Martin English

I am a practicing Christian, and I OPPOSE the internet filter for two main reasons.

1) The Digital Economy is a direct product of the openness of the networked world, where you are judged by what you produce, not by who you are or where you are. This leads to faster, higher quality, BETTER processes and services, because the openness allows people to move to the product or service that is best for them. Any attempt to close this down will result in Australians missing out on the full potential of the Digital Economy.

2) I have seen how National Internet Filters and Firewalls have been used to track the political and religious groups (both Christian and non-Christian) that are out of favour with their governments. In many parts of the world, this tracking extends to the arrest, imprisonment and sometimes execution of these individuals. While we currently have tolerant parties on both sides of the house at the moment, Senator Conroy needs to consider who would have control of this filter in the future.

Perhaps Senator Conroy needs to consider how this filter could be used against his own party.

It is not the Governments job to filter the material my children are exposed to, whether it be violence on television or porn on the internet. It is MY responsibility as a parent to do so, and I take this responsibility seriously.

The internet filter