Phil, Melbourne

Well Senator Conroy, we should at least acknowledge your progressiveness in the use of technology to garner feedback from the public, so well done on that. But I'm afraid that's as far as my positive comments go. It is quite clear that what is driving your zealous attempt to censor the Internet is the support of the independents in the senate, so there's little point in appealing to your common sense, is there? But can you at least call a spade a spade. You are proposing a Chinese-style censorship, where any sites that are considered "unacceptable" will be blocked. Have you so quickly forgotten the outcry when the world's journalists were subjected to such censorship at the recent Beijing Olympics? I don't believe many who are up in arms about your censorship plans are objecting because it will interfere with access to child porn, as you seem to infer. I believe it is simply that WE DON'T TRUST YOU! We don't trust that you will limit your censorship to child porn. We believe that you will use your blacklist to censor all kinds of things that are considered "unacceptable" and that you will have no accountability in doing so. As Senators Xenophon and Fielding are persuaded to support upcoming Labor legislation, what other censorship concessions will you be offering? And how will we know? If you are dogmatic enough to continue with this censorship plan, and you are doing so because it is in the best interests of Australians, then you need to put your money where your mouth is. The blacklist needs to be open to regular independent review to ensure that only those categories that you publicly declare are censored. Anything less will be seen for what it is, a blatant attempt to severely limit our basic freedoms.