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Five Years of Broadband Policy Failure from Labor
Paul Fletcher’s Broadband Briefing
Five years after Labor announced its broadband policy, Australia’s broadband penetration ranking has dropped and Labor’s policy has made zero difference to the broadband service received by 99.9 per cent of Australians.
Written on Friday, 18 May 2012 00:00 in Broadband Briefing Read 4 times Read more... -
Principal's Courageous Action Highlights Threat of Cyberbullying
A Queensland Principal's decisive and courageous action - threatening to expel children under 13 with Facebook profiles - highlights the real dangers of unrestricted social media use by children too young to judge the risks involved, said Paul Fletcher MP, Chair of the Coalition's Online Safety Working Group.
Written on Friday, 18 May 2012 00:00 in Media Releases Read 1 times Read more... -
Bradfield Community Meeting Calls on Gillard to Apologise
A Community Meeting held by Paul Fletcher MP, Member for Bradfield has resolved to call on Prime Minister Julia Gillard to apologise for her divisive and inappropriate comments about Sydney’s North Shore.
Written on Friday, 18 May 2012 00:00 in Media Releases Read 1 times Read more... -
Investors defrauded of $176 million in Trio collapse, parliamentary committee finds
Over 6000 Australian superannuation and other investors were defrauded of $176 million in the Trio scandal according to a Parliamentary Committee report just released, Member for Bradfield Paul Fletcher said today.
Mr Fletcher, a member of the Parliament's Corporations and Financial Services Committee, said the Committee began its inquiry last year on his recommendation, after he was approached by constituents who had lost money in the collapse of Trio.
Written on Friday, 18 May 2012 00:00 in Media Releases Read 1 times Read more... -
Schoolkids Bonus Budget Measures
Mr FLETCHER (Bradfield) (10:51): I am pleased to rise to speak on the Family Assistance and Other Legislation Amendment (Schoolkids Bonus Budget Measures) Bill 2012. Let me start by noting that the process under which the House of Representatives is being asked to consider this bill is a deeply deficient one. The first official announcement of this measure was in the Treasurer's budget speech last night. We now have a bill which was introduced this morning that was only available to members of the House to review from 9.30 this morning.
Written on Tuesday, 15 May 2012 00:00 in Parliamentary Speeches Read 30 times Read more...
Paul Fletcher MP - Federal Member for Bradfield - Liberal Party
What is the Coalition’s response to a proposed internet filter?
Category: Uncategorised Published Date Written by Paul Fletcher MP Hits: 401
The Coalition has always strongly supported policies to protect young people from online threats. In Government we provided families with free home-based internet filtering software, and increased specialist police resources to fight internet crime. We have also supported expanding the Cybersafety Outreach programs to better educate students, parents and teachers.
Regrettably, the Labor Government has reversed some of these measures and is instead depending on a flawed plan to filter all internet content to protect Australian children.
There are many reasons for the Coalition to oppose this approach:
- • Labor’s filter simply will not work. Experts agree that most predatory online risks to children will not be captured by ISP filtering – for example, the proposed filter will not protect children using chat rooms or on social networks such as Facebook.
- • Labor’s filter threatens to create a false sense of security in parents. In reality there is no quick fix for online threats - safety requires a combination of filtering software on home PCs, educational guidance about appropriate internet usage and parental responsibility. Home-based filters can assess and block a wider range of content than a static ISP level filter.
- • Labor’s filter will interfere with the rights and internet usage of law-abiding citizens. A mandatory ISP filter will slow internet speeds. Only the Government will have access to the secret list of precisely which sites are to be blocked and it was revealed last year that a range of innocuous websites had been included.
- • Labor’s filter will divert resources from high quality police work. Ultimately, the best way of stopping internet crime is to give resources to enforcement agencies such as the Australian Federal Police. Every dollar spent on an ineffective filter is a dollar that could have been spent on those agencies.
Despite all of this and opposition from many internet users, ISPs, legal and technical experts, businesses and even state governments, Communications Minister Steven Conroy recently confirmed the filter would go ahead. However, the fact that Senator Conroy has not produced any legislation to implement the filter and recently announced a further two year delay highlights its impracticality.
The Coalition will continue to oppose Labor’s approach to regulating the internet and will continue to work with parents, ISPs and police to deliver common sense measures to protect young users from online content that is illegal or inappropriate.