“Protecting kiddies is a lovely idea in theory, but until the governments of the world unite, it’s just not going to happen… ever,” says The Gadfly columnist ROBERT MACKLIN.
Albo is feeling the pressure. He reminds me vividly of my biographical subject Kevin Rudd (Penguin 2008) after he lost the vote at the 2009 Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen.
Instead of pressing his case at home with a double-dissolution election – he went to water. Thereafter, his decision-making became so erratic that his caucus rebelled, and Julia Gillard took his place as PM.
So it is with the man Kevin made his deputy PM when Julia herself fell from power.
Anthony Albanese’s disastrous loss of the Voice campaign, after a decent interval of mourning, should have been met with a grand plan. It would begin with truth telling, followed by a legislative barrage of reform that would finally draw a line under the vile colonial treatment of our forebears in the great south land. Instead, just like Kevin, he went to water.
His decision-making since then – from his panicked response to the High Court’s migrant detention ruling to his reluctance to confront the gambling industry – has led to his trouncing by Peter Dutton in parliament.
It follows exactly the pathway of his former political patron. And his latest decision to somehow outlaw social media to the young is more of the same. That horse has not only left the barn, it’s galloped over the hills and is far away.
“Enough is enough” is his slogan for the confrontation with the billionaire social media oligarchy. Protecting kiddies is a lovely idea in theory, but until the governments of the world unite in some IT version of the infamous Copenhagen Summit, it’s just not going to happen… ever.
The key to any regulatory action lies with the US and if Donald Trump wins back the Oval Office in November the Albo campaign is a dead duck.
Trump himself would willingly perform the funeral rites courtesy of their First Amendment guarantee of free speech. Kamala Harris knows the law, and it’s Trump’s Supreme Court anyway. Moreover, the IT oligarchs simply cannot understand “enough is enough” since their whole business model is based on the concept that “enough is never enough”
Even Australia’s boomers – your columnist included – would quietly oppose it. Indeed, we belong to the generation that fought against censorship of any kind.
Who among us could forget Customs Minister Don Chipp organising the screening of “off-colour” films for us to see the “filth” that he was forced to watch before deciding which ones to ban. It was a veritable stampede to get tickets. It was certainly one of Don’s more amusing decisions.
While we’re aware that online pornography is the motivation of the religious moralists, the truth is, that stuff has been around forever and has been absorbed into the communal experience with no more unhappy side effects than the Playboy, Man or even hardcore magazines of yesteryear.
Morals are made in the home, mostly by kids emulating parental behaviour. Outside the home, the great dangers appear to be the priestly pedophiles and a few similar creeps among coaching staff.
Online bullying and vicious criticism can be terribly painful to the young and old alike, but restricting kids from having phones with untrammelled internet access – which can also be lifesavers in other circumstances – is not a role for the federal government, even if SA and Victoria win an occasional concession.
The Opposition on this occasion will probably adopt a low profile and let the oligarchy do the job for them. Albo’s Labor Caucus will be preoccupied counting the numbers for possible successors. Over in Washington, Kevin Rudd will also be preoccupied – as ever – lobbying to become Secretary-General of the UN. I suspect his prospects are better than Albo’s
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