The final nail in the coffin of the great Australian Firewall was hammered home last week when independent Senator Nick Xenophon withdrew support for the measure. This takes the voting arithmetic in the Australian Upper House beyond the point of no-return, as there are now 43 votes stacked up against the proposal with just 33 in favour.
Under the Australian constitution, tied votes are decided in the negative: so the Labour Government now needs an about-turn of Damascene proportions, both by the Green Party and by Senator Xenophon, to reverse its now inevitable defeat on this issue.
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The bad news for the firewall’s sponsor, Communications Minister Senator Stephen Conroy began with a statement by the Opposition's communications spokesman, Nick Minchin, that his party has taken independent legal advice and now believes the government cannot implement a mandatory filtering regime without passing new laws. He said: "legislation of some sort will almost certainly be required".
At the same time, Senator Nick Xenophon, who had previously suggested he might support a filter that blocked online gambling websites has now come out firmly against it. A spokesman for the Senator told the Reg that he will not be voting for it in any form. The Senator is concerned that the proposed measures will slow the internet and are likely to lead to over-blocking.
Instead of putting in place a blanket censorship regime the Government should instead put the money towards educating parents on how to supervise their kids online and tackling "pedophiles through cracking open those peer-to-peer groups".
