I recently debated in Sydney on the motion that governments shouldn’t censor the internet. ABC TV broadcast the discussion and our team included a robust explanation on the principles of free speech. An edited version of the debate was broadcast tonight on ABC Radio National Big Ideas:
Showing all posts tagged Kevin Rudd
Removing this man without due and fair process shames Australia
With this decision, Australia once again shows itself to be far outside the parameters of international law, making security assessments based on a system completely lacking transparency. I once spoke at this Sydney Islamic centre last year and found an important space to engage Muslims on issues related to the Middle East and re-defining the…
Why internet censorship is a fool’s paradise
My following article is published today by the Sydney Morning Herald/Age online: We live under the illusion that governments can protect us from the evils of the world. Paedophilia, extreme violence, lessons in self-harm and suicide, race hatred and terrorism. We have every right to expect governments to monitor hate and terror sites and arrest…
How many Australians want their government to filter online content? Hint: not very many
Last night in Sydney I successfully debated with some other colleagues that governments should not censor the internet. One of my co-speakers, Google’s Ross LaJeunesse, has an article in today’s Sydney Morning Herald arguing against Australia’s proposed mandatory internet filter. I agree and it looks like many Australians do, too (via ABC Radio’s PM tonight):…
Debating why the internet should not be censored
The following article by Erik Jensen appears in today’s Sydney Morning Herald: Governments should not censor the internet. The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, disagrees and the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, broadly supports his position. But two journalists and the head of government affairs for Google in Asia strongly agree with the proposition. “We have to…
A government that shuns asylum seekers deserves sanction
Last weekend Australia’s leading unions sent a letter to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd demanding a more humane response to refugees (the story is covered in today’s Sydney Morning Herald): Dear Prime Minister, We are writing to express our concern at the growing stance of indifference towards and demonisation of asylum seekers from both sides of…
Asylum seekers in the pursuit of humanity
I went to this yesterday in Sydney. The Australian government (and dog-whistling Opposition) will not get away with demonising refugees in the pursuit of power: Onlookers stared and tourists took photographs as protesters formed a giant ring representing a lifebuoy on Bondi Beach yesterday to send a political message about the treatment of asylum seekers.…
It’s a good time to be in the detention centre business. Just ask Serco
My following article appears in today’s edition of Crikey: The Australian government’s decision to re-open the Curtin detention centre in Western Australia has attracted predictable outrage from previous detainees and refugee groups but missing from the media coverage was any mention of who will run the facility. British multinational Serco is in charge of the…
Shouts of war in Australia for those noble battles
John Pilger on Australia’s infantile relationship with foreign wars: Staring at the vast military history section of the airport shop, I had a choice: the derring-do of psychopaths or scholarly tomes with their illicit devotion to the cult of organised killing. There was nothing I recognised from reporting war. Nothing on the spectacle of children’s…
Both major Australian parties are conservative so make an alternative choice
Marcus Westbury writes on the ABC that Australian voters have a real choice at the forthcoming election: For many progressive voters the Rudd government’s decisions in recent weeks to axe the ETS (and offer up no alternative), suspend the processing of asylum seeker claims, and belligerently persist with mad schemes like censoring the internet against…