Government to censor the Internet

[griffin]

But you can make a difference in the senate, very much so.

Senate, yes... unfortunately too much so while they are allowed vote-swapping, with people getting elected with just 0.2% of the people wanting them as Senators. Hardly a representation of the people that a Democracy is supposed to be.

As for the Lower house, as noted by Raider, there aren't any people or parties that have a substantial or reasonable range of policies that you'd want to have running the government.
Greens have a place as part of a government, but you wouldn't want them running the government with their more radical ideas and putting the brakes on Tasmania's growth when they were in power there as a State government.
Palmer could have been an alternative if he wasn't in politics to better his own business interests... and some of his crazy stunts and ideas would destroy the economy and country.
Democrats used to be an alternative, but lost their independent identity to voters when they got into bed with Labor in the 90s.
A lot of the independents are more reliable and ethical than the two major parties, but they aren't a party, nor do most want to start one... so until we get an organisation that has policies across all departments and a constitution that puts the people before personal financial interests, the majority of people feel trapped between the political tennis match of alternating between Labor and Liberal, with more people voting a party out than voting a party in now (we are more inclined to vote against things than show support for policies... which leaves us as a people with a leadership that we don't really trust, endorse or even want).

[Raider]

Senate, yes... unfortunately too much so while they are allowed vote-swapping, with people getting elected with just 0.2% of the people wanting them as Senators. Hardly a representation of the people that a Democracy is supposed to be.

As for the Lower house, as noted by Raider, there aren't any people or parties that have a substantial or reasonable range of policies that you'd want to have running the government.
Greens have a place as part of a government, but you wouldn't want them running the government with their more radical ideas and putting the brakes on Tasmania's growth when they were in power there as a State government.
Palmer could have been an alternative if he wasn't in politics to better his own business interests... and some of his crazy stunts and ideas would destroy the economy and country.
Democrats used to be an alternative, but lost their independent identity to voters when they got into bed with Labor in the 90s.
A lot of the independents are more reliable and ethical than the two major parties, but they aren't a party, nor do most want to start one... so until we get an organisation that has policies across all departments and a constitution that puts the people before personal financial interests, the majority of people feel trapped between the political tennis match of alternating between Labor and Liberal, with more people voting a party out than voting a party in now (we are more inclined to vote against things than show support for policies... which leaves us as a people with a leadership that we don't really trust, endorse or even want).

^ this +1

[5FDP]

Stumbled across this last night which I thought was interesting. Some of these countries are no-brainers, others were a bit of a surprise.

Enemies of the Internet:

Bahrain, Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

Countries Under Surveillance:

Australia, Egypt, Eritrea, France, India, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Russia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates.

Source

I made the leap into VPN's last week and settled on Private Internet Access. For the price, it's quite good. You get a robust VPN and a proxy to use with one program.

Like other VPN's, it tends to drop here and there so I would suggest setting a kill-switch using what ever firewall you have just for added security.

[1AZRAEL1]

Reviving old thread because of more news. Court decision today being made on this.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/on...007ddf04742efc

[Polursine]

"the same people that sell heroin"

AHAHAHAHAHAHA You hear that? We destroy lives and make a profit for ourselves selling dangerous material to kids.

Well, that being said, how can Hollywood execs buy their third wife their third house? hmmm

[DarkHyren]

lol, yeah good luck with that, they will also need to block all VPNs, online proxy services and a ton of legitimate torrenting services to even hope to curb piracy which will either end up bankrupting hollywood studios (yay) or slowing our internet back down to dial up speeds (boo).

Fact is that piracy is the only way us here in Australia can even get access to some things, but even if it wasnt why the hell should, for example, I pay $50 a month for pay tv just to watch a few episodes of a tv show?
Say I only watch Game of Thrones (which looking at what tv series are out atm is about all I would be watching), that means I'm paying $150 just to watch each season as it comes out, that is disgusting and completely unreasonable when the whole season will be only $40 when it comes out on dvd.
Sure, maybe pay tv or netflix is ok for those that are glued to the screen, but for those of us that only watch one or two programs it is a completely unreasonable cost, and a major reason for piracy of these programs

[Gutsman Heavy]

[Trent]

lol, yeah good luck with that, they will also need to block all VPNs, online proxy services and a ton of legitimate torrenting services to even hope to curb piracy which will either end up bankrupting hollywood studios (yay) or slowing our internet back down to dial up speeds (boo).

Fact is that piracy is the only way us here in Australia can even get access to some things, but even if it wasnt why the hell should, for example, I pay $50 a month for pay tv just to watch a few episodes of a tv show?
Say I only watch Game of Thrones (which looking at what tv series are out atm is about all I would be watching), that means I'm paying $150 just to watch each season as it comes out, that is disgusting and completely unreasonable when the whole season will be only $40 when it comes out on dvd.
Sure, maybe pay tv or netflix is ok for those that are glued to the screen, but for those of us that only watch one or two programs it is a completely unreasonable cost, and a major reason for piracy of these programs

While I agree with the brunt of your post, you do know that Netflix costs like $12 a month. Quite reasonable in my opinion. And I don't get to watch it that often.

[DarkHyren]

While I agree with the brunt of your post, you do know that Netflix costs like $12 a month. Quite reasonable in my opinion. And I don't get to watch it that often.

Haven't looked at netflix or pricing much so I was focusing more on the pay tv side of things then anything.
$12 bucks is more reasonable and after having a look you can also "Watch instantly or download for later"?
It it allows you to download a whole season at a time I'd be interested, as while I don't watch much, when I do I binge

[The_Damned]

you can download some show for on the go. most tv shows are whole season at once and a couple air weekly but everthing on their is stream on demand.