Email to Wayne Swan

Like a lot of other people in Australia, I am not happy with the ALP’s Clean Feed Policy. I have recently sent an email to my local member, who I actually voted for in the latest election, outlining my objections. I plan on following this up too, to make sure that my views are noticed. I encourage everyone with an interest in this to get in touch with their representative and make their own thoughts known too. At the end of the day, these people work for us, and they have been put in office to govern for everyone, and not for the interests of a single group. Especially in matters of personal choice, freedom and morality.

Dear Mr Swan,

There has been a lot said in regards to the clean feed, and the reasons that I oppose this have been stated better by others, but I would like to draw your attention to a few that stand out for me. The issues can be neatly divided into two categories, technical and ethical.

The technology being trialed is flawed:
– It will not succeed in its stated aims, while imposing an unacceptable price in performance loss, monetary cost, and over-filtering.
– There are already ISPs that have built their business models on providing a clean feed to those that want them, rendering a Government-imposed clean feed redundant.

The project is also highly unethical:
– The internet is built on interaction; in essence this policy is aimed at censoring conversation.
– The definition offered for what constitutes ‘illegal’ content is very vague; in a country where there is no formal protection of freedom of speech this is very sinister.
– Discussion on censoring information relating to certain lifestyles (eg, anorexia), no matter how unacceptable they may be, is not acceptable in any free democracy where there is open discourse on ideas.

There are a number of other issues with this policy, but they are discussed more fully here: http://www.nocleanfeed.com/

While I voted for you and the Labor Party last time, I feel strongly enough about this issue that my vote will be directed elsewhere in future.

Regards

Anthony Contoleon