1. Sign an e-petition.
E-petition signed!
2. Respond to a professional blogger at a major news site. (Nine MSN).
Basically, this blog was about Russel Brand and how he claims to have fallen in love with Katy Perry. Although this blog is fairly pointless and irrelevant to anything important in life whatsoever...it's still a popular article. However, seeing as it wasn't exactly a serious article, I felt it was necessary to post a funny comment (through the words of Kayne West).3. What is Barak Obama doing today.
He hosted doctors from all 50 states at the White House, coming together in a powerful testimonial to what reform is all about.
Reference: http://www.barackobama.com/
4. Find out who your local, state and federal representatives.
The local representative is Councillor Dawn Crichlow.
The state representative is Peter Lawlor.
The federal representative is Steven Ciobo.
Reference: http://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/t_standard.aspx?PID=5783
5. Look up the Queensland or Australian Hansard to find the last time your local member spoke in parliament.
On September the 22nd:
Hon. PJ LAWLOR (Southport—ALP) (Minister for Tourism and Fair Trading) (10.03 am):
'Queensland’s tourism industry is feeling the impact of the current economic climate, and the latest
domestic tourism visitation numbers to our state reflect this. For the year ending 30 June 2009
Queensland received 16 million overnight domestic visitors, down six per cent on the previous year. On
a more positive note, Queensland maintained its second largest market share of domestic visitors,
receiving 24 per cent compared to 34 per cent for New South Wales.
During these tough economic times, this government understands that we must do everything
possible to ensure we support Queensland’s multibillion dollar tourism industry and continue to attract
visitor expenditure in Queensland of almost $19 billion each year. Tourism directly employs 119,000
Queenslanders and a further 97,000 indirectly.'
(I agree...keep it up!)Reference: http://www.peterlawlor.com.au/southport/pages/posts/personal-property-securities-commonwealth-powers-bill4927.php
7. Read the lectures and readings, pursue a couple of the topics that you find most interesting and then post your blog with your well-considered thoughts about the theory and practice of politics.
One of the most prominent issues debated at the moment and has been for a while now is the censorship that the government is attempting to employ onto the internet. Obviously censorship should be used for specific age, for example, young children who shouldn't be exposed to explicit material on the internet. An example of this is songs on iTunes. Some songs have explicit lyrics on it and the language is bleeped which many people disagree with. Personally I think it tarnsishes the song and also it shouldn't be altered purely for a small age demographic. However, I believe that parents should enforce the boundaries of censorship expose them to explicit material when they feel it is ready.
It should also be taken into consideration the fact that people don't consider it democratic to censor the internet. The internet is one of the last mediums which is uncesored and the last place in which people from across the world can express themselves completely without having to worry about their language. Therefore it's safe to say that I disagree with the clean-feed idea, although to be fair, the government does have a valid excuse to impose censorship. Kids of society today are much more exposed to illicit materials, such as pirated songs and movies and also explicit material such as Youtube through quick access of the internet. As a result the youth of society have become more desensitised and setting the benchmark of a more vulgar generation.
Regardless of this, I still feel that the internet should not be sensored. The majority of people will not be impresisonable by the material that is leeked and posted onto the internet. But once again it's the minority which needs to be taken into consideration. In the end however, the government will make it's decision...with of course the influence of democracy. =]
8. What do you think of the government's plans to censor internet?
Personally I disagree with it. Understandably movies and other forms of media should be censored for young kids, but there comes a time when I think it's becoming to domineering. The internet is a great place to find anything that you desire, and if the internet were to be censored, then it would not be as entertaining, nor popular. For a person my age, I'm interested in video's that have explicit language and would be annoyed at the idea of censorship. In the end, I think it should be up to the parents to enforce whether their kids can watch certain sites and whether they can watch video's with explicit or vulgar content.
9. What place does censorship have in a democracy?
Democracy represents freedom of speech. Democracy is in the hands of the people. Censorship is something that I think tarnishes the rights that democracy promotes. I don't believe censorship should be in place in regards to the internet. In perspective to films, I agree with ratings and censorships, but as explained above it's up to the parents to enforce viewer discresion.
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