Private Internet Filtering
The federal governments move toward a national compulsory internet filter is misguided. However I suspect that it does tap into a genuine concern held in certain quarters of the Australian community. The solution is not a single, mandatory, government run filter, but a system of privately operated filters that cater to specific situations. In my house we filter internet content and protect the kiddies using a free service provided by OpenDNS.com. The criteria used by OpenDNS for what should be blocked and what should not be blocked is based on a number of classifications (eg Adult Sex, Videos, Games) which you can choose to block or allow. The community of OpenDNS users provides continuous feedback on how sites should or shouldn’t be classified.
McDonalds have also helped to pave the way forward in announcing that their free wireless Internet service will hence forth be filtered.
McDonalds will be deploying earthwave’s Clean Pipes service to make the internet “Family Friendly” for its 1.45 million customers per day who use the Telstra Next-IP Wi-Fi hotspots in its 720 stores, the company said in a statement today.
The system uses firewalls, network intrusion prevention systems, distributed denial of service protection and other web protection mechanisms.
It will block sites which contain content considered not family friendly such as pornography or bomb-making information. It will use a URL listing service to do that, but McDonald’s also has the ability to place sites it believes to be inappropriate on its black list.
Whilst ISPs rightly lament the governments initative in this area they could move quicker to provide workable solutions of their own. If the government is in a hurry to get results it would be better off providing incentives to the private sector rather than seeking to lock us all in to one single ubiquitous centralised compulstory solution.
Feel free to tell us about your favourite filtering solution in the comments.
Bargain hunters seeking better government
An international survey by KPMG suggests that a more mobile global workforce is bargain hunting for a better deal from governments.
“Top rate personal income tax rates around the world have fallen by an average of 2.5 percent in the past six years, as governments strive to balance their need for revenue with the impact of increasing global labor mobility, a new study from KPMG International has found.”
And the effect on income tax appears to be encouraging even if modest.
Of the 87 countries surveyed, 33 have cut their rates in the past six years and only seven have a higher top rate in 2008 than they did in 2003.
However Australia might still need to lift it’s game.
“Australia also cut its personal tax rate by two points to 45 percent last year,” said Rosheen Garnon, head of KPMG’s International Executive Services practice and a partner in the Australian firm, “but if the intention was to attract back high value Australian workers who have temporarily moved to Hong Kong or Singapore, it may not be enough. It is common to hear from foreign workers that once families have become accustomed to the huge increase in spending and saving power that low tax rates provide, it can be very difficult to justify going home.”
New US Bill of Rights
Hat tip to NRO’s “The Corner” blog for this election coverage:
U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D. Toledo) whipped the crowd up before Mr. Obama took the stage yesterday telling them that America needed a Second Bill of Rights guaranteeing all Americans a job, health care, homes, an education, and a fair playing field for business and farmers.
In short, the right to coercion of other people and to redistributed wealth. Sadly, it’s this sort of thinking that makes me wary of any movement on a bill of rights in Australia – even though I believe we could certainly benefit from some constitutionally guaranteed freedoms. By “fair playing field for business and farmers,” he no doubt means government assistance and protection from the “evils” of free market competition.
As a reader from The Corner points out, these rights were guaranteed in another country’s constitution:
Article 40. Citizens of the USSR have the right to work…
Article 41. Citizens of the USSR have the right to rest and leisure…
Article 42. Citizens of the USSR have the right to health protection…
Article 44. Citizens of the USSR have the rights to housing…
Article 45. Citizens of the USSR have the right to education…
-
Recent Comments
Dom Vasta on Libertarians and elections (an… 
Shem Bennett on Libertarians and elections (an… 
'Nuke' Gray on Libertarians and elections (an… Dom Vasta on Libertarians and elections (an… 
TerjeP (say tay-a) on Libertarians and elections (an… TerjeP (say tay-a) on Libertarians and elections (an… 'Nuke' Gray on Libertarians and elections (an… Shem Bennett on Libertarians and elections (an… 
Brendan Halfweeg on The Santa Claus Governmen… 'Nuke' Gray on The unforgivable stupidity of …
Catallaxy Files- Not all recessions are caused by the Fed February 10, 2012More middle of the night blogging. My economics is classical. The almost perfect overlay of my own book can be found in a series of notes taken by Nicholas Kaldor at the LSE in 1927-29 from lectures delivered by the great American economist, Allyn Young. These notes were only published around a decade ago but [...]Steve Kates
- Where’s Romney? February 10, 2012It is quite extraordinary to watch the American political process up close. Now, I admit I have been busy and I don’t watch much of the television and do not read a lot of the press. But before I arrived the thing I did want to do was see more of Mitt Romney since from [...]Steve Kates
- Keeping tabs on the Climate Commission February 10, 2012Gosh, they’ve been flat out over at the Climate Commission. The last event was 9 November last year – in Alice Springs. We really are getting value for money from all those Climate Commissioners. Really educating the public on the intracies of climate change and computer modelling. But fear not, there are two upcoming events [...]Judith Sloan
- Not all recessions are caused by the Fed February 10, 2012
- inCISe
- More on PHI rebate means test February 10, 2012When I wrote in Incise yesterday, ‘Rebate should not be means tested,’ I did not expect events to move quite as quickly as they have. The government seems confident it has the numbers to get the means test through. I wouldn’t be surprised if Rob Oakshott and Andrew Wilkie have indeed swallowed the government’s nonsensical arguments, but it will be interestin […]Robert Carling
- Quiggin versus Carling and Kirchner February 9, 2012John Quiggin accuses Robert Carling and I of ‘an appalling breach of elementary standards of research’ for not acknowledging that Alberto Alesina’s work on the effectiveness of fiscal stimulus and consolidations is ‘highly controversial.’ In fact, we referenced Alesina’s work precisely because it has featured so prominently in public debate, including in the […]Stephen Kirchner
- Police going too far February 9, 2012According to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, police are lecturing parents for letting their children walk to the shops or catch a bus on their own, with senior police saying such incidents will be reported to the Department of Community Services (DOCs) if a child is considered at risk. But when is a child ‘at risk’? One mother was told it was inappr […]Sara Hudson
- More on PHI rebate means test February 10, 2012
- IPA news
- Let European dogs lie February 9, 2012Australians will be surprised to learn that, apparently, the federal government now has responsibility to help the city of...
- It's time to bring back the thrift February 9, 2012Ted Baillieu plans to shave 3600 jobs from Victoria's bloated public service. The state of Wisconsin in the US, with a...
- We'll huff, we'll puff, we'll blow the budget into surplus February 8, 2012Bill Clinton famously said, "It's the economy, stupid". So it is. Unsuccessful politicians might be inclined to argue,...
- Let European dogs lie February 9, 2012
