Politics and the Internet

According to Vote Compass my political position is The L/NP. Which was my expected outcome. It's a very interesting and useful tool.




E-Petition I signed a local e-petition!
TWEED SHIRE COUNCIL: Say No to Paid Parking On The Tweed Coast
This e-petition is to stop the Tweed Heads council from introducing paid parking at all boat ramps and parks along the river.
This local issue I feel very strongly about. One of my favourite pass times is to go down to the river for the day, have a BBQ or picnic and have a fun day with friends and family. We set the gazebo up, have music, play cricket. I love watersports, between me and my friends we have a boat, jetski and paddle boards. Going down to the Tweed River is where i spend most my time in summer, so if the council were to introduce paid parking in the area, this would affect me greatly. I am strongly against this and was happy to spread the word through my facebook account and to get more supporters to sign the petition.
Respond to a professional blogger at a major news site.
This task i chose not to do. The reason i chose against doing this was because I am not very involved with the News. I should be, and would like to be more involved and aware of the news and current affairs. However, i hardly follow it. On the odd occasion i will flick through my dads Sunday paper (only because i am looking for the 'Escape' travel section) and that is the extent of my news following. I work at night times in a pharmacy so don't even watch the evening news. As I am "news-illiterate" as i am calling myself, I believe i do not have any worthiness to post to a professional blogger of a major news site. I do not have enough knowledge to have an input at this point in time.
What is Barak Obama up to today?
Can you send him a message about the importance of freedom on the internet?
Today President Obama is attending a Press Briefing by Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest at 12:45pm.
According to the Presidents Schedule - August 29. 2013. Which can be found at http://www.whitehouse.gov/schedule.
I wish not to send the President of America a message about the importance of freedom on the internet. He is a busy man and i don't think a 21 year old Australian University student stressing their opinion regarding importance of freedom of the internet will be a concern to him. It will only waste mine and his time and i have greater political issues i would rather focus on and put my time and energy into.
What are/were the Australian Government's plans to censor the internet (the so-called "Clean Feed")?
The Government planned on implementing a internet censorship through provision of a mandatory 'clean feed' internet service for all homes, schools and public computers. The implementation of 'clean feed' will allow ISPs to filter out websites (between 1,000 to 10,000 websites) that were deemed prohibited by the Australian Communications and Media Authority. The aim of this 'Clean Feed' was to ensure children are 'protected from harmful and inappropriate online material'. This censorship has had considerable disapproval as it is 'unnecessary. illegitimate and irrational governmental interference into the public sphere' and with no specific outlined criteria of the 'blocking' the government suggested no only will it filter and block child pornography, but it may also block 'unwanted content'. (Travaglione, 2009, p.2)
What place does censorship have in a democracy?
Censorship being the act of suppressing or removing explicit or unacceptable material from public view/ society, has been implemented for our protection, especially children. But can government censorship go to far? Along with our freedom of speech that we are given, there also comes responsibilities and ethical manners of our actions that are expected of us. I believe in democracy, Yes, censorship is essential, but i think sometimes the government can go on a 'power-trip' and take it too far, ie; the Clean Feed example discussed in the above paragraph.
When will the NBN get to your place? What are the benefits?
Planning has started for the NBN roll out in Tweed!


According to MP Justine Elliot, NBN rollout in the Tweed is expected to be finished by 2015. Giving the Tweed area wholesale download speeds of up to 25 megabytes per second and upload speeds of 5 megabytes per second (25/5)
The top 10 benefits of the NBN, according to David Braue of the APC Mag are;

1. Telehealth
"Nurses and doctors will use the NBN to conduct natural video consults with remote patients, monitor life-sustaining medical equipment in patients’ homes, and run live therapy and exercise sessions with rural patients who will no longer have to travel hundreds of kilometres to capital-city specialists." (Braue, 2011) Much better than via the telephone.
2. Remote learning "Many schools have fibre connections, but sharing them amongst 1,000 or more users means slow internet. The NBN will speed overall school performance and let students participate in faraway classes using interactive whiteboarding and videoconferencing from their homes. In rural areas – where small schools can't offer many essential classes, virtual classes will link students across large geographical distances and make otherwise unviable classes possible." (Braue, 2011).
3. Videoconferencing
"Skype offers video over the internet for free. But quality and bandwidth varies online, and those depending on Skype are often disappointed. On the NBN, increased bandwidth and guaranteed quality will ensure a better-quality result all around – whether you’re running Skype or using videoconferencing as part of other services. This opens up tremendous possibilities: communicate with loved ones; learn a new language; conduct corporate board meetings without the cost or travelling."(Braue, 2011).
4. Gaming
"Online gamers know about bad by bad ping times. It may seem like a frivolous application for the NBN, but around 1 million Australian households are signed up to the PlayStation Network alone. With gaming a multi billion-dollar market, improved ping times, speed and reliability will give your gaming a new lease of life. Ditto in-game voice and video chats, which the NBN will handle without flinching." (Braue, 2011).
5. Smart Homes
"Smart meters – expensive boxes that will track your energy usage in real time – will be permanent links to the outside world. Logging into your home’s security system to watch your dog while away, review video of the guy who just made off with your jewellery, or turn off the lights and iron you left on in the rush out the door." (Braue, 2011).
6. Working from Home
"Adequate broadband helps them take their work home with them and participate in team meetings via videoconferencing. The NBN will let you be at work even when you can’t be at work." (Braue, 2011).
7. Media & Entertainment
"IPTV will bring services like Foxtel and FetchTV to all Australians. On-demand movie services will let you stream HD movies to your TV in real time. Better upload speeds to push content to your smartphone. Hosted music services will stream and play music. Play multiplayer online games hosted on remote servers. Share videos without having to waiting for upload. Bandwidth will no longer be an obstacle." (Braue, 2011).
8. Faster two-way internet
"The NBN will make internet more reliable and faster. This not only improves your internet experience significantly, but lets you bring more services into your home at the same time. Equally important are increased upload speeds: there’s no point having fast download speeds if the people at the other end can’t send you data quickly. The NBN will raise the bar and improve the online experience for everyone." (Braue, 2011).
9. Interactive shopping
"Imagine standing in front of your computer, with a Microsoft Kinect-like camera on you and reading your movements to control an on-screen avatar. Adjust your avatar with your own real measurements, then take it to your favourite online store and try on different combinations of clothes. Online merchants may have a long way to go still, but – as Second Life showed so well – creating virtual worlds, and shopping in them, is more than possible when you have heaps and heaps of bandwidth."(Braue, 2011).
10. Reach Out & Touch Someone
The NBN’s low latency lets you interact with people as if you were with them. Researchers are adding new dimensions to these experiences by building ‘haptic’ systems that transmit touch and movement over the NBN. Squeeze a haptic controller, for example, and your physiotherapist on the other end of the session will feel your grip from far away." (Braue, 2011).

Find out who your local, state and federal representatives are. Send one a message.
My local representative is Malcolm Fraser. NSW State premier is Barry O'Farrell. Federal representative Tony Abbott.
I wish not to send one of these members a message, again for the same reasons as i did not wish to send President Obama a message. I do not have enough knowledge about the topic to message them about something. If i followed the politics and felt strongly about something i would be more than happy to message one of these representatives, but at this point in time there is no issue that i have enough knowledge on that i wish to send them a message about.
Look up the Queensland or Australian Hansard to find the last time your local member spoke in parliament. My current local member is MP Justine Elliot, her last speech in parliament was Monday, 24 June 2013. Justine Elliot Speech
Let your local member know what you think about their last speech.
Interestingly her speech was on Cyberbullying and Cybersafety. How relevant to this course! In short this is about the dangers children face online in regards to bullying, she has thrown in a couple of statistics about internet usage among young people. She also acknowledges how this digital revolution has changed our modern way of living. She talks about the Labour party and funding programs they are doing to make the internet a safer place for children, (Stay Smart Online website and provided for the Australian Communications and Media Authority's Cybersmart program, Cybersafety Help Button and the Easy Guide to Socialising Online). She also discusses the roll out of the NBN. Again, i wish to not contact my local member of parliament. I am against this as an individual and wish not to do so. I am not a fan of time wasting, and all i would let her know is yeah it was interesting as it is relevant to one of my current courses, however, i have heard more than enough about cyberbullying and cybersafety in the last few years and quite honestly am sick of hearing about it. Especially on TV shows like ACA, i can not stand them. So my comment on the speech is not worthy enough to send to her in a message.