Dear Julia Gillard,

Just for the record, I tried not to think much about it when you said that foreign affairs was not your thing, but now your foreign policy skills - or lack of them - are truly showing over Julian Assange and they are abysmal. Whatever crime he is being accused of you should, as a lawyer, know that he is entitled to the ( Read more... )

Woke up fairly early on a Sunday morning, first thing I do is flail for my iPhone for newsheadlines. Short answer: Australia is in election limbo, with a "gang of five" (4 Independents and 1 Greens) MPs holding the balance of power with neither the Liberal-Nationals OR the Labor Party having the requisite 76 seats to form government in their own ( Read more... )

9:00pm, we have the Greens winning their first House of Reps seat, overall swing to the Liberal-National Coalition, and the ABC24 panel is predicting a hung Parliament. Still waiting for WA results to come in. Kerry O'Brien repeating his ABC-I-mean-the-ALP gaffe is still funny though.

EDIT: ABC tally now on 68 ALP, 68 LNP, with 5 others (one of ( Read more... )

Good morning Australia! Are you ready to vote (it's mandatory for all citizens, y'know)? Who shall be our next not-Head-of-State-Prime-Minister - the red-head Julia "Let's Move Australia Forward (And Please Forget Kevin Rudd)" Gillard from Melbourne's 'burbs, or the Mad Monk Tony "I don't want to have an economic debate I hope the women of ( Read more... )

Now that the federal election has been called, how is that internet filtering legislation going?

Well, for one thing, it's been delayed until after the election but one very interesting and telling point has been revealed in that of all the lobby groups interested and speaking out about the filter, only the Christian lobby got advance notice from ( Read more... )

So that people know, the the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has published most of the 174 submissions received on the internet filter. I'd like to point out first that the terms of reference for these submissions were to concentrate on what transparency and accountability measures should be put in place for the ( Read more... )

The Australian Human Rights Commission has threatened legal action against the widely read but controversial Encyclopedia Dramatica over an article that encourages racial hatred against Aborigines.For those in Australia keeping an eye on what's been happening with the internet filter, Encyclopedia Dramatica was listed by the Australian ( Read more... )

Federal Labor split over mandatory internet filter

Best news I've read today, particularly while I'm trying to write my own piece on the internet filter.

As an update on yesterday's post, this was great news to wake up this morning.

South Australian Attorney-General backs down, will ditch law outlawing anonymous political bloggingIn Atkinson's words: "It may be humiliating for me but that's politics in a democracy, I'll take my lumps. This way, no one need fear now that they are being censored on ( Read more... )

The South Australian Government has passed laws that may effectively censor political speech during election times.The new law, which came into force on January 6, requires internet bloggers, and anyone making a comment on next month's state election, to publish their real name and postcode when commenting on an election story on South Australian ( Read more... )