I wet myself a little when reading Hillary Clinton’s opinions on internet freedom and allowed myself a little gloat in the direction of our very own Minister for Botching Everything he Touches, Senator Conroy.

Her speech contains some of the most rational and future-proofed analysis of the internet in its global political context ever published. Conroy’s response, however, is hackneyed, uninformative and fails, in every sense, to engage Clinton’s arguments. I’ll attempt to illustrate this disjunction without flooding the page with quotes, but Hillary’s words are too erudite and well constructed for me to paraphrase too often.

Clinton launches the thrust of her speech by quoting Obama’s warning to China,

the more freely information flows, the stronger societies become.

Even Conroy can’t disagree, saying that

The Rudd Government agrees with Secretary Clinton that the internet can transform societies and enable and empower individuals to engage, connect and have a greater impact than they ever have

So while Conroy nods his head and mumbles along in fluent pollie-speak, Clinton begins pushing the concept further, condemning Governments’ use of censorship.

technologies with the potential to open up access to government and promote transparency can also be hijacked by governments to crush dissent and deny human rights… [As] history itself has already condemned these tactics.

Conroy by now is slowing his vigorous head-nodding as he realises he’s on the wrong side of the fence. Just in time, however, Clinton throws him a line:

Now, all societies recognize that free expression has its limits. We do not tolerate those who incite others to violence, such as the agents of al-Qaida who are, at this moment, using the internet to promote the mass murder of innocent people across the world. And hate speech that targets individuals on the basis of their race, religion, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation is reprehensible. It is an unfortunate fact that these issues are both growing challenges that the international community must confront together. And we must also grapple with the issue of anonymous speech. Those who use the internet to recruit terrorists or distribute stolen intellectual property cannot divorce their online actions from their real world identities.

Our Minister for Broadband Hindrance and the Digital Expolitation of Children sighs in relief, he’s said the exact same thing!

Australians have always recognised that there is some content which is not acceptable in any civilised society. [So we're going to censor the internet]

Unfortunately for Senator Steve, the line Clinton threw him came complete with bait and hook:

But these challenges must not become an excuse for governments to systematically violate the rights and privacy of those who use the internet for peaceful political purposes.

But Conroy’s not trying to violate our rights, right? Right? Hillary?

Some countries have erected electronic barriers that prevent their people from accessing portions of the world’s networks. They’ve expunged words, names, and phrases from search engine results. They have violated the privacy of citizens who engage in non-violent political speech. These actions contravene the Universal Declaration on Human Rights,

At this point our friend in the Senate should be rethinking his policy’s impact on diplomatic ties with the US. Hell, even Google thinks the plan is a disaster. Unfortunately, even the most powerful woman in the world can’t persuade the least receptive man in the world. In the very same press release as his insubstantial agreement with Clinton, he goes on to plug his censorship plans as a good thing. So Australians are in the hole now right? Wrong.

We are also supporting the development of new tools that enable citizens to exercise their rights of free expression by circumventing politically motivated censorship.

Thank you Hillary, thank you. Now if you could just leave the installation materials for TOR on my doorstep I’ll be able to circumvent Con-job Conroy’s censorship machine.

Tune in next time for how the anti-censorship campaign needs to move forward to beat this once and for all.

*Edit: Fixed the first link to Clinton’s speech.

Sixteen years ago I opened a blank schoolbook and began planning a magazine. Today, I start work on that magazine in an official capacity, such is the nature of wishes.

QUTE magazine is the Student Magazine for Queensland University of Technology, run by the student guild, printed by printers, edited by me.

Last year’s QUTE magazine flourished under the magical touch of Michelle Knowles; her fortitude and skills in all things aesthetic took the magazine from startup to number one student mag in the country in under a year. Her ability to attract student contributions and work with Jason (graphic designer) to bring it all together has set a high standard that has been chasing me around my head for about a month now.

That’s right, I’m shitting my pants hoping I can at least keep the magazine going at that level.

I don’t expect to match or replicate the Knowles era of QUTE, it would be disrespectful to try and her style should remain her style. QUTE magazine has established quite the following over the last 12 months, and it’s considered an accomplishment to be published in its deftly designed pages. My job now is to maintain, streamline and expand those standards of publication.

Therefore QUTE magazine will be spread over the following channels:

1. The magazine proper: 5-6 hard copy editions over the academic calendar. Opinion, interviews and high quality works that deserve paper immortality.
2. The magazine website: Updated weekly with more time-sensitive contributions, news updates and media that wouldn’t fit in the print publication.
3. The PodCast: Weekly -fortnightly podcast featuring interviews, student audio plays, humor and analysis.

I’m more excited about the magazine this year than a conservative watching an execution (Fryy ‘im bubba’, fryy ‘im!). I’ll introduce the team as it stands next week when I see them all in the same room at the same time.

Important: If you’re a QUT student of any description and would like to contribute (either periodically or regularly) to QUTE, don’t hesitate to contact me on websinthe at gmail dot com. The team is never finalised and all work will be published (crap work will be published after I’ve reamed it with the proofing-bat).

Two nights ago the Coalition and Senator Fielding blocked proposed legislation that would have increased income for tertiary students while making it harder for students to qualify for any payments at all.

Julia Gillard’s office put together a press release lamenting the loss of income support increases at the hands of the greedy and politically motivated Coalition and Family First parties. Barely 18 hours later the National Union of Students President David Barrows released a response stating that the NUS was “absolutely shocked that Senator Fielding did not pass this measure”, before going on to decry the failure of so many positive changes in the legislation.

Given that the last time I saw David Barrows he was screaming orders at student campaigners and apparently hosing people down with his temper, it doesn’t surprise me that he’s ignoring some very good reasons against this legislation.

While the Coalition is yet to make an official announcement, Senator Fielding’s reasons for blocking the bill come down to the implications these changes would have for Rural and Regional students. The proposed legislation would change the requirements for a person to be considered independent (and therefore eligible for Youth Allowance) to be increased from earning $19k in eighteen months to working unbroken 30 hour weeks for eighteen months in a two year period.

If this legislation was designed to counter people abusing the Youth Allowance system, it’s one of the harshest and least humane attempts I’ve heard of. The going rhetoric is that rich students are using Youth Allowance payments to pay for Gap Year trips around the world. I can’t think of a bigger load of bullshit; if this is happening it’s because Centrelink, as usual, is incompetent, not because the entry requirements are too low.

I’m irked by Dave Barrow’s comment that “a system that gets the poorest students to university [has been] blocked.” Seriously David? You’re calling a system that either keeps people out of education for two years or forces them to rely on their parents during their tertiary education “a system that gets the poorest students” into University? If this had been the system when I was coming into university the first time I couldn’t have afforded it. The poorest families can’t afford to support their children’s tertiary educations, and now the NUS advocating a system that will keep them uneducated for at least 18 months while they work their arses off just to qualify for support that is still only going to be half the poverty line? Why didn’t they even mention the increased restrictions on eligibility?

I’m all for any changes to the Youth Allowance System that increase the level of income support for students. Unfortunately this isn’t one of them. The larger numbers going into students’ pockets are coming at the expensive of how many students are being supported.

I knew there was somethign fishy about Gillard’s press release. Please comment, I’d like to get a better look at this situation.

Coming back to the blogosphere has always been temporarily exciting and permanently depressing. One cannot dig beneath the surface of situational politics without soon hitting pants-wettingly upsetting bedrock.

I’m currenly looking at a press release from Jullia Gillard’s office regarding the Coalition and Senator Fielding’s refusal to pass increases to student income support. Kat Henderson, student activist and next years QUT Student Guild president sent me the release and attached a request that we spread the word that people need to contact those involved and make something happen. Given the extremely limited sitting days left in parliament this year, I jumped to it and spread the word.

Still, my bullshit detectors are screaming at me that something is wrong here.

Obviously I’m in favour of said increases both because I’m a student and because I think it’s economically sound (vis. automatic stabilisers – look it up). I would love to demonise anyone that gets in the way of accessible education. I know that Fielding’s votes are tied directly to punishing or rewarding whoever backs his own policy agenda and that the Liberals’ economic politics are very unfriendly to students. All this considered though, the press release wreaks of spin and I can’t help but think that there’s something in the proposed legislation that would have sucked for students.

Here’s what I’m going to do:

• Google it; the media and blogosphere may shed light on the right questions to ask more reliable sources.
• Check the Lib’s and Fielding’s websites for press releases about the bill, maybe they have reasons.
• Contact Minchin’s and Fielding’s offices for the official spiel.
• Put those three together, form an initial hypothesis and then start speaking to people working in politics.
• Blog it.

I don’t expect this process will take longer than a few hours. Stay tuned.

My frustration with religious prescriptions is well documented. Following my online commentary leaves one with the sense that while I don’t begrudge sommeone having their beliefs, I don’t suffer morality as a valid base for social strictures. Religion has had thousands of years to move us past the barbarism of scarcity and conflict but has failed miserably. This is why I fight for a secular government based on secular principles.

I actually like hanging out with fundies (fundamentalist charismatic/ born-again christians), especially the couples that are my age and already married. Naomi and I spent some time down in SA with a group of people in said situation and I found their approach to sex and partnership quite refreshing. It helped that they were all exceedingly attractive and that I could easily imagine the explosive force of their wedding night.

So now that I’ve explained that ’some of my best friends are christians’, I’m allowed to say whatever horrible things I want to about them.

Imagine my dismay when I found out that the gorgeous russian mother/daughter duo from down the hallway are born again chrisitans. Up till that point they’d lived at the Orient for a few months without uttering more than a few words at a time to me. In their first prolonged conversation with me they not only explained that they were born again bible bashers, they also explained that:

• Jesus hated me for masturbating, but if I stopped now I might still have time to repent,
• I was not allowed to marry Naomi because she was born again and I wasn’t (once was enough thank you very much)
• My listening to non-christian music offended Jesus
• My grey hair was a sign that Jesus was displeased with me
• Just because I don’t believe in hell doesn’t mean I’m  not going there anyway
• Living with Naomi before we’re married is a sin and I need to move out right at that instant

None of this would have bothered me if it wasn’t for the mother’s facial expression during the conversation. The underlying tone was ‘I’m sorry your heathen upbringing failed to inform you of all this but now that you know I’m sure you’ll change right away’. Meanwhile the daughter was looking more than a little embarrassed about the tongue-lashing I’d sat through. Maybe there’s some hope for her after all.

Things certainly didn’t turn out the way I thought they would.

If I could go back in time to 1999 and tell my 14 year old self some of the things that I take for granted these days, I’m sure he’d have a fit.

First of all, the idea of being invited to four or five parties per weekend isn’t something I expected. I think think that by 14 I was convinced I had social leprosy. The sheer amount of revelry I’ve walked into without so much as iota of effort still amazes me. I go out of my way to avoid parties and special events and yet my calendar is swamped with the bastards.

I’m not complaining, it’s an awesome lifestyle so long as I keep getting work done.

I remember being seven years old and going to a Labor party dinner with Paul Keating and the rest of the party A-list over at the Greek Club. This was around the time Indonesia invaded East Timor and anyone in Australia with a social conscience was mighty pissed at the Government for not stopping it. There was a huge student protest outside the building as we walked in. I thought it was cool until some guy (I remember him still) grabbed me and screamed at me not to listen to ‘their’ lies. I remember wanting to lash out and hit him.That was my first experience of student activism.

My latest experience was of being elected General Secretary of the most politically active student guild in recent QUT history. I am now that roaring legion that stood outside the Greek Club that evening. I am now that young man who can’t stand to see people blindly follow their parents on politics and religion.

I wonder if providence will ever let me meet that man. I wonder if he remembers me as clearly and precisely as I remember him. I wonder if he’d appreciate the narrative of my movement from seven year old to activist.

I doubt that the fourteen year old me would have expected that only ten years later I’d be preparing to marry.

I doubt that the fourteen year old me would have expected that I’d have turned to smoking cigarettes like my father.

I doubt that the fourteen year old me would have expected me to identify so heavily with atheists and pastafarians.

I doubt that the fourteen year old me would have been able to cope with a day of my life as it is now.

When did I grow up? I can’t remember it happening.

I’d like to tell the fourteen year old me that everything would work out and not to worry. The sad truth is that I can’t just yet. Too much remains unsettled. Too many shadows lurk around corners. I’m not finished being attacked yet. I’m not sure I ever will be. I’m not sure anyone ever is.

I have noticed the collective apoplexy being experienced by Australia’s dubiously educated soccer mums and under-employed social academics over Sandilands’ latest trick. I have noticed the vitriolic and panic-stricken cries of the media as they reach for the low hanging fruit of public angst. I have noticed everyone getting off on the chance to once again take a piss into the wind that is Kyle bloody Sandilands.

So while Hetty and friends sharpen their knives and polish their cheque books, Kyle has been apologising and dodging bullets. I’m sure the Labor party is grateful for his ability to distract the ‘feral goldfish’ and take the pressure off them for a few minutes while they sit down with their mates and work out how to deny next month’s installment of Two and a half Factions.

Mother’s Milk

Kyle didn’t pull the plug in time. That is all. He was not trying to verbally molest the poor girl. That was the mother’s job. This woman has to be one of the dumbest human beings I’ve ever seen.

Listen lady, Kyle’s getting a beating over this, so here’s your turn. You are a bad mother. You have failed your daughter. You sold her out for tickets to a concert. You were too fucking stupid to avoid a very obvious and very dangerous subject on national fucking radio. You were asked by the producers if such information existed and you fucking lied.

I’m inclined to believe that you lied deliberately so this situation would arise. That’s abuse on an appalling level.

Kyle’s career as a shock jock is nothing compared to your lack of upbringing. Your daughter was failed by an older man and failed by your lack of maternal ability. Sixty thousand years of evolution has been fucking lost on you.

Moral Decay?

Meanwhile the term ‘moral decay’ has reared it’s ugly head at least once. Moral decay hey? Well, thank God I’m a writer, I’m relevant regardless of how dystopian we get. There’s a word that means, exactly, the application of moral decay to this whole scenario; practice it with me.

Bullshit

It might take you a while to sound it out, especially given contemporary standards of literacy. Moral decay is not the right term here. Let me explain.

Moral decay is a result of moral stagnation. Put simply, morals will only decay if we let them stand still for too long. The world moves and so must our morals. Keeping them set in stone is a wonderful way of sending society backwards. Even Clive Hamilton writes about the need to establish new moral standards. Unfortunately for Clive, his definition of ‘new’ is ‘what he remembers from watching The Brady Bunch‘. Even worse, he’s not alone. Kevin Rudd’s neo-conservative movement has been a rallying cry for the bigots and religious throwbacks of the country.

This leads me to the real point…

This is about stupidity, not manners

Sure manners comes into it, but only on the periphery. Kyle was too stupid to pull the plug on a woman who was too stupid not to sexually abuse her daughter on national radio. The media is too stupid to pick the real culprit and the public is too stupid to realise that the media is shafting them.

Someone shows us a front page and our brains go to shit.

We’re shown to be a nation of dumbasses by the level of entertainment we crave, something goes wrong because of the vapid tits that come up with this shit and then the professional crybabies rush in and, instead of contributing any useful analysis, simply reinforce the notion that we’re collectively brain damaged by being intellectually lazy.

Andrew Bolt, I’m looking squarely at you here. Though I may be hasty, your editor probably dragooned you into that position. It’s not your fault, you were just following orders.

With this in mind, I’ll make my point in simple language so your average mortgage holder can understand.

We’re not getting nastier, we’re getting dumber. This is because you watch shit, read shit, and think shit. The old days were not better. This happened because our moral framework is out of date and nobody puts any thought into it. Kyle Sandilands is not an evil pedo, the girl’s mother is. Stop bitching and send the poor girl some flowers. She’s been hurt, and your focus on Sandilands is just making it worse.

Young lady, I’m so sorry that your mother failed you like this. If you’re one to look for a silver lining, hopefully it will be that your situation makes some parents wake up and do a better job of defending their children instead of hoping somebody else will do it for them.

Update: I just found this article written by the man himself.

I’ve known about this for a few months but it’s finally come out. Issue 131 of AntipodeanSF is here. I also happen to be one of the contributing authors.

This is the first time I’ve published anything without a direct shot at the submit button so I’m feeling somewhat proud of myself. Have a read and tell me what you think, though I assure you that my work has come a long way since I wrote that piece.

An attempted rape in the early hours after ANZAC day ended in a ctizen’s arrest on a middle aged man. At 20 past midnight on the Sunday of the ANZAC day weekend residents living on the corner of Queen and Ann streets heard the terrified screams of a young woman as she was accosted by a white middle aged man wearing a suit.

Within seconds of her screams being heard, several local residents had called the police and no less than 5 people were running to apprehend the man seen grappling with the woman. The man had been grappling the woman in front of the Bus stop outside the abandon building next to the Orient Hotel on Ann Street. He let go when two residents from a nearby balcony roared for him to stop.

The man ran towards the Orient Hotel and clumsily climbed over the chain link fence into the abandoned lot between 540 and 560 Queen Street. Several young men heard the residents’ screams and ran to intercept the man as he came out of the bushes in the lot. The cornered man tried to jump back over the fence but was prevented from doing so by two other men on Ann street.

The man was detained by the youths as police arrived on the scene. He appeared to be heavily intoxicated and his pants were undone at the buckle and fly. His suit jacket was adorned with numerous ANZAC day medals.

The young lady with which he had been grappling walked away from the scene before police could arrive. Several residents witnessed the event and gave statements to the police.

This is not fiction. This actually happened. I was one of the screaming residents and also one of the youths that helped apprehend the man.  My fiance was the one that called the police. This, as far as I know, is an ongoing investigation and this post may be subjected to police censorship. This is not intended to be a critique of ANZAC day but an example of the rampant stupidity caused by excessive alcohol abuse.

Judging by the man’s age it is unlikely that he actually served in ANY war and was more likely representing an unfortunate relative.

So many young men gave their lives for us, ANZAC day should be about honouring their memory. This act is a cruel betrayal of their sacrifice and a fitting parody of war itself.

Australians lack the identity and self-image to generate sufficient backlash to a conservative uprising that threatens to further erode our chances of a free and open society.

The ACMA is still suffering little-man syndrome, The Rudd government is still distracting us with shiny objects and Clive Hamilton is still in hiding on the filter issue. What has the blogosphere been doing in my absence? Did this whole situation go quiet at the same time I decided to train to the next level of political discourse or did the NBN issue accost the only minds capable of discussing the Clean Feed with any panache?

I’ve come to a frightening realisation. There is no Australian dream, the nation’s foundations are built on sand and Laurie Oakes is no Hunter S Thompson. Ladies and Gentlemen, we’re a microwave dinner away from societal collapse. There will be no conflict, no student protests, no fear and loathing. Australians are not capable of such character building melodrama. We won’t collapse through a lack of morals, we will recede into melancholy stagnation through a lack of outrage. There is no freak power movement here. Maybe we need one.

Peter Garrett used to sing about passion fatigue. I can identify with the feeling – idealism hurts and alienates, so why bother? Idealism is for those unwashed and unparented university students with long hair and hemp bags. Our inner monologue: I’m playing by the rules and social order serves me just fine. Freedom of speech is libel and freedom of expression is paedophilia. I can’t wait till Friday night so I can drink this unexplained knot in my stomach loose.

The EFA was just served with a link deletion order by the ACMA for linking to an abortion site in a political discussion. Trust Australian bureaucrats to make the USA’s legislative absurdities look sane. The only reason John Ashcroft lacks an Australian peer is because that would require more personality than we’re capable of producing. I’m seriously starting to think that the Aussie persona is a dead-set lie. We’ve spent so long telling ourselves that we’re laid back that we missed the signs of GET OFF MY DANG LAWN!

Little old ladies with glaucoma and leprous skin stand in line at Woolies telling Columbian students that they should leave their culture at home and embrace Australian culture. What is Australian culture? Tell me. First person to mention ‘mateship’ loses. Christians can sit back and be assured that I know your quantity and don’t want to hear it again.

Regardless of what merit lies in the Anti-filtering movement, it’s sad that there weren’t more people involved. Where’s the knee-jerk freedom culture? Where are the habitual protesters that show up to protest without knowing what’s going on?

For a country founded by convicts desperate for freedom from their legalistic oppressors, we’re doing a terrible job of embracing liberty. We’ve been sold on the same ‘freedom from’ rhetoric that fueled so many despotic regimes last century. Somebody think of the working family children! Respect for human life is non-core even if you make it to the mainland. Welcome to Camp Woomera; it’s not Guantanamo so stop calling lawyers.

Somebody tell me what our Nation stands for before I start filling in the blanks myself.