STEPHEN CONROY, Minister of Communications, misuses power to spy on Australians who criticise his policy
Stephen Conroy proves that the critics of his policy were right.
Rudd Labor Government mis-uses its power to scrutinise citizens on the Web
The Australian Commonweath Government is apparently trawling the web looking for sites that are critical of the Australian Labour Party's broadband policy and ISP based internet filtering interventions.
If this is so, Stephen Conroy is a dangerous and stupid man who should not be trusted with power. In his capacity as the Federal Minister for Communications he is authorising taxpayer dollars to be spent to check on Australian citizens who express criticisms of his Government's policies on the Internet and broadband infrastructure. By doing this Senator Conroy conclusively demonstrates his unfitness for office. Australia is still, just, a liberal democracy not a totalitarian dictatorship of the governing party. As a minister of the crown spending the taxpayers' compulsorily appropriated wealth he is behaving unethically and illegally to exercise his power and spend government money for party political purposes. Does Senator Conroy not get this?
Has he not read the Gulag Archipelago? Does he not know what peril lurks in exercising a Stalinist desire to use the instrument of government power to control and spy on citizens ? Is he trying to emulate the Ayatollahs in Iran?
Do Minister Conroy and his henchmen think such comparisons far fetched?
"Come on", I can hear him saying, "this is just little old me, Stevie Conroy, a harmless lisping Aussie bloke who represents the workers and who's just doing his job ".
That's a quasi Nuremberg defence Steve: "...just following orders".
So Stephen, please tell us, what justifies you using your power as a Minister of the Crown in the Rudd Labor Government to seek out and identify those in the Web who are critical of your policies? Do you keep a record of them? To what uses will you put this information? Who oversees your use of this power and the uses to which you put it? Will you punish these critics of your policy by either withholding the government's largess and licencing power or actively target these critics with taxation and propaganda (Update: Just like you disgracefully did unprovoked and sub judice to iiNet on Wednesday?)
Think about it Stephen. The very thing that civil libertarians feared about your intrusive use of Internet filtering to protect children: that it could be and would be extended to other improper intrusions into the privacy and freedom of citizens of Australia, has already come to pass.
You have said of them often that "of course the Internet filtering power would not be misused to intrude on citizens other than for the protection of children and security". Well you were wrong Stephen. You misled us. You have already mis-used that power.
You have demonstrated how easily that power can be corrupted. In the very process of arguing for implementation of an apparently limited intervention into freedom of speech and privacy of Australian Citizens to protect children from porn, you have let it morph into an egregious misuse for partisan political purposes. And you haven't even had the insight or wit to recognise your folly. Shit Stephen. You're a member of parliament. A Minister of the Crown. What could you been thinking when you allowed this self contradiction to occur in the midst of the policy process?
Can't you see it Minister Conroy? You have made a liar of yourself . By the very act of having your department's officers read this site, simply because I dislike all government intrusion into my affairs, but especially the unwarranted intrusions self righteous leftists in the ALP, and that I am prepared to say it, you visit here to check that I am not subversive.
Well Minister, I am subversive. I am subversive of your misuse of power for this purpose.
Stephen Conroy, you are a Stalinist. The Commonwealth of Australia's Department of Communications under Minister Conroy's direction has misused its power and unjustly, improperly and unnecessarily pried into my criticisms of his incompetent administration of the broadband roll out and Internet filtering.
All power to those who seek to further undermine your Stalinist intrusions. If I could I would publish your list of banned websites here to demonstrate how technologically inept your policy is and how free speech will not be silenced by bullies and ideologues like you and your Department officials.
Stephen Conroy, you are a technological cretin. Stephen Conroy, your censorship of the Internet unjustifiably erodes citizens freedoms and their internationally sanctioned human rights. Stephen Conroy your Internet filtering policy will not be effective in achieving its stated aims. The risks to our freedom inherent in your clumsy intervention into the Net can not be justified when that intervention does not provide our children with the illusory protective shield you claim for it.
Stephen Conroy you should resign as Minister of Communications for your manifest failure to understand the nature of the powers you exercise. You have grossly misused your power. An honourable person would resign rather than persist in this flagrant exploitation of governmental power to silence or intimidate critics. Or do you like your Dear Leader, share your political principles with socialists Robert Mugabe, Nicholas Ceaucesu and Chairman Mao?
Rudd Labor Government mis-uses its power to scrutinise citizens on the Web
The Australian Commonweath Government is apparently trawling the web looking for sites that are critical of the Australian Labour Party's broadband policy and ISP based internet filtering interventions.
If this is so, Stephen Conroy is a dangerous and stupid man who should not be trusted with power. In his capacity as the Federal Minister for Communications he is authorising taxpayer dollars to be spent to check on Australian citizens who express criticisms of his Government's policies on the Internet and broadband infrastructure. By doing this Senator Conroy conclusively demonstrates his unfitness for office. Australia is still, just, a liberal democracy not a totalitarian dictatorship of the governing party. As a minister of the crown spending the taxpayers' compulsorily appropriated wealth he is behaving unethically and illegally to exercise his power and spend government money for party political purposes. Does Senator Conroy not get this?
Has he not read the Gulag Archipelago? Does he not know what peril lurks in exercising a Stalinist desire to use the instrument of government power to control and spy on citizens ? Is he trying to emulate the Ayatollahs in Iran?
Do Minister Conroy and his henchmen think such comparisons far fetched?
"Come on", I can hear him saying, "this is just little old me, Stevie Conroy, a harmless lisping Aussie bloke who represents the workers and who's just doing his job ".
That's a quasi Nuremberg defence Steve: "...just following orders".
So Stephen, please tell us, what justifies you using your power as a Minister of the Crown in the Rudd Labor Government to seek out and identify those in the Web who are critical of your policies? Do you keep a record of them? To what uses will you put this information? Who oversees your use of this power and the uses to which you put it? Will you punish these critics of your policy by either withholding the government's largess and licencing power or actively target these critics with taxation and propaganda (Update: Just like you disgracefully did unprovoked and sub judice to iiNet on Wednesday?)
Think about it Stephen. The very thing that civil libertarians feared about your intrusive use of Internet filtering to protect children: that it could be and would be extended to other improper intrusions into the privacy and freedom of citizens of Australia, has already come to pass.
You have said of them often that "of course the Internet filtering power would not be misused to intrude on citizens other than for the protection of children and security". Well you were wrong Stephen. You misled us. You have already mis-used that power.
You have demonstrated how easily that power can be corrupted. In the very process of arguing for implementation of an apparently limited intervention into freedom of speech and privacy of Australian Citizens to protect children from porn, you have let it morph into an egregious misuse for partisan political purposes. And you haven't even had the insight or wit to recognise your folly. Shit Stephen. You're a member of parliament. A Minister of the Crown. What could you been thinking when you allowed this self contradiction to occur in the midst of the policy process?
Can't you see it Minister Conroy? You have made a liar of yourself . By the very act of having your department's officers read this site, simply because I dislike all government intrusion into my affairs, but especially the unwarranted intrusions self righteous leftists in the ALP, and that I am prepared to say it, you visit here to check that I am not subversive.
Well Minister, I am subversive. I am subversive of your misuse of power for this purpose.
Stephen Conroy, you are a Stalinist. The Commonwealth of Australia's Department of Communications under Minister Conroy's direction has misused its power and unjustly, improperly and unnecessarily pried into my criticisms of his incompetent administration of the broadband roll out and Internet filtering.
All power to those who seek to further undermine your Stalinist intrusions. If I could I would publish your list of banned websites here to demonstrate how technologically inept your policy is and how free speech will not be silenced by bullies and ideologues like you and your Department officials.
Stephen Conroy, you are a technological cretin. Stephen Conroy, your censorship of the Internet unjustifiably erodes citizens freedoms and their internationally sanctioned human rights. Stephen Conroy your Internet filtering policy will not be effective in achieving its stated aims. The risks to our freedom inherent in your clumsy intervention into the Net can not be justified when that intervention does not provide our children with the illusory protective shield you claim for it.
Stephen Conroy you should resign as Minister of Communications for your manifest failure to understand the nature of the powers you exercise. You have grossly misused your power. An honourable person would resign rather than persist in this flagrant exploitation of governmental power to silence or intimidate critics. Or do you like your Dear Leader, share your political principles with socialists Robert Mugabe, Nicholas Ceaucesu and Chairman Mao?
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