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Open letter/email to: Senator Natasha Stott Despoja
by Cleaves Editorial Team - Cleaves Independent Publishing Tuesday, May 13 2008, 12:05am
editorial / social/political / commentary

Senator Natasha Stott Despoja has served in the Australian Senate for many years and has always been a voice for the underdog and a vigorous supporter of many unpopular but nevertheless important causes. She will soon be retiring from the Parliament to pursue her role as mother and whatever else takes her fancy.

We wish her all the best and thank her for the many years of selfless work and support she has given to the Australian community. We are especially grateful for her support for the many 'unpopular' issues, like lobbying for the release of David Hicks etc. She has assisted many people and has been a tireless proponent of many causes that mainstream politicians view as career 'impediments.'

She is a woman of integrity and gracious disposition, characteristics rare in Australian parliamentarians. We are extremely sorry to see her go but understand her need for change; she has earned our respect and the respect of the Australian community. We sincerely hope that someone is able to fill the space she leaves in the Australian Senate – we are far from impressed with the current crop of dunderheads and ineffective verbose wafflers!

snowing in Japan

Open letter/email to: Senator Natasha Stott Despoja

13 May, 2008

Dear Senator,

Congratulations on the birth of your second child and we extend all best wishes to you and your family for the future.

We note that you are fast approaching the end of your tenure in the Senate and we would appreciate, if you are able and disposed, to accommodate our request and check whether or not the site http://cleaves.zapto.org/ has been filtered from the parliamentary computer network.

Today's Public Senate broadcast included an address by the Chair relating to content filtering of the parliamentary computer network. We are astounded to learn of this hideous practice, which smacks of Orwellian Big Brother tactics.

It seems that someone/group/cabal has seen fit to impose restrictions on the free flow of information to Parliamentarians! On what legal or constitutional basis has this outrageous practice been allowed to proceed?

OUR democratically elected parliamentary representatives must be given FREE ACCESS to ALL information at ALL TIMES if we are to have a healthy, robust democracy -- this is self-evident!

We also note the attempts of the new Labor government to filter Public content at backbone or ISP level, which would constitute the first stage of an autocratic, totalitarian society!

Notwithstanding the above draconian Labor policies and the recent Stalinist, Gillard proposal that would allow corporate bosses access to the private emails of their employees, assaults of this nature extending into parliament subverts the entire democratic process and all that it holds of value, as we’re sure you can appreciate.

We need not continue, as we're sure you are more familiar with the situation than most.

If you are able to confirm or otherwise inform us of the current status of the ‘Cleaves’ site on the parliamentary computer network, it would be greatly appreciated.

All best wishes for the future and warmest regards from everyone at,
Cleaves Independent Open Publishing Newswire.

Lindsay
Acting Chief Editor

PS Please note your response would not be published without your prior approval.

COMMENTS

Response to open letter
by Mat Tinkler - Australian Democrats Wednesday, May 21 2008, 8:59am
mat.tinkler@aph.gov.au

Thank you for your open letter to Senator Stott Despoja. The Senator is grateful for your wonderful feedback and has asked me to respond on her behalf.

In response to your question, the site http://cleaves.zapto.org/ has not been filtered from Senator's computers. However, we have already encountered problems in accessing other sites during the course of our research and policy work.

The decision to filter internet access by Senators was made by the Senate Standing Committee on Procedure. The measure has been criticised by the Leader of the Australian Democrats, Senator Lyn Allison.

According to the president of the Senate, Senators will be able to request that access be given to filtered sites.

As for the Government's proposed monitoring of workplace emails by employers, the Democrats recently opposed a similar expansion of this legislation in the Senate and will be monitoring very closely any attempts by the Government to further expand the telecommunications interception powers of both the Commonwealth and private organisations.

Kind regards,

Mat Tinkler
Adviser
Office of Senator Stott Despoja