[LINK] Fwd: Just in: Conroy going ahead with censorship

[rene]

On Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:32:00 +1100, Stephen Wilson wrote:

> Sorry but this is cynical, undergraduate nonsense.
>
> If there is any hope at all of engaging the government on the
> substantive issues (like freedom of speech, or efficacy or whatever)
> then what good does it do to sabotage public servants' time?  How
> seriously do you want to be taken?

If you have been following the efforts of concerned citizens to bring their 
concerns to the attention of government politicians, then you would know 
that the overwhelmingly majority who have written polite, considered, 
detailed letters about the reasons for their opposition to the mandatory 
blocking plan, have been sent a standard letter from the politician to whom 
they wrote (or one from Conroy's office) which in the overwhelmingly 
majority of cases shows that the politician or staff member did not even 
read what the citizen said.

You may think Bernard Keane's suggestion is "cynical, undergraduate 
nonsense" but for those members of the public who have been trying, really 
hard, to get any sort of sensible response from politicians, indicating 
that the politician or their staff, even actually read the citizen's 
letter/concerns, then you might understand why Keane is suggesting another 
means of making politicians and/or their staff *pay attention*.

It is 2 years since the govt announced its plan, and there is minimal 
evidence to date that the public has been able "engage the government on 
the substantive issues" notwithstanding a vast amount of letter writing of 
a type completely different from that which BK has recently suggested.  

Irene