[LINK] Quaint stash of censored books found - but no mention of ALP's Net censorship policy

[Robin Whittle]

There's a story emphasising the now-quaint notions of protecting the
public which were the law in previous decades - the 1920s to 1980s:


http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-23/historian-uncovers-australias-censored-books/3908234

as if this was all in the past.  Yet there's no mention of their
modern-day equivalent, such as ALP's policy to censor Internet
communications by mandating filtering at the ISP.

I don't recall any mention of this policy in The Age or anywhere else in
the last year or two.  Yet it was their policy at the last election, and
it has never been dropped.  They are building a legislated monopoly NBN
which most people will rely upon for Internet access.  So even without
the censorship law, it would be a simple matter to stipulate that the
government-owned NBN only be used by ISPs which filter communications
according to government standards.

In the above article, Don Chipp of the Liberal Party is credited with
ending this type of censorship of books, yet I am sure there are still
some books and magazines which are banned, by way of being "refused
classification".   Also I recall that Helen Coonan - Liberal-National
Coalition Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the
Arts, 2004 to 2007 - was opposed to Internet censorship, at least
regarding mandatory ISP filtering.

  - Robin