Tanner, The Hon Lindsay, Member for Melbourne

Thanks for your email and thanks for your past support.

Some people contend that the Internet should not be subject to similar censorship arrangements to those that apply to more traditional media. I’m afraid I don’t have much sympathy with this argument. If we want to restrict children’s access to hardcore pornography, it is absurd to exclude the Internet from our scope.

The question of how this is done is obviously a matter of some contention. I understand your point about the political ramifications, but inevitably there are wider issues at play! User filtering is clearly insufficient. I believe that clearly insufficient. I believe that ISP-based filtering should work.

Yours sincerely Lindsay Tanner

As a life-long ALP voter and supporter, and someone who handed out how-to-votes for you at the last election, I'm deeply disturbed by the policy to introduce ISP filtering.

I believe the party is taking a hammering amongst people working within the ICT industry, to the advantage of the Greens, as a result of the clean feed policy.

I understand that the policy is aimed at 'mums and dads' rather than internet geeks.

However, it is these people who stand to benefit from the free exchange of information. As we saw with the economic reforms undertaken during the Hawke-Keating era, moving away from protectionism and regulation led to economic growth - and greater opportunities for the less powerful people in our society.

This also applies to the information economy. The free exchange of information around the globe is crucial for the continual empowerment of 'ordinary' people.

There is an interesting forum discussion on this topic at http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1078354&p=45.

I strongly urge you to advocate within the party against the clean feed policy, and in favour of keeping information cheap and accessible to all. I don't want to see Melbourne fall to the Greens.

Regards

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