Clive Hamilton, The Greens' candidate in the Higgins by-election expects us to abandon a wide range of important freedoms by trumping them with the hideous spectre of child sexual abuse. His position is morally bankrupt, say the Democrats. It delegates to government a power they plan to misuse before it even exists.
"Hamilton affirmed his support for the Rudd Government's Internet Filter scheme as recently as a week ago. His position is breathtakingly naive and means all citizens can be denied access to any content deemed unacceptable by public servants for any reason," the Democrats' Higgins by-election candidate David Collyer said today.
"He and the government are taking a legitimate public concern - the need to protect children from inappropriate material - and are using it to push through a wasteful, secretive censorship program riddled with unintended consequences that cannot achieve its policy aims.
"Hamilton is in direct contradiction to The Greens’ position on the issue," Collyer said. "Even if the issue of internet content and filtering means very little to you, it is important to understand that Clive Hamilton does not support core Greens policies.
"Everyone in public life wants a secure internet experience for children. However, the very structure of the Rudd Government’s Internet Filter means it cannot achieve this objective.
"The secret national blacklist of websites exposes us to government abuse in perpetuity: legitimate, legal businesses have already found themselves on it with no recourse or ability to challenge or appeal the decision. The blacklist works only on complaints made to the Government. It is subjective, incomplete and draconian.
"If the Australian Government awards itself this capability, it exposes itself to irresistible political pressures. For example, the Chinese Government could insist all Falun Gong sites be blocked to Australians. The Rudd Government would cooperate, and we would never know.
The Democrats position is reinforced by Civil Liberties Australia's stinging denouncement in their most recent newsletter: "Dr Hamilton jumped on board the censorship bandwagon early and with a flourish. He endorsed a virtual "anything goes" approach to government censorship. It didn’t matter how slow the internet got, or how the government curtailed people’s freedoms to access information... all would be OK under the dictatorial approach of Dr Hamilton."
The Democrats believe it is possible to deliver a safer internet experience for children without compromising the social, economic and political freedoms of others through building on our censorship laws that already classify media - or denies classification - allied with existing and evolving net filtering software.
"The Government is elected to serve the people and secret Government censorship programs work against the people. Electing a Democrat will send a message to the Government that this is not the path of progress," Collyer concluded.
Media contact – David Collyer 0413 248 193
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