[inkyoto]

You don't remember the late Stephen Conroy of the Labour Party who is responsible for single-handedly imposing sweeping Internet censorship laws onto the Australian public and mandatory ISP level filtering with the public not having the right to know what has been blacklisted?

From the horse's mouth – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Austral...:

> In May 2008, the government commenced an $82 million "cybersafety plan" _which included an additional mandatory filter with no opt-out provision_. This ISP-based filter aims to stop adults from downloading content that is illegal to possess in Australia, such as child pornography or materials related to terrorism.

> In March 2009, Stephen Conroy dismissed suggestions that the Government would use the filter to crack down on political dissent as "conspiracy theories". He stated that the filter would only be used to remove "refused classification" (RC) content, using the same rationale as existing television, radio and print publications, and that the Senate could be relied upon to provide rigorous assessment of any proposed legislation.

> On 9 November 2012, Stephen Conroy shelved the proposed mandatory filter legislation in favour of existing legislation, touting that _it was successful in compelling the largest ISPs to adopt a filter. As a result, 90% of Australian Internet users are censored from accessing some web-based content_.

[BigJono]

Both major parties have a terrible track record on surveillance and censorship, but one is still much worse than the other.

I'd rather have Labor push some bullshit legislation then shelve it when it's unpopular than the Liberals who just ram it through because God told them to.

Btw those "90% of Australian Internet users being censored" was a couple of major ISPs putting in a DNS block that can be worked around in 5 seconds. These days it's probably more like 20% because most people are on one of the newer ISPs like Aussie Broadband that don't truck with that nonsense.

The whole thing ended up being a classic "let the industry regulate itself so we can save face" maneuver in the end, virtually identical to just binning the policy entirely but with much less political blowback.

Passing the AA bill in 2018 was a much bigger failure from Labor (btw I'm happy to see our "protection over Christmas from ISIS then we'll revisit it" has lasted going on 4 years now, couldn't have fucking seen that coming). But again, it was literally a Liberal party bill, so I don't see how they don't take the lion's share of the blame for it.

[inkyoto]

> Btw those "90% of Australian Internet users being censored" was a couple of major ISPs putting in a DNS block that can be worked around in 5 seconds.

It is relatively simple for a technically savvy user, with a caveat.

A few years ago I noticed that the NBN router I had configured to use Cloudflare (or NextDNS) servers was dishing out my own ISP's DNS server IP's again. Upon a closer look it turned out that at some point the ISP had pushed a firmware update that: a) defaulted DNS settings to their own; b) would no longer accept any non-ISP IP addresses for the DNS configuration. Begrudginly, I ended up repartitioning the home network to create a distinct VLAN and adding a separate, 3rd party manufactured, Wi-Fi router with its own DHCP server to serve up the DNS configuration I wanted. If such shady practices are not vile and not authoritarian, I do not know what is. Most locally available mobile 4G/5G routers do not even have an option of overriding the DNS settings.

We all have to be grateful, though, that the Almighty has not revealed the BGP blackholing as the 11th commandment to ScoMo in his late afternoon wet dream.

> These days it's probably more like 20% because most people are on one of the newer ISPs like Aussie Broadband that don't truck with that nonsense.

A quick scan of WiFi networks in the immediate area of my residence has revealed that Telstra NBN is by far the most popular choice. Telstra has chosen to cozy up to the government and to self-censor itself.

> Passing the AA bill in 2018 was a much bigger failure from Labor […]

The anti-encryption law was rammed through the last few hours of the last day of the Parliament 2018 with full support from Labour. They did have a choice of delaying the vote for two months (until February 2019), but they did not:

«Speaking to the media on Friday, Mr Shorten said Labor had ultimately backed the Assistance and Access Bill — giving security agencies new powers to obtain the encrypted communications of criminal suspects — as he felt the need to reach a compromise before the Christmas break.

"I thought it was important that we reach at least a sensible conclusion before the summer on the important matter of national security. We will seek to improve the legislation in the new year. There are legitimate concerns about the encryption legislation but I wasn't prepared to walk away from my job and leave matters in a stand-off and expose Australians to increased risk in terms of national security," he said. […]

Labor had been pushing for amendments after the government issued a sudden demand for the legislation to be passed before the summer break»[0].

It has been nearly four years since the bill was inflicted upon Australians, and Labour has been coy and mum so far about introducing any amendments to the Ass Access Bill!

[0] https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/bill-shorten-says-la...

[joshka]

Yeah, I do. Glad he's no longer part of the labor party. It was no loss to see him go. My stance is generally that Labor is the better of the two evils when there is no other choice. But, in general, the authoritarian stances of the Liberal party are unequaled. Showing a small counterpoint to that doesn't change the statements above.