Thank you all for coming. And thank you to the volunteers who have worked to pull this rally together, particularly Susan and Kevin and Joe and the people who have worked so hard with them to get the word out about today.
I need to put myself in context here before I share my words with you. I am a member of the Board of Electronic Frontiers Australia. We are an Australian membership organisation. We have no affiliation with other similar organisations in other countries except by purpose, and that purpose is to attempt to influence the policies and regulations affecting the Internet community. We represent about 3000 members, and since the debate on Internet censorship has come into more public view, those numbers are going daily.
Also, you can probably tell by my accent that I'm from America. I'm a migrant, probably like many of you. I came to this country by choice 4 years ago to build my life and maybe contribute something of my skills and knowledge, a lot of it working in online communities. I call this place home now, just like all of you.
Now, why are we here. We are here because the Government in Canberra has decided that its faceless bureaucratic departments know best about what we see and read on the Internet. Oh, did you know the Government threw out the entire vetted list of members for the Classification Board last week because they weren't seen as representative of 'the community'? What community is that Senator? Was the Asian woman too Asian? Or was the regional person too regional?
We're here because legislation has passed the Senate this week, thanks to the votes of two independent senators, that will make that Government's wishes to censor the internet become a reality in law by a vote in the House of Representatives next week.
This government has attacked the freedom of the Australian public in a way that no Western government has in many many years. Those countries that have tried, like Malaysia in our own backyard, have given it up as unworkable and doing more damage to their economies in the emerging digital age than it was solving any problems.
Canada, a member of the Commonwealth, has come out and said it will NOT develop any internet regulations that would censor communications or ideas among people. And by their press releases, they are very proud of that position.
The US has tried and failed to bring into law similar restrictions as this new censorious regime, same arguments, too - to protect children. But fortunately my place of birth has a constitution and a Bill of Rights to use as a defence against extremist government actions that attempt to violate individual rights. The Communications Decency Act as it was called was found Unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the US.
This Australian government is denying freedom of access to information that is legal to buy in the streets of Sydney, Melbourne, and most cities in Australia, including their own seat of power, Canberra, but because the information is stored on a computer somewhere in the world and is sent over wires, then that information should not be allowed to us.
This government and conservative fellow travelling independent senators think parents can't make decisions in their own homes any more about what their children can see and read and talk about, so this government has taken those matters into its own hands.
This government is threatening the privacy of what we do on our own personally purchased computer screens.
And for a government that says it is the businessman's friend, it is short circuiting the very economic engine of the next century - the information industry engine.
Already we have received word that before this has even become law, information providers and developers, are setting up their equipment off shore and making plans to move their development offices in the near future.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is not right. This is the stuff of China and Saudi Arabia and Iraq and the Old Soviet Union. People leaving Australia because of oppressive government regulations? Higher taxes maybe, but attempted violation of human rights? This isn't the expected way of life in a free and supposedly democratic society, is it? Evidently it is now in Australia under this government.
OK, so you may not like the human body. That's fine. You may not approve of killing and mayhem. I don't either, but I see it nearly every night on the evening news and certainly read about rape and attacks and robberies in the paper, and I haven't gone out and done any of those things myself. But not only is this legislation and the 'technically feasible and commercially viable' option for actually doing anything to block and filter the adult material going to do that, computers aren't smart enough to keep from blocking the GOOD stuff as well! If your name is Virginia, and you have a website, your site is in danger of being blocked because the filters are that stupid. If your site is about how to avoid being raped, guess what, the word rape is one of the 142 strings of letters that get trapped. And forget about it if you are the shining star of Tim Fisher who makes Whips and exports them on the net!
This is called collateral damage, unintended consequences of actions taken by clueless politicians. The innocent are hurt in an attempt to 'protect' us. One might almost be cynical enough to think they want the population to be kept as stupid as possible so as not to challenge their power positions.
There's a saying that it does no good to shut the barn door after the horse has bolted. That may well be. And some of us have been told by some people that our political approach to this legislation hasn't been very successful. I would suggest that is correct. We haven't been successful. No one was going to be successful in stopping this bill, at this political time, with this combination of powerful conservative men in the driver's seat in Canberra. No one could, at least in the Senate. The votes were stacked from the beginning. The speed was because of the fellow travelling conservative independent having an agenda of "Father Knows Best", and the Howards and Alstons of the far right were going to need that man's vote to pass their Telstra legislation. They thought they would get the GST, too, didn't they? I wonder how much more it will cost the Australian public besides the Australian community's freedom of expression and freedom to see and read before the Southern gentleman decides his vote has met his price?
We've also been tarred with being in league with the 'smut peddlers'. That was a bit harder to take. I don't choose to spend my money on this stuff. I'm not too interested in the violence either, personally. But so what if someone else is? And so what if a child does see a bare breast or sexual intercourse? Aren't those facts of life?
The world isn't lily white and pure, either, when it comes to real danger. It's rough and yes there are some real creeps out there, not just on line. And kids are vulnerable. But they aren't vulnerable to information, they are vulnerable to the creeps who ACT against children. Why not take that annual $7million they are going to spend on bureaucrats examining 'highly offensive materials' and put it into 'kids safe' programs and real child abuse prevention programs?
And how does a government reconcile its allowance of the explicit billboards along train stations while trying to stop the same images on computer screens? Doesn't this government have a dictionary with the word hypocracy in it?
I've talked long enough. I think you know where I'm coming from on this. Now what can be done. Ladies and Gentleman, this isn't a finished situation. Yes, the legislation may pass, but we all know it's not going to work. In fact, it wouldn't be too hard with a little imagination to make sure it didn't. I'm sure there are smart people out there figuring what can be done in that regard.
But friends, I still believe miracles do happen. And I believe that politicians do listen to some people some of the time. And I think we need to make our voices heard in Canberra, starting with our own local members of Parliament. Ring them. Ring them today! Tell them this bill stinks. Tell them you will remember at the time of the next election. Tell them that the power of the Internet is obviously in our hands and we do know how to use it to organise. Tell them that 2 years is an awfully lot of time to get that organisation ready and defeat them at the next election if they choose to toe the Government's line.
You know, one of the issues raised during the Senate debates this week was that the general public didn't know this was happening, that they'd been very quiet. There was a comment by a journalist I know yesterday that this debate was seen as the Elites in Canberra against the Elites on the Net, and that as long as the general public didn't know how this effected them, there would be no consequence to the politicians. Are there going to be consequences? You bet there are.
There are petitions around the place, enough spots for signatures from all of you. Please sign onto one of them. Please call your MP. Please send your letters to your senators [Alston is VICTORIAN for God's sake!]. They really like the hand written ones. Get your Grans to write. Get your teachers and neighbours to write. This is our future, this is your kids' future. Please don't wake up in 2004 and wonder why you didn't take a stand back in 1999.
Thank you.