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

[Stephen Wilson]

Tom Koltai wrote:
> Sorry Stephen, have to disagree.
> ...
> Government are influenced by highly paid lobbyists. Unless they receive
> a contrary feedback from the public, the lobbyists version wins the day.
> I believe that each facsimile or letter is counted as ten persons.
> So unless you have the Right Honourables home number or cell number, the
> only way to get through is to campaign as hard as the lobbyists.
> Otherwise how will Government know we won't vote for them next time?
>   
That's all fine but it bears no resemblance to what Bernard Keane in 
Crikey was on about.  He explicitly said that the public servants 
essentially ignore our letters, and can only respond with approved 
verbage.  So he advocated writing complex letters that tie them up in 
knots composing complex responses. 

The tactics had nothing at all to do with letting politicians know who 
you're planning to vote for. 

The explicit theme to Keane's advice was that writing is actually 
useless so let's instead exploit the correspondence process as a form of 
(invisible) protest. 

Cheers,

Stephen.

>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: link-bounces at mailman1.anu.edu.au 
>> [mailto:link-bounces at mailman1.anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Stephen Wilson
>> Sent: Thursday, 17 December 2009 1:32 PM
>> To: Link list
>> Subject: Re: [LINK] Fwd: Just in: Conroy going ahead with censorship
>>
>>
>>
>> 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?
>>
>> Stephen Wilson
>> Lockstep
>> www.lockstep.com.au
>>     
>