James Riley
Friday, 12 March 2010 00:14
IT Policy -
Regulation
Page 1 of 2
The Rudd Government's internet filtering plans are unworkable, and the scheme would "perniciously" create an infrastructure to allow censorship to be applied more broadly in future, shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey has told the Grattan Institute.
In a broad ranging speech "In Defence of Liberty," Mr Hockey casts new technology as a double-edged sword for personal freedom: Internet filtering plans are well-meant but potentially dangerous, but an R18+ adult computer games category is just plain dangerous.
Mr Hockey rails against Nanny State issues that side-track governments and hoodwink the citizenry. He puts the case for more personal responsibility, less government responsibility.
Internet filtering, he says, is Government over-reach – not because people should have access to unlawful material, but because the infrastructure represents a danger in itself.
"By expanding those aspects of society that come under the control of government we ultimately diminish our own liberty," he told the Grattan Institute dinner in Melbourne.
"What we have in the government's Internet filtering proposals is a scheme that is likely to be unworkable in practice. But more perniciously it is a scheme that will create the infrastructure for government censorship on a broader scale," Mr Hockey said.
"Protecting liberty is about protecting freedoms against both known and future threats. Some may argue that we can surely trust a democratically-elected government in Australia to never try to introduce more wide-spread censorship. I am not so sure!"
