GetUp cranks pressure on Rudd filter plan

James Riley
Tuesday, 20 October 2009 18:41

Opinion and Analysis

Spare a thought for Kevin Rudd on Thursday morning as he spins up his computer and prepares for his occasional web chat with citizens of the Wide Brown Land.

Politicians must get used to dealing with hostile crowds. But whether or not our Prime Minister fully understands the level of antipathy among people toward his Government's proposed internet filtering scheme we will soon learn.

There aren't many issues that make Australians want to set themselves on fire, but even a suggestion from Government that it wants to censor the free flow of information over the internet is certainly one of them. And Mr Rudd will discuss the issue online from 9am Thursday.

The issue drives people crazy. People from all walks of life, all ages and all political persuasions have signed up to the campaign against plan, GetUp national director Simon Sheikh says.

According to Sheikh, more than 117,000 have signed up to the GetUp anti-filtering campaign. To put that in perspective, the GetUp climate change campaign has signed-up about 120,000 people.

With some understatement Sheikh says "this is an issue people get riled about." No coincidence at all then, that Sheikh is in Canberra this week talking to politicians – senators mainly – and their staffers.

Two weeks ago GetUp ran a full page ad in The Australian declaring its petition numbers, and has a series of TV and internet 'Censordyne' advertisments. This week, after months of not much on the issue, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy announces plans for a public consultation before Government proceeds. And the PM puts the issue into his Thursday web chat agenda (and, we assume, will blog about it prior to the live chat.)

This not a small thing (Sheikh calls it gutsy), and it should reveal a lot about what will happen on internet filtering between now and the next election.

Mr Rudd's web chats are conducted in a fairly controlled environment (participants are selected through 'automated' system, in much the same way, I suspect, as this article was written through an automated system) but the nature of the filtering debate could see it take on a weirdness all its own.

The concern for the GetUp people is that filtering might present an irresistible wedge opportunity for Kevin Rudd, ready to be picked up as required.

There is a degree of genuine weirdness about the politics of internet filtering, not least the fact that it is the Liberals opposing the scheme. With the Greens on the same side.

Right now the Liberals oppose plans for mandatory ISP-level filtering. But there is a significant numbers within the opposition who actually think it's a good idea, and the issue has simmered for several years.

Given the heat the filtering debate can generate, it looks an easy wedge.

And that's something GetUp is making sure the Libs fully understand, to ensure they hold the line (and Xenophon has said he doesn't like the notion of mandatory filtering, and its potential for over blocking.

Sheikh reckons there are no votes in filtering, only votes against the policy. And it's hard to argue with that.

In the meantime, GetUp has welcomed Stephen Conroy's commitment to conduct a public consultation. The group now wants to make sure it's a not just a web site thing – that people who feel strongly about the issue are able to put their position face-to-face as part of a Town Hall consultation meetings.