Former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard tried to push through a number of communications regulations in her short, unlamented term. This was in marked contrast to the Howard government’s laissez-faire approach of emphasising choice and self-regulation, both for ISPs and for families.
As socialists do, Gillard wanted to take a big stick to Australian internet suppliers and users, and force them to buckle under a regime of government-regulated internet censorship. Including a secret blacklist of sites forbidden to Australian eyes.
Gillard’s “reforms” were ultimately defeated.
But, socialists being socialists, Jacinda Ardern is following Gillard’s school-marmish lead. She’s just being sneakier.
The Government has introduced the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification (Urgent Interim Classification of Publications and Prevention of Online Harm) Amendment Bill.
Much of the bill is laudable and worthwhile. But one aspect is repugnant and should be resisted at all costs. It is this part:
“The Bill facilitates the establishment of a government-backed (either mandatory or voluntary) web filter if one is desired in the future. It provides the Government with explicit statutory authority to explore and implement such mechanisms through regulations, following consultation.”
Note the weasel-wording, there. “Either mandatory or voluntary”. “If one is desired in the future”.
Does anyone doubt for an instant that Ardern and her Greens whip-crackers are just salivating at the prospect of having the sort of control over the internet as Beijing does?
As David Farrar notes, enacting legislation for a voluntary filter is unnecessary and redundant, because New Zealand already has one.
The only reason for a law change like this is to introduce a compulsory filter.
And if the Government manages to introduce a compulsory filter, I can guarantee it won’t stop at objectionable material.
Over a dozen agencies will queue up demanding it be expanded so they also get the power to block websites. Crown Law will want to block overseas newspapers that break NZ suppression laws. MBIE will want to block any sites Hollywood studios complain about. The Police will want to block websites. The Ministry of Health will want to block websites.
Once you have a compulsory Government filter, it only gets bigger.
The internet is the last frontier of free media.
The press, radio and tv are owned by corporations which have demonstrated beyond doubt their thoroughgoing political bias to the left. Even worse for New Zealand citizens, if the Ardern government passes its “rescue package” for the media, it will effectively hold the media’s purse strings.
The Ardern government has already shown its determination to control Kiwi’s access to information that would otherwise be out of its control. From outlawing certain documents to sending the Thought Police to harass citizens for perfectly legal social media posts, Jacinda Ardern is just one piece of legislation away from Xi Xinping.
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