National broadband provider iiNet and its subsidiary Internode have pledged to implement the limited child abuse Internet filtering scheme adopted as policy last week by the Federal Government, noting they had received independent legal advice advising them to comply with a new “compulsory” request by police to do so.

Last week, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy announced the Federal Government would abandon its highly unpopular and controversial mandatory Internet filtering policy in favour of a more limited scheme that will see Australian ISPs forced to block a much smaller list of child abuse sites supplied by international policing agency Interpol. The legal mechanism for the scheme to proceed is Section 313 of the Telecommunications Act, which allows the Australian Federal Police to request assistance from local telcos. Telstra and Optus implemented the scheme in mid-2011; Conroy said last week that it will now be extended to other ISPs.

In mid-2011, a number of ISPs, such as Telstra, Optus, iiNet and Internode, received such requests from the Australian Federal Police to implement such a filtering scheme for the Interpol list. At the time, Telstra and Optus complied with the request and have had their filters working for more than a year with no known public complaints, while a number of other ISPs, such as iiNet and Internode, declined to do so, citing uncertainty about the legality of the request.

However, posting on broadband forum Whirlpool this week, iiNet group chief regulatory officer Steve Dalby noted that the Section 313 notices received in mid-2011 by the ISPs had made it clear the scheme was “voluntary”. New notices issued to ISPs recently, however, he said, had the word “voluntary” removed from their text.

“… the AFP advised us that compliance was voluntary. As a result we declined to participate,” Dalby wrote. “Now it is clearly no longer voluntary and we are obliged to comply, which we will. As you will no doubt have read from the press release, all ISPs will be served notices by the AFP. I’m sure most will take legal advice on the effectiveness of the notifications and act according to that legal advice.”

A new poll shows a majority of Australians support making voluntary euthanasia legal for someone experiencing unrelievable and incurable suffering.

A targeted online survey of more than 1,400 people conducted by the Australia Institute revealed more than 70 per cent believe euthanasia should be permissible.

A total of 17 per cent said they did not know, while 12 per cent were opposed to the idea.

Despite this, multiple attempts to legalise voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide in recent years have all failed.

Australia Institute executive director Richard Denniss said the numbers supporting legalised euthanasia were down from 75 per cent last year.

He said the biggest drop in support was mostly among young people.

"It's fallen a little bit across the board and interestingly fallen a little bit more amongst young people," he told The World Today.

"The 'don't knows' are a little higher amongst young people, so if anything that in fact reflects the lack of public debate we've had about this issue."

“Living with the stigma of HIV harder than living with the disease”

This quote from ‘Jim’ is one of a number of stories from an innovative Australian crowd sourced campaign that seeks to gather the voices of HIV stigma and resilience called the ENUF campaign.

"HIV is something we must talk about openly, clearly and honestly. Being scared to discuss it reinforces the shame and stigma that currently exists for those living with HIV ” says Sam Venning President of Living Positive Victoria, “This year’s World AIDS Day theme of “HIV is still here” reminds us all that it is only the sustained and combined strategies of government, researchers and community based organisations that will help us end the HIV epidemic."

Living Positive Victoria and the Burnet Institute are co-hosting the official launch of World AIDS Day at Parliament with the Health Minister the Hon. David Davis launching the day in the Parliament gardens on 1 December at 10:30 am.

Two HIV positive speakers will also be featured who will share their stories of living with HIV and emphasise that HIV is still here and that stigma and discrimination still exists across the community.

"I encourage everyone to address stigma and discrimination by reading and signing up to the ENUF campaign. Our voices are ENUF to end HIV stigma and discrimination" says Venning.

For more information on the ENUF campaign and how to get involved visit enuf.org.au

The sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s could be behind a spike in cases of cancer of the tonsils and tongue, a Brisbane specialist says.

Head and neck specialists, radiologists and other clinical experts came together at a recent health conference at Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital to discuss the rise in those caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV) infection.

Director of the Head and Neck Department at Princess Alexandra Hospital and president of the Australia and New Zealand Head and Neck Cancer Society, Associate Professor Ben Panizza said the current spike in cases could be a direct result of the sexual revolution of the sixties and seventies.

''Oropharyngeal cancer, which is cancer of the tonsils and tongue, is on the rise. Ten years ago we were seeing around one patient every fortnight.

''Now we encounter about two cases a week,'' he said.

The cancer is divided into two types - cases caused by the human papillomavirus infection and those caused by heavy drinking and smoking.

''Previously most cases we saw were caused by the latter, and since it typically takes years of alcohol and tobacco abuse to cause this type of cancer, patients were generally elderly,'' Prof Panizza said.

''Now we are seeing younger patients, around middle age, who are developing cancer following infection with the human papillomavirus, which many people usually associate only with cervical cancer.

At least one in 20 Catholic priests in Melbourne is a child sex abuser, although the real figure is probably one in 15, the state inquiry into the churches' handling of sex abuse was told yesterday.

RMIT professor Des Cahill said his figures, based on analysing conviction rates of priests ordained from Melbourne's Corpus Christi College, closely matched a much larger American analysis of 105,000 priests which found that 4362 were child sex offenders.

The intercultural studies professor also told the inquiry that the Catholic Church was incapable of reforming itself because of its internal culture. He said the Church's Melbourne Response abuse protocol had to go, and the state would have to intervene to achieve it.

In other key testimony, Professor Cahill:
• Called for married priests, as are being allowed now in the Anglican ordinariate within the Catholic Church, as a "circuit-breaker" that would reduce child sex abuse. The state should remove the Equal Opportunity Act exemption letting the church discriminate on grounds of marital status, he said.
• Described the Church as "a holy and unholy mess, except where religious sisters or laypeople are in charge, for example schools and welfare agencies".
• Called for an "eminent Catholic task force" of lay people to work with the Church on reform and transparency.
• Said other religions were not immune from child sex abuse, including credible anecdotal evidence of two incidents within Melbourne's Hindu community where the offending monks were "shipped back to the home country".

Comments from a Labor politician comparing a Nationals MP's partner to a "B-grade porn star" have been labelled "sexist and derogatory" by New South Wales Minister for Women Pru Goward.

Labor MP Amanda Fazio reportedly wrote a Facebook update at the parliamentary Spring Ball last Thursday, which stated: "At the NSW Parliament Spring Ball. Excellent singers from Bankstown Talent Program. Geoff Provest has a date that looks like a retired B-grade porn star."

The post, which was made on her private Facebook page and reported by News Ltd, has since been deleted.

Ms Goward said this morning the fact the comments were made by a woman made them no less offensive, and hit out at the hypocrisy of the Labor party.

She said the post highlighted the danger in the Labor party setting itself up as "the arbiter" of sexist behaviour.

"Of course it's sexist and derogatory," she said.