Right… That’s it…

I’m leaving the ALP…

I’ll probably wait until after I’ve renewed my membership – pay up in time for my membership continuity to be unbroken since… well ages. Then resign as soon as I have confirmation – processing will take time, so feel free to add suggestions for my letter of resignation in the comments.

I’ve never been uncritical of the ALP, don’t get me wrong. I’ve never worn the mantle of a “true believer” – I don’t swear fealty to ideas. I’m not incorrigible, I’m not credulous and I’m not gullible.

I’ve seen the shortcomings of the ALP as a (barely) tolerable evil, as all parties have them. I’ve supported the party, in sentiment – more so where certain objectives are concerned. I don’t need the party.

In the late 1990s, I can remember when the Howard Government wanted to filter the Internet, under Alston, along with his sillier plans to ban things like the forwarding of emails later in his career. Opposition to this kind of moral posturing irrespective of technical feasibility, economic impact and civil consequence was one of my reasons for joining the ALP (with eyes wide open) in the first place.

Stephen Conroy. He should just resign. Crean was right in 2006. He detracted from the parliament then, and even more so now. Too much faction nonsense, too little public debate or policy nuance.

IT stupidity has now been taken further than Alston ever managed. Seriously, why Rudd appointed Conroy over someone with a clue, someone with understanding, like say, Kate Lundy… Well… “Why?” is not a mystery actually. MPs get appointed to cabinets they are ill-equipped for all the time, but it’s not like this bad egg of an idea is all his, is it?

Where’s the investigation into Public Key Infrastructure as a means of facilitating cyber safety, rather than nominating the state as an unreliable babysitter and false hope to busy parents? What? Fielding wasn’t interested? Not controlling enough? Too sensible? Puts power in the the people’s hands, not Conroy’s? Not Family First’s?

It’s not like Conroy’s policy would stop the alleged harmful material (both actually harmful and hysterically harmful) from traversing P2P networks (where most of it comes from) anyway!

If someone was suggesting a policy that could have prevented me from accidentally viewing the Bud Dwyer suicide via P2P (media far more potentially harmful to kids than what’s got Fielding’s knickers in a knot – why aren’t we talking about these kinds of nasties, rather than this obsession with teh-evil-sex?), I’d at least start taking them seriously. Moreso if they gave proper consideration to civil liberties, and actually empowering parents to make their children’s Internet usage safer.

This issue was always at risk of being the straw that broke the camel’s back as far as my membership is concerned, and truth be told I was holding out for Conroy to be shut up and quietly taken off of the agenda on this one (i.e. made a low-profile whipping boy for the dunces who actually thought this policy up.) If that didn’t come to pass (not that it’s too late for the policy to be torpedoed), I would have left the party.

But now Conroy has overstepped the line. The totalitarian tendencies behind this government net-nannying have extended to trying to have people fired, or at least leaned upon by their employer, for mere public disagreement.

I’ve (with qualifications) waved my little, metaphorical ALP flag in public before. I’ve waved it in discussion with people from the South Australian open source/Linux community – including Mark Newton.

Aside from the obviously sinister way that Conroy’s office tried to silence Mark, this is somewhat of an embarrassment to me. And it’s offensive.

I haven’t had too much to do with the open source community locally in the last couple of years, but I do seek to return to it at some point. I’ve got my computer science studies behind me which in a way, makes Mark a colleague of sorts.

I haven’t looked into the specifics of what he said, but I’ve seen his views as reasonable in the past and I, apparently unlike the party, respect his right to venture an opinion on public policy without being leaned upon.

As an Internode client, I’m happy for my ISP to employ someone of Mark’s character. I don’t think I’m exaggerating in saying that most of the Internode users, if not all that I know (and there are more than a couple of hand-fulls) support Mark’s right to venture his opinion, if not his opinion itself.

Rudd needs to sack Conroy.

Now I’m off to send some words of support, where they are deserved.

~ Bruce