According to software engineer Arved von Brasch the danger posed by Senator Steven Conroy's Mandatory Internet Filtering is that it will confer upon the Federal Government the capacity to censor internet content it considers a threat, in exactly the same way that the Chinese Government now uses the same technology that Conroy proposes to introduce to censor views of its critics. Arved von Brasch also shows there are overwhelming reasons to reject the legislation on technical grounds alone.

Originally published as "The consequences of filtering", with discussion forum, on 4 Mar 10 Online Opinion. Republished under the terms of the Creative Commons License. See also: Internet censorship, Citizens Initiated Referenda and the Greens - an open letter of 23 Dec 09.
Includes Appendix: Why won't Greens move motion to put filtering to a referendum?

Both the NSW and Australian Government have upgraded Cumberland Plain Woodland from Endangered to Critically Endangered. You would assume any development that proposed to clear over 200 ha of critically endangered bushland would be struggling to get approval. We can assume nothing these days in Australia. Here is another focus where Australians need to unite to help each other get back democracy and protect fauna and flora from the growth lobby. The community has fought to save this area for nearly 20 years.See also related articles.

For a minister who says he wants certainty for developers (but gives not two hoots for making everyone else miserably insecure) Mr Madden must be driving them mad as well. The GAIC tax is subject to endless jerky permutations and increasing secrecy surrounds it. The horror of it all is that this farce is what passes for serious business in Melbourne these days. It is like some faintly similar town, but colonised by alien planners and parliamentarians with agendas that have nothing to do with representative government. Perhaps if we knew what was really going on - something to do with finances perhaps - it would not all be so hard to read.

"My concern is that a DAC is being treated almost like a court, judging from the answers the minister has given -- that is, somehow one can show contempt towards the DAC and this is referred to as 'detriment'. Clearly the DAC is not a court. I would like the minister to elaborate on this point: what constitutes detriment, who makes this decision and will there be guidelines?" (Mrs PEULICH (South Eastern Metropolitan) [Hansard] )
The Libs may defeat the urban growth boundary legislation in the upper house, but the passing of the Development Assessment Committee (DAC) legislation and the introduction of the "New Residential Zones" and the Review of the Planning Act, and the Transport Bill, are bad news for democracy and our quality of life: The Planning department will have almost total control and there residents or councils will have almost no say or rights.

"Mr Rudd should set aside his ego and self interest in spruiking a ‘big Australia’, simply to make himself a ‘bigger diplomatic deal’ and focus on the national interest of tackling the challenges presented by a population explosion on settling and supporting an extra 13 million people in the coming decades in a sustainable way." (Bruce Bilson, Federal Member for Dunkley) But why is Mr Bilson still supporting an extra 13 million if he knows it is against the will of Australian citizens? A case of the opposition having its cake from the developer lobby whilst making the ALP pay the price? The ALP deserves all the stick it gets on this, but the people deserve far better than the ALP or a Marie-Antoinette Liberal party policy. We need new political parties and independent representatives.

“The whole rationale for extending the Urban Growth Boundary is to accommodate the unprecedented flood of population to Victoria.” “The State Government is devoid of coherence in these planning matters and its approach to endless population growth.” (Protectors of Public Lands Victoria Inc)

EDO Seminar Series 2009
New road, rail and port development fast track: Victoria's new major transport projects laws - What do they mean?
Tuesday 29 September 2009
5.45pm for 6pm start
BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL
RSVP: EDO (03) 8341 3100
or edovic@edo.org.au

The Planning Amendment Bill 2 (DACs) was read yesterday in the lower house and today in the upper house (Victoria, Australia) but has not yet been debated and will come back on the 13th October. Victorians are urged to put pressure on Opposition MPs to not cave in on this and to OPPOSE it. Please start emailing them all and telling them what you think. And put October 13 in your diary to be in Parliament for the debate and voting. See alsoDACs 2: Highlights: Macedon Member Duncan makes bizarre statements about population growth in Victoria and DACs 2 Highlights: "The Bill is a very blunt instrument" (Mr Morris, Mornington, Victoria)

This bill is a very blunt instrument. This is not calling in one application and this is not calling in two applications; this is calling in the whole planning process. It is taking the entire planning process away from local government and the local community.

Protectors of Public Lands Victoria Inc have called for the withdrawal of the Major Transport Projects Facilitation Bill 2009. President Brian Walters SC has called it “an affront to democracy as well as to good planning." He says that it will lead to damage to the environment and public assets. It suggests that its proponents are in league with developers instead of upholding the community’s interests.”

Proposed law will exempt the State Government from its own laws and concentrate decision making power into one or two Ministers. A draconian piece of legislation, the Major Transport Projects Facilitation Bill 2009, has been brought into the Parliament . Your help is necessary to have this bill stopped in the upper house. Only the Liberal-National Coalition, by voting with the Greens, can stop this bill in the upper house. Victoria is under almost constant assault from a despotic government, which is seeking more and more power beyond the control of the people. But all is not lost. It is possible to beat them by supporting opposition review in the upper house of the Victorian Parliament. We have done it before.

Joe Toscano's Anarchist World this week is now downloadable at http://podcast.3cr.org.au/pod/3CRCast-2009-08-19-91890.mp3 A breath of sanity on Melbourne's trendoid congested airwaves. Anarchism is deeply conservative, as Joe says. Most people would recognise it under a new name, "Relocalisation". Critique of Royal Commission into Victorian Bushfires. Demand for inquiry into corruption in Victoria. See inside for details of Anarchist Eureka Rebellion ceremony in Ballarat and . You can also the latest of Joe Toscano's programs here if the link above is out of date.

Melbourne:"It is alarming that so many big projects have been permitted by the Victorian State Government through a planning process that does not include an ability to make submissions or lodge appeals." National Trust are mounting a major campaign to persuade the State Government Planning Minister Justin Madden to stop destroying Melbourne's heritage for the sake of allowing developers to build what they want where they want it.
Join With National Trust in their Save Our City campaign.

Whose parks are they?
Alienation of central city parkland and heritage sites by Government and their transfer to developers, commercial organisations and special interest groups? Mismanagement of parkland by the local councils. Exclusion of community groups by local councils from previous long standing co operative involvement in management of parks and gardens. Discrimination by local councils restricting access to funding. Abuses are accumulating and getting worse. Crooked governments and cut-throat developers are very organised and local groups must also organise locally, state-wide and nationally to reinforce democratic rights. Consider joining Protectors of Public Lands Inc. in your state or starting a branch. similar articles and Protectors of Public Land

Game Council chairman Robert Borsak recently killed several elephants for entertainment in northern Zimbabwe. Robert intends to stand for the Shooters Party in the next NSW elections. Thanks to Robert Mugabe's corruption, it is quite "legal" to shoot elephants there. The amount Borsak and other "hunters" must pay, adds to the dictator's coffers and to the great sadness of people who respect and care about elephants.

Tune in to this ABC Radio interview with Ian Douglas, National Coordinator of Fair Water Use about the role of private reserves in the disappearance of water in the Darling River today, 28-7-2009. Dr Douglas's comments go beyond the immediate condition of the Darling River, into Australians' human rights and our right to change laws. It explains why the UN backs the need for a Royal Commission. Publicity is being given to this interview because of the dire need Australia has of spokespeople able to form appropriate concepts and priorities on this matter.

Listen to interview.
New data shows that the effect of the rapid increase in privately-held water in the Darling Basin on the volumes of water available for essential public and environmental use is the main cause of the water crisis, not the drought. The Senior water advisor to the United Nations supports a call for declaration of a State of Emergency and the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the management of the water of the Murray-Darling Basin.

Can research benefit wildlife? Can research contribute to its survival? Can research engender respect for the intrinsic value of wildlife? Or will an overriding profit motive drive all wildlife to extinction?

Developers, led by Planning Minister Justin Madden, in a move reminiscent of Hitler's tanks on Poland, are poised to invade and bulldoze the green wedges to enrich themselves, with the same excuses for aggression of ‘lebenraum’ – living space - despite the objections of the people who live there. Is there a Churchill in Victoria with the guts to stop the bulldozers or will the government sacrifice democracy completely? Here is a submission that spells out what the damage will be if the Opposition allows the government to legitimise the totalitarian aggression of “lebensraum” – Urban Boundaries Expansion.

What do children, bandicoots, Melbourne's Green Wedges and the Garden of Eden have in common? This poignant submission to a developer-dominated government about a children and bandicoots' garden goes right back to the garden of Eden, retold again and again, this time in Uno's garden and a garden with 'protected' bandicoots near Clyde, Victoria, on the edge of the Green Wedge.

The psychological condition of "solistalgia" is now widespread in the North Coast area [where REPCO rally push is]. Solistalgia is defined as "the deep distress induced by environmental change, which is exacerbated by the sense of powerlessness and loss of control over the changes that are occurring". "I do not approve of anything that can be construed as a misuse of power and, therefore, I will not support any bill that allows large-scale events unwanted by the people who would have to host them."
Note that Dr Moyes was actually initially physically locked out of the room where this bill was being debated. You can read about that Which MPs voted for and against the REPCO Rally law in NSW Parliament?

NSW Primary Industries Minister, Ian Macdonald, the Police Minister, Tony Kelly, and the Treasurer, Eric Roozendaal, want Shooters Party members to replace Government agencies but other members of Cabinet resist the bloody push to turn our national parks into safari machines or worse

“There is only one problem. There are too many of us,” says former Environment Minister, Andrew McNamara. “Every day, the front pages of our papers are covered in variations on the same problem. Whether the issue is traffic congestion, overcrowding on trains, waiting lists for hospitals, skills shortages, social alienation in urban sprawl, food security, water security or global warming." And, despite all this 'robust growth' in Queensland - and the rest of the Australia and the third world - business isn't doing very well.

Full steam ahead. Vast increase in population and infrastructure. Vast decrease in democracy. There is no plan B. Minister Pallas assured the audience they would secure the necessary environmental approvals/considerations. The EES is not a yes or no process. International migration levels never seen before...address future labour force. Long term drivers - migration. Health infrastructure needed - maternity wards. Taxpayers to bail-out developers to continue even more malignant growth. Hastings doomed according to plan.

There is one key fundamental driving the real estate market, Australia's population growth. We are in 3rd world territory as far as population growth goes, we have just topped 1.9% growth !!! Rainfall and dams cannot keep up with it, jobs are declining and people cannot afford housing, but still the government promotes higher and higher population growth for its infrastructure and housing mates.

"I was on the front steps of Parliament House when yet another rally was conducted by Victorians who came to the Parliament to complain about the excesses of the Brumby government. The organisations involved in yesterday’s rally were the Coalition of Concerned Councillors, an organisation called Planning Backlash, and another organisation called Watershed Victoria. I was presented with about 3000 letters in relation to issues to do with the desalination plant." (Mr Ryan, Leader of The Nationals, Victoria). See also: Desalination Project Bass Coast - Public Disquiet and Environmental impact statements too late for the environment

Did you know that Australians have until 15 June 2009 to complain about their declining human rights?
There are avenues for people concerned about the government's big population policy and its effect on human rights to safe clean water, a healthy wild biodiverse envelope, kind treatment of farm animals, functioning democracy not overwhelmed by commercial interests, the right to local self-government, to affordable housing etc to get demands on public record via the National Human Rights consultation.
It could be our last chance. UPDATE 7 Sep 2009: Note that a submission based on this article has been published as Submission # AGWW-7SM63S on the National Human Rights Consultation pages. Please support its content if you agree with it.

"[T]his bill will enable the government, without any further recourse to the Parliament, to declare an area to be a growth area. Following on from that will be the liability of citizens to pay this increased levy" [$95,000 per hectare on land zoned from rural]. Mr Clark MP spoke of the "extraordinary price" of Victorian Labor's Planning Legislative Amendment Bill "in terms of intrusion on local communities, the diminution of the capacity of local communities to have a say in their own destiny, and the undermining of the role of local government councillors." "The bill, whichever way you look at it, is badly flawed. It attacks principles of democracy, of devolution and decentralisation. It attacks principles of accountability to Parliament by government for revenue raising. It is bad in all of those respects, and it is opposed by the coalition."

Pornography on display to children at local milkbar. Why do we have to put up with this? Why must our children be exposed to it? Our children are victims of pornography. They are being exposed to images of a sexual nature long before they can comprehend their meaning, but these images make an impression.

Earnest Healy, Senior research fellow in the Centre for Population and Urban Research at Monash University, presents new research into fundamental considerations and constraints in the fast growing city of Melbourne including the potential capacity and limits of our rail network and of our most basic necessity- water. Public Meeting May 16th 2009