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On the Death of the Clean Feed
So yes, I'm obviously pleased as punch that the cards have lined up just so in order to stop the government from continuing with the Clean Feed.
But I have one, teensy little question.
Why, pray tell, did it have to take an unholy alliance of Liberals and Greens and Xenophon to put this thing down?
The government's own feasibility reports showed that in order to do what the government wanted, it would have to slow down Internet access in Australia by an absurd amount, and even then wouldn't even kill the main distribution channels by which the offending material gets shared on.
But they kept going on regardless.
No poll on the Clean feed from anyone showed a majority of Australians supported it. Huge swaths of child-rights groups, censorship groups, technology groups, citizens groups and other special interest groups were yelling at the government that they were doing it wrong.
But they kept going on regardless.
At every single step, the government was told "This Is Wrong, It Will Not Work, Don't Do This", and yet at every step they kept going.
What. The. Hell.
But I have one, teensy little question.
Why, pray tell, did it have to take an unholy alliance of Liberals and Greens and Xenophon to put this thing down?
The government's own feasibility reports showed that in order to do what the government wanted, it would have to slow down Internet access in Australia by an absurd amount, and even then wouldn't even kill the main distribution channels by which the offending material gets shared on.
But they kept going on regardless.
No poll on the Clean feed from anyone showed a majority of Australians supported it. Huge swaths of child-rights groups, censorship groups, technology groups, citizens groups and other special interest groups were yelling at the government that they were doing it wrong.
But they kept going on regardless.
At every single step, the government was told "This Is Wrong, It Will Not Work, Don't Do This", and yet at every step they kept going.
What. The. Hell.
no subject
Excuse my ignorance, but did it get voted against in parliament or something along those lines?
(Not that I'm doubting you of course, just after clarification <3 )
no subject
What has happened is that the Liberal's lawyers have come back with the recommendation to the Coalition that in order for Rudd to do what he wants to do with the Clean Feed, Legislation will need to be enacted. They had previously resolved to vote against any such legislation in the Senate anyway, but this advice now indicates to them that non-legislative avenues are not available to the Government. The Greens were always against it, and most recently, Independent Nick Xenophon has come out saying that he has changed his mind regarding the clean feed and decided that he cannot support it. This means there is a majority of Senators in the Upper house against the Clean Feed.
Thus, it appears that all possible avenues available to Rudd and his government to put the Clean Feed into action are now closed to them. Rudd can continue to go through the motions, but so long as the Parliament retains it's current consistency, it cannot pass into law.