexico.

I caught the end of an excellent documentary on SBS today, called The Growing Anger of Hunger. It looked at the painfully disparate relationship between developed nations and the 3rd world countries being quite literally farmed out of existence. Of course, this story is nothing new. Pointing out the well known neo-colonial power plays at work is probably something best left to those who understand the politics better. Though, seeing this program did remind me of an interesting article I read in the September/October issue of Adbusters.

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Anonymous Present Their Demands

Anonymous' call to arms

The debate for Internet censorship in Australia took an interesting turn today.

Whilst I’m not about to condone their action on my blog, I see it as vital that the discussion around this topic is kept alive. The Rudd Government continues with a string of conservative, right-wing policy decisions around social liberties in this country and expects to proceed without community consultation.

Whether you agree with Anonymous’ (at least at this time) publicity stunt or not, we should all be questioning the path we are now heading down when it comes to freely accessible information.

Note: Whilst I do not agree with Government preventing Internet users from viewing any websites, I don’t suggest you view many of those on the blacklist. It’s not for those with a weak constitution. Seriously. (Viewing the blacklist is safe – the web addresses generally speak for themselves.)

Update 10/09/2009: The results are in. Anonymous successfully brought www.pm.gov.au to a grinding halt. I wonder what the repercussions of this will be?

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Apparently We’re Full

Australia pretty much now has the dubious honour of being internationally known as a racist culture. Our ever-tightening immigration policy (I defy anyone to prove that Rudd has taken any steps since ousting Howard to make a real difference for immigrants) is vindicated by right-wing media, telling us that ‘we’re full’ – we couldn’t possibly let anyone else into the country, because they will clearly take our jobs, rape our daughters and generally blow everything up around us.

No doubt I sound facetious with that comment, but it doesn’t take much digging to see that this is a view held by many Australians. It’s not one that is confined to our country either. Dateline broadcast an interesting piece last night on the rise and rise of the British National Party (BNP). To be honest, it’s not the views of the people leading this party that concern me, it’s the groundswell of support they’re getting from the middle class that’s truly frightening. What would have been considered extremist politics up until recently, has been fueled by difficult economic circumstances, disappointment and disillusionment in elected government and of course, the sensationalist media.

Our fear of refugees and immigration was something I attempted to address last semester. And so, it was great to stumble across another Australian group with a similar message this morning. Digging through posts on the Australian Creative Commons site, I spotted this fine work by non-profit company, human…

Australia is at 1.7% of habitable capacity. Doesn't quite sound like 'we're full'

Human have kindly made the printable PDF version available for download, under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. Print some up and get the message out. It’s time more dialogue was started on this subject – and not from the same, old talking heads.

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Art and the City

Art and the City - COFA Talks

Tonight I hung around at uni for a few extra hours to attend this weeks COFA Talk: Art and the City. I’m quite interested in how government attempts to reconcile art within public spaces and was particularly keen to hear what Sydney Lord Mayor, Clover Moore had to say on the topic. I was severely disappointed.

The speeches themselves were the predictable round of backslapping and slideshows of middle-of-the-road public art installation. However, it was when the floor was opened up to the large crowd that I was most surprised. Obviously, questions quickly moved in the direction of street art (tellingly responded to by Moore as “graffiti” and bundled with activities like skateboarding) and it wasn’t long before the respondents (and host) visibly tired of this line of questioning – it appeared they were passing it over as just the realm of trouble-making kids.

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