Featured, Opinion - Friday, August 27, 2010 13:38 - 3 Comments

How Australia created the technology election

This post is by Colin Jacobs, the chair of Electronic Frontiers Australia. It first appeared on the EFA’s site and is re-published here with his permission.

opinion This election, online issues finally got the attention they deserve. And the situation is here to stay.

I’m not talking about which party had the most Facebook followers or made the most gaffes on Twitter (Julia Gillard and Family First, respectively). Serious issues around internet governance and our internet future came into play, and by all accounts will continue to be significant as the situation plays out this week.

The first issue that affected the election was Labor’s mandatory internet censorship policy, 3 years old and counting. Throughout that time, I believe the accepted wisdom amongst the scheme’s proponents — the most notable being of course Senator Conroy — was that it would be unpopular with a handful of geeks but would appeal to the wider audience of mums and dads in the electorate.

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