Fairness

You would think that this vidcast "It's the Fairness, stupid" was made in Australia by the Rudd campaign. According to the credits it's from the Rockridge Institute, a progressive group in the U.S. It was placed on YouTube by an Australian who presumably gave it that apt title.

Sound familiar:

A society based on a fair go for all
...one that extends the warm hand of compassion
A society where mum and dad will get a fair go at work
...and have their rights protected at work
Time for a change
Time for a society and a government with a heart

They might be cliches but I'd settle for some of these labor traditional values for a change.

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Internet Lights

John Howard’s announcement of a $189 million Internet filter program must be challenged on a range of grounds. Is it an appropriate role for government? Will we be getting value for money? Is it practicable? Who will control the regulators?

From a conservative government, it is a turn around from the rhetoric of the past. Isn’t this the kind of socialism we expect from Rudd’s mob? Individuals should make decisions and pay for matters related to personal privacy and family values. If parents want to buy filters shouldn’t the market provide them. Why should taxpayers foot the bill for something that is voluntary and private?

How many new teachers or police would $189 million pay for? 2500? 3000? Perhaps it is too cynical to ask how much is new money given the expenditure on the current NetAlert program. Is this a re-badging of NetAlert with some free software thrown in? Is it just another vote buying exercise?

The effectiveness of the software must be queried. The software being promised hasn’t even been finished yet. Will it block sites with particular words? This could cut off access to online dictionaries, encyclopaedia, literature and academic papers amongst a long list of important places that may contain the nominated offensive vocabulary. About five years ago I was teaching ‘Pride and Prejudice’ with Year 12 students when a key, innocuous website was blocked by the Northern Territory Education Department regulators who turned out to be in California. Perhaps we’ll ban all chat and social networking sites. Who knows what people might write.

More bizarre is how it might deal with images? Goodbye to Michelangelo’s David! Will flickr and other photo services be cut? Do we stop all video access? At least we would be protected from government announcements on YouTube and political websites and blogs like Kevin07. If you think this is joke, my political blog, Labor View from Broome, has been blocked by the Victorian Education department and the Chinese. Perhaps they were offended by the post ‘Beat me! Beat me!’ which showed Mark Vaile and Kerri-anne Kennerley whipcracking together. Apparently in Victoria they block servers not just sites. So much for selective targeting. Google who own blogger.com might be interested in that! There are many obscenities on the Web. Fast food and barbie ads, for instance. What about images of violence, war and starvation?

I almost forgot audio. How will they stop offending song lyrics and other sound files? What about the kinds of services offered now by telephone which grace the classifieds in our local papers?

Doubtless there will be options to turn the filter on and off so that adults can use the Internet. This will inevitably lead to a competition to develop a hack to get around the censors. Teenagers will know how to get around the filter within a week or find computers without the blockers. Censorship doesn’t stop curiosity, it encourages it. Blockers may help against the worst aspects of the Web but they are not a substitute for the kind of openness and values that help young people to deal with modern media.

The PM’s media release says that we will be able to block websites selected by the Australian Internet regulators. Who are these regulators? What criteria and guidelines will they use? Will their responsibilities be confined to pornography? Who will oversee our guardians? Federal Ministers like Kevin Andrews? Will the regulators decisions be subject to appeal? Will we even be able to find out who is censoring our websites and blogs without going through expensive freedom of information processes?

We must question the cost and effectiveness of this latest vote grabber, which has not been thought through properly. The Minister for Communications Helen Coonan has previously rejected a similar idea "Clean Feed" from Labor.

Just as light cigarette filters didn’t stop cancer, we cannot filter out all the evil aspects of modern society. Finding solutions to an increasingly confronting world will not be as easy as clicking a mouse.

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Regrets: he has a few

Learning how to say sorry

Well, he finally said he was sorry but not that he was wrong, about rising interest rates. At the last election John Howard did not say that interest rates would stay at record low levels or that they would not rise. He choose his words carefully, cleverly. He presented a conundrum. Rates would go up more if there was a Labor government. Not just hypothetical but also hypocritical.



The PM knew that this claim could not be tested. But more importantly for his current political fortunes he allowed the rest of the coalition politicians and advertising to present the extreme view that rates wouldn't rise.


Howard is the master dissembler. He selects his words very craftily, very cunningly. He leaves a general impression, but the subtle equivocation allows him to say later that he did not actually say what people thought he meant. He doesn't always tell lies, just half-truths. Children overboard?

Howard's technique has become tired. He wonders why his government is no longer popular. It is because voters have seen through his deceptions.

Mind you, he might have said he was sorry, but he didn't really mean it. He just regrets getting caught out.

(Thanks to John Cumber for the badge graphics.)

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American liberals: a different rose

After the Hiroshima day badge, it is time to remind ourselves that the U.S. is a very pluralist place, where liberal is used by conservatives as an insult, a bit like left-wing in Australia. So today a link worth bookmarking.

The Huffington Post

If you haven't caught up with this progressive site with news and provocative blogs, now is the time. A sample from Richard Eyers: How to lose a war, 7 August 07

We have experienced this before, of course. Vietnam. Yes, the United States was defeated, whipped, driven out in a humiliating manner. But in the years afterwards, the politicians and rulers slowly, relentlessly, built their case, built their edifice of lies and deceptions. At first it was simply a comment that, "We won't be having another Vietnam," a tacit admission that it was a defeat. But then over the years the myths were built up. We could have won except for the cowardly politicians. We would have won except for the antiwar movement that was mean to the poor G.I.'s and spat on them. We actually did win but the liberal media never let us know....But the new disaster demands that we revisit the lessons of Vietnam and now of Iraq. If we had properly faced the lessons of Vietnam, the US would not be bogged down in Iraq.

John Howard has a sense of history. As I've mentioned before he still thinks he and the Liberal government of the time were right about the Vietnam war. He is winning the Iraq war too, of course. He's never wrong and he's never sorry. His new History curriculum for schools will no doubt contain the revisionist version of both wars if he wins the election. It's time the electorate made some history. Make Howard history!

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Constitutional vandal

Howard the populist! I wrote the other day that we need a sense of history in these times. While those with mortgages and credit cards wait to find out if interest rates will rise today, tricky John is trying another diversion. Plebiscites for proposed local council amalgamations in Queensland. It's like asking people if they want tax increases.

In the early 1980's the Cain Labor government tried comprehensive consultation about amalgamations and abandoned the process following one hostile town hall meeting after another. In opposition Jeff Kennett promised no forced amalgamations. As soon as he was elected he amalgamated every local government area except Queenscliff! Plebiscites? Consultation? Forget it!

Howard used to be a constitutional conservative. With the exception of the monarchy he is now a constitutional vandal, meddling wherever and whenever he can take a short term political advantage or make a grab for power.

News Extra: Rate rise we had to have

The Reserve Bank have buried the coalition. My advice for Howard: invade Queensland while you still have time.

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ODD SPOTS 2

I fish and I vote!

Apparently Mal Brough has changed his legislation banning alcohol in indigenous communities to allow grog on boats when people are fishing. It was at the request of the NT government. Presumably aboriginal people will be able to enjoy this privilege too. Who said they were making it up as they go along.
For more: Drinking Allowed

If you're not outraged by the total absence of time for parliament to look at the new legislation then you're visiting the wrong plog. It smacks of the way Bush had the Patriot Act passed in the U.S. Congress without anyone reading it first.

Do as I say!

Workplace ad pulled over bad boss claim

You have to admire Joe Hockey's sense of humour, announcing an emergency review of the background of all actors involved in the Work Choices ads. Where will he stop? The Liberal Party's ad agency for the election? Government advertising? There must be a cast of thousands given the endless stream of campaign propaganda in the media.

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The bomb to end all wars!

It's isn't quite All the Way with LBJ but today's hegemonic virtual badge entry from John Cumbers has a sense of history. Could be worn when W visits APEC in September.

Any more entries? Any comments?

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The blame game

Whatever happened to the cooperative Federalism Howard has been promoting for several years? The PM surrounded by smiling Premiers, solving the nations problems together. He said he could work with the Labor States better than Federal Labor.

We didn't need leaked Liberal Party polling to figure out that the Mersey Hospital, sending the army into the NT communities and house prices attacks are part of an deliberate strategy. If you can't beat Rudd, stick the wedge into the States. Must be an election coming!

I went to Windjana Gorge for the weekend so I missed the detail about the government's anti-States ads blaming them for future interest rate rises. Who is paying for the ads? Seems anything goes these days at a Federal level. It is okay for Federal parliamentarians such as the member for Kalgoorlie Barry Haase to abuse their printing and postage allowances. His recent mail-out included an invitation to join his re-election campaign. A little research revealed that Howard changed the rules in 2004 to allow pollies to use their allowances on their own election campaigns. This is not a trival issue as the annual expenditures run as high as half a million for some MP's. Ironically Western Australian State laws are much tougher on the use of public funds for political propaganda purposes.

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Howard's new clothes

What 's your vote worth No.1?

We have been fed the same line for years. Labor needs policies to win government. But to keep government Howard knows that you don't need principles. Remember Federalism. Gough Whitlam should demand an apology from Howard and Abbott now. Johnny used to use the term centralist as a synonym for satan. Now centralist intervention is the new creed of the conservatives.

Can you imagine Tasmanians swallowing that during the 1983 election when Hawke promised to override the State government to stop the Franklin dam? Labor was trounced in Tassie. Guess who was a strong proponent of States rights at the time? Howard was clothed in principles in those days. His new attire is more interesting.

Yesterday Tony Abbott described the States as the seconds or thirds teams. Has Abbott only read the part of the Constitution that mentions the monarchy?

Whether Health should be a Federal responsibility is a matter for debate and constitutional change. Not pork barreling. The States have claimed that Hospitals have been under-funded by the Commonwealth to the tune of $1 billion a year. It is much cheaper and politically more astute to target the funds. At marginal electorates! Even the estimated $45 million a year for the Mersey would only cost $720 million if it were spent in all 16 marginal seats needed to retain government. Discount vote buying!

You have to keep a sense of history and of humour in these times. Gough, it's time again!

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Beat Me! Beat Me!

Follow-up to yesterday's odd spot about Mark Vaile and his substitute for policy making. Click on the photo or this link http://media.smh.com.au/?rid=30379&category=Breaking%20News to see our Deputy PM teach Madame Lash his political tricks. Earlier in the interview he was stumped for a credible answer on petrol prices. Watch out Laurie Oakes. The plog title "Beat Me! Beat Me!" is a quote from Kerri-Anne Kennerley.

Don't forget to enter the Labor Badge Competition. Click for details.

Labor View is intended as a place for labor supporters to share ideas and opinions. When you visit please leave a COMMENT below.

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