Politicians and the web. Was [LINK] Who is running that web server

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

Some politicians seem to be very aware of the web:

King raises stakes in Wentworth stand-off
By Mike Seccombe
June 22, 2004
SMH
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/21/1087669919370.html?oneclick=true

The disendorsed Liberal member for the blue-ribbon seat of Wentworth, Peter
King, had been electronically stalked, personally abused and had his
supporters threatened with expulsion from the party, Parliament was told
last night.

Mr King called for Parliament to consider a ban on sponsored web-links of
the kind the new candidate for Wentworth, Malcolm Turnbull, has used
against him in the battle for hearts and minds of voters.

His extraordinary attack on the man selected to replace him in Wentworth
serves to heighten speculation Mr King will run as an independent in the
seat.

His main complaint was about a weblink paid for by Mr Turnbull. The
sponsored link meant anyone searching the internet for Mr King or his home
page would see an ad directing them to Mr Turnbull.

It amounted, he said, to "electronic stalking" and "a personal attempt to
impede me in the course of my public duties on behalf of the people who I
represent here".

"No member of parliament should tolerate another individual diverting
constituents and queries to another person who is a contender for his or
her role," Mr King said.

He also said: "Four weeks ago I had a regular street stall at Bondi Beach
interrupted by this individual, who broke up my meeting with local
constituents discussing their issues, leading to the termination of the
street stall in confusion and uproar."

"A day later I was approached by the individual and verbally attacked at a
local surf club in Bondi, my winter swimming club, and told to 'F-off and
get out of my way'," he said

Constituents who had publicly supported him had been telephoned and
threatened with expulsion from the party, he said.

"I have come to the conclusion that the interference and intimidation to
which I have been subjected has been a sequential campaign."

Mr Turnbull, he said, had taken "every opportunity to put himself between
the electorate and I, whether the communication means is personal,
electronic, or other means of communication".

The Turnbull-sponsored weblink has now been removed, but the Prime
Minister's office, the Liberal Party's state director, Scott Morrison, and
Mr Turnbull refused to confirm or deny party suggestions that it had been
at Mr Howard's instigation.

Mr Turnbull could not be contacted last night for comment on Mr King's
claims.


Stephen Loosley wrote:
> 
> At 10:33 AM 21/06/2004 +1000, Rick wrote:
> 
> > Liberal Party of Australia
> > www.liberal.org.au Windows 2000   Microsoft-IIS/5.0
> > Should we tell the coalition what a dangerous platform
> > they are using?  Nah ... cheers,  rickw
> 
> Being a watcher of, "Parliament Question Time" on ABC TV
> (and in fact, right now as I write this) it is common for Costello
> to seriously run down the ALP web site. He does it quite often.
> 
> For example, yesterday Costello made impassioned claims that
> a radio transcript of a Latham interview had been 'airbrushed' of
> a sentence before being made available on the ALP site. Tonight
> Costello has just joked about doing a google for economic policy
> and our National Party leader has just claimed that he did a search
> of the ALP site for additional ALP policy information. (Nb tonight's
> broadcast is of Monday's parlimentary question time)
> 
> It seems our members of parliment are very aware of web content,
> and, especially, the content available or not on opposition websites.
> 
> With so much political info apparently being sourced from websites
> perhaps someone really should mention to them how easy it for MS
> sites to be hacked.  Otherwise, relying so much on web information,
> as they apparently do, all pollies may make some horrible decisions.
> 
> Go on, Rick ... where's your sense of civic responsibility?
> 
> happy trails all
> Stephen Loosley
> Melbourne Australia
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Link mailing list
> Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
> http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link


-- 
Bush said today he is being stalked. He said wherever he goes, people are
following him. Finally, someone told him, 'Psst. That's the Secret
Service.'
-- Jay Leno

Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Canberra Australia
brd at austarmetro.com.au