Siren Tides

This time, I’m making this a sticky post, because it’s that important.

I’ve been debating what to post on here for a day or so now, for those of you who don’t know Australia is currently going through the worst bushfire season in recorded history. The fires are mostly focussed in Victoria, and as of writing this the official death toll is at a staggering 181 and expected to rise as high as 300 (latest estimate). How this horror story of a firestorm began isn’t quite clear, but there are believed to have been arsonists and possibly other, more natural causes.

Not that any of the causes make the fires more tolerable. This is the single largest loss of life in Australia during peace time. Not to mention that it has displaced thousands of Victorians when their houses got burned to the ground. Whole towns are gone… I don’t really know how to describe this: Horrific, tragic, terrifying, an atrocity, hell, unimaginable… but the words still aren’t adequate. There are whole towns just gone.

TOWNS.

There’s fires in my state (NSW) too, but they aren’t half so bad and no one has died yet, that I’m aware. It’s… ugh. I don’t know.

Theres smoke outside coming all the way up from the Victorian Fires^[i]…

I’m never going to explain it right, or finish this post. So I point you in the direction of a much better one about the fires: here.

Bushfire Hotline – 1800 240 667
Victorian Bushfire Fund – 1800 811 700
Concerned about family or friends? 1800 727 077
Condolence Book – Share your sorrow over the tragedy
Urgent threats – latest information
Transport updates from VicRoads and V/Line
Latest updates from the CFA

Notes

1. or there was when I started writing this… its not the most fun thing to write and has been in draft for a couple of days [↩]

Imagine a government proposing an internet censorship system that went further than any other democracy – one that made the internet up to 87% slower, more expensive, accidentally blocked up to one in 12 legitimate sites, and missed the vast majority of inappropriate content.

This is not China, Saudi Arabia or Iran – this is the vision of Senator Stephen Conroy for Australia. Testing has already begun. The community must now move to stop this plan. Click here to save the net:

www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet

The system that Senator Conroy wants is a mandatory filter of all internet traffic, with the government of the day able to add any unwanted site to a secret blacklist. Already, the wrangling has begun for the inclusion of material relating to anorexia, euthanasia and gambling. It isn’t difficult to see the scheme is open to abuse.

Even when it comes to preventing child p-rnography, the filter will not prevent peer-to-peer sharing and is very simple to sidestep. The protection of our children is vitally important – that’s why we can’t afford to waste funds on this deeply flawed system. We should be concentrating on solutions that are more effective and won’t undermine our digital economy or our democratic freedoms.

This must rank as one of the most ill-thought decisions of the Rudd Government’s first year in power. We need to act now to tell big brother the mandatory internet filter is incompatible with the principles of a modern democracy and modern economy:

www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet

Our government should be doing all in its power to take Australia into the 21st century economy, and to protect our children. This proposed internet censorship does neither. Take action to save the net today.

Thanks for being a part of the solution,
The GetUp team

PS – The proposed scheme will pass all internet traffic through a government filter – it’s like asking Australia Post to filter every letter sent in Australia. Click here to save the net.