As Australia readies itself for the imposition of a Carbon tax and renewed calls ring out from Bob Brown and the Greens to shut down all of Australia's coal fired power stations, the question remains as to whether the Greens vision of Australia going 100% renewable energy by 2020 is actually feasible or just a dewy-eyed impossible dream.

Marrickville Council will face a bill of at least $3 million and possibly considerably more to replace HP computers because of a boycott and divestment policy of the Jewish state voted in by a majority of Green councilors. In fact, there is a question of whether the Council will be able to find useful replacement policy compliant computers at all.

OMGreen – Australia’s “Green” party has refused the offer of a “private briefing” on Australia’s National Broadband Network business plan because of the Federal Government’s onerous “non-disclosure” restrictions that last up to 7 years!

South Australian balance of power senator Nick Xenophon remains a strong supporter of the Government telecommunications reform objectives – including provisions to structurally separate Telstra – and subject to a closer reading of the bill presented to Parliament yesterday will vote to approve its passage.

Any hope that a returned Gillard Labor Government will implement mandatory ISP-level internet filtering has further diminished with the Greens rejecting the proposal as part of its cyber safety election policy

The Greens propose spending the $40.8m the Labor Government has budgeted for cyber-safety initiatives on range of measures including mandating the supply of PC-based filtering by ISPs, further research into cyber safety risks, strengthened law enforcement, and net literacy education.

The old canard lies, damned lies and statistics could well apply to the iTWire online poll as to our readers’ voting intentions in the upcoming Federal Election. However, there is no denying that they send a stark message to both the Labor Government and the Coalition Opposition.

Electronic Frontiers Australia has welcomed the bundle of Internet protection measures announced the Coalition as being superior to both the ALP's heavy handed censorship plans and to former Howard Government policy, but has questioned whether the problems merit the $100m budget allocated.

The Coalition has revealed that it would oppose any plans by a future Labor Government to impose mandatory Internet filtering.

In a lengthy speech in the Senate, Greens communications spokesman, senator Scott Ludlam, has roundly condemned the Government's mandatory filtering plan and set out a three-pronged alternative approach to protecting children online.