自由党承诺取消全国网络过滤计划

黑山老妖

自由党终于对网络过滤计划表明了立场：如果自由党选举成功那么他们将取缔网络过滤计划，如果选举失败他们也不会支持工党的这个计划。
这对绝大多数网民来说是一大喜讯。

THE Liberals have finally spoken and it's music to most internet users' ears.

Joe Hockey's public denunciation of Labor's controversial mandatory ISP filtering plan late yesterday was warmly welcomed by the Greens and others.

The opposition treasury spokesman late yesterday told ABC Radio's Triple J that if elected the Coalition would scrap the filter scheme.

But even if Labor won the August 21 poll, the Coalition would not back the filter legislation.

Mr Hockey said the policy was flawed and the technology doesn't work.

An Abbott government is likely to reintroduce NetAlert, a Howard-era program that offered parents free internet filtering software.

Greens communications spokesman Scott Ludlam said the Liberal party should be congratulated for finally declaring its hand.

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The Nationals had previously stated they would not support Labor's plan.

"The decision belongs to the huge number of people who contributed to a tenacious, self-organised campaign that stretched from online civil libertarians all the way up to the US State Department," Senator Ludlam said.

"The ALP should drop the censorship proposal rather than fighting what now looks inevitable.

"The Greens will work with any party in the parliament on constructive cyber safety proposals. At last that debate can start properly," Senator Ludlam said.

Influential lobby group GetUp declared the filter "dead, buried and cremated".

"Regardless of who forms the next government, we know that mandatory internet filter legislation won't pass Parliament, with the Coalition, the Greens and independent Nick Xenophon all opposed to it," GetUp national director Simon Sheikh said.

Mr Sheikh said the internet filter was "quashed by a huge and concerted online campaign", which he described as "probably the biggest Australia has ever seen".

"We're not just talking about a small group of tech-savvy campaigners," he said. "Over 127,000 Australians joined GetUp's petition against internet filtering, and 70 per cent of them are parents and grandparents."

Mr Sheikh urged Labor to redirect funds for internet filtering to online safety education programs for students and parents, and to the Australian Federal Police.

"We all want to protect kids online; it's just a debate about how to best do that," he said. "Filtering the internet just doesn't work, and now the policy is dead, buried and cremated.

"The government should now use that money to invest in education and police instead."

GetUp was not alone in its crusade against the filter proposal.

“This was a coalition campaign including groups as diverse as Save the Children, Australian Lawyers Alliance, National Arts and Culture Alliance, human rights groups including Amnesty Australia and online activists like Electronic Frontiers Australia. Everyone will be celebrating today,” Mr Sheikh said.

Labor wants ISPs to block refused classification (RC) web pages on a secret government blacklist but the policy has hit several roadblocks since first pledged in the 2007 election.

In early July Communications Minister Stephen Conroy ordered a year-long review into RC processes and said the filter legislation would not be introduced until the review was completed.

The government has always said it would that at least 12 months after the passage of legislation to implement the filtering scheme.

If Labor is re-elected, ISPs will be forced to start blocking RC content from 2012.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/ ... htb9o-1225901980010