Fight Mandatory Internet Censorship in Australia, Sign the Petition
WakingGiant.org has organised an official and legal written petition against the internet filtering proposal and trial scheduled to begin in December 2008, this trial begins on the 24th of December 2008.
What does it say?
TO THE HONOURABLE SPEAKER AND MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
We, the undersigned citizens of Australia draws to the attention of the House “The mandatory Internet filtering initiative” and hereby express our condemnation of the forthcoming legislation to implement mandatory filtering of web pages by ISP’s in Australia.
We believe:
- That having all Australians’ internet access subjected to a secret and unaccountable government blacklist is completely unacceptable.
- That Australia already has laws in place preventing the possession or viewing of child pornography, and other materials found objectionable by the vast majority of Australian’s. Filtering objectionable web pages will not stop those wishing to view such materials from obtaining them and will slow down the internet.
- That there are numerous effective, low cost, commercially available software packages that give parents the power to filter the internet web pages that their children can view. Imposing mandatory, blanket internet filtering upon the public is objectionable to the majority of Australian’s.
- That the highly vocal, religious minority that supports mandatory filtering of web pages are not representative of mainstream Australia. Australia has a long and proud history of secularism, whereby the state remains free of religious interference.
In addition we condemn all efforts by governments and telecommunication firms that attempt to implement restrictions of the free exchange of speech.
Your petitioners respectfully call upon the House to take legislative action to keeping the internet unfiltered. We do not support the introduction of mandatory filtering of content by ISP’s nor to the $44.2 million dollars it will cost Australian’s and we uphold our fundamental human right to the free expression of ideas and opinions.
Why should I sign it?
- 20,000 signatures from churches are the reason this “clean feed” filter is being implemented.
- More than 20,000 signatures from the rest of the population will show that this is not supported by the public.
- Watch the video, watch as many videos as you can on the subject.
- Do some research, do you really know what they’re trying to do?
- The number one reason to oppose this? Sending illegal material via email will circumvent this filter.
- People who opt-out of filtering will be on a list, some filtering cannot be opted out of.
- The list of blocked sites will be secret and unavailable to the Australian public.
- Public opposition to Government opinion is already being actively suppressed. Mark Newton is currently unfltered, so read him while you can.
- This filter will not protect anyone and is built on Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD).
- There is an implication by the Orwellian name of the original petition, that people without the filter, are receiving a “dirty” internet.
- Alarming Scope Creep in the Clean Feed Project
- A 16 year old cracked the first government filter easily, this is what he has to say about the filter plan.
- Amnesty International says internet censorship affects everyone.
- This is a waste of 44.2 million tax payer dollars that could be better spent elsewhere.
- Censorware has in the past blocked people from accessing sites on botany, feminism, youth suicide prevention, rape and child molestation survivor support, family planning, prison rape activism, AIDS information, disability rights, gay rights, religion (including a Jewish youth site and the Vatican), political dissent, euthanasia, drug harm minimisation, human rights, major mainstream media sites such as TIME magazine and politics (including the British Conservative Party site).
- News like the pictures from Abu Ghraib could be blocked, news should never be filtered.
How do I sign it?
- Print the petition:
- either with room for six signatures (PDF)
- or room for more (PDF)
- sign it yourself and pass it around
- mail it in
What else can I do?
- Write to your local MP (don’t email)
- Organise a dinner with your family and friends, let them know that you are signing the petition and why. Take a petition with you if they want to sign it too.
- Email this to your family and friends in Australia, so they can have their say too.
- Post your own video on YouTube.
- Post on your blog.
NOTE: Only Australian Citizens can sign this official hardcopy Petition.
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Buy at 
I’ve signed it.
I couldn’t resist correcting the apostrophe mistakes on it though. Arghhh… *walks away before starting rant about proof-reading documents before making them public*.
I’ve printed out my letter tonight - will send it to Conroy tomorrow
I can’t sign it, but I think it’s bloody stupid.
It should be blatantly obvious that if a 16 year old can write convincingly about why this is wrong and support those arguements, that a supposedly adult politician can see it is wrong as well. Obviously he is playing to a specific group of people in order to get votes. I guess he doesn’t realize that the Internet is forever and his stupidity will live on long after he is out of office.
Want to be known as a complete nutter? Try and censor the Internet.
I would expect this in the US, but not Aus.
Excellent post Cait - I have been meaning to do this this week. But I also love the fact that I have an awesome crew that is right on the ball - thanks.
The rest of you lazy bastards that want to keep downloading their porn, movies and music at a decent speed and retain the right to do so. Get onto this.
I am seriously disappointed that my government has decided to take the same action as China. It is exactly the same, maybe not as restrictive - but how the hell are we ever going to know? The rest of the world will be laughing their heads off.
Stupid idea and a useless minister who obviously has no clue what so ever - if he did he would have thought it and dismissed it in a heartbeat.
Truth is though that they banned semi automatic weapons here in Australia. But if you want to get your hands on one you can. Same with this - the people that wish to access illegal and morally corrupt content will still be able to if this goes ahead. Just that every other Internet user will pay the price for it even though they have no intention of doing the same thing.
Bahhhh letter printed. I am getting mad… must stop spewing crap…
Thanks again Cait you rock and Herne we appreciate your support by proxy mate, even if you are Canadian…
Urrrggghhh its enough to make me want to be an Australian just to join the petition … go for this and never let go.
Suggestion :
1) get that wonderful Aussie, Prodos on your show to talk about this you will be inspired.
2) Send your stuff to NZ for re-broadcast
I would expect this thing to start in Europe first and the land far away called Australia would grant more freedom than the states.
It turns out that eastern Europe (the whole post-socialism, post-censorship block) is not even considering such practices and you guys are. Really sad.
I would recommend using a SOCKS5 / Socks Plus proxy ($5-$10 per month) and connect wherever you want then. Everything is encrypted.
The great firewall slows everything international down to a crawl. It’s really unusable. A lot of the blocked sites are things like blogspot, digg, google and vox. What’s the harm in any of those sites?
I often wonder if Dave’s super-secret government medical job involves researching the removal of Stephen Conroy’s head from his backside…
Thank you for hosting this petition aussiegeekpodcast.com
The petition is going really well, we have collected over 12,000 signatures Australia wide, we are 8,000 off our target –> 20,000.
We have 2 weeks left before I submit this petition to parliament (Monday December 15th) - I need as much help as I can get to hit this goal!!
Also please note that the signatures have to be mailed to me, my postal address is supplied on the front page of the petition, some people have been sending them straight to the petitions committee, those signatures are being forwarded to me, but to ensure we don’t lose any in transition sending them straight to me will save us chasing any up.
Melissa