The voluntary student unionism (VSU) legislation has passed the Senate. Loony fundie Family First Senator Steve Fielding voted in favour of the bill after doing a dodgy backroom deal with John Howard
Australian Senators wants Australians’ internet connections to be automatically filtered by ISPs. Anyone who wants to view pornography or other adult material
(details not specified) must apply to their ISP to be given access to it. Another step towards becoming a nanny state — via Slashdot
Gay couples are now allowed to legally marry, tying the knot with what is officially known as a civil partnership, and among the first to do so will be veteran rock star Elton John’s civil and long-time love David Furnish
South Africa’s highest court has ruled in favour of same-sex marriages. The Constitutional Court has struck down a law that bans gay unions and ordered Parliament to draft new legislation within a year. Justice Albie Sachs ruled that the common law definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman
is inconsistent with the Constitution because it does not permit same-sex couples to enjoy the same benefits as heterosexual couples
Delays in securing local council approvals have pushed back the planned launch of a trial of a new fibre to the home service in Tasmania by almost four months
The federal government wants to peer into your computer communications, forcing companies to design, or redesign, their networks to accommodate surveillance. The FCC gave broadband Internet service and voice-over-Internet Protocol services 18 months to ensure that their networks are wiretap-ready — via digg
The recording industry is trying to hijack the EU’s data retention directive, which is being brought in to fight terrorism, to try and get their copyright battles fought for them. The EU may be making copyright infringement a criminal offence, and the Creative Media Business Alliance is lobbying hard to stop the European laws on data retention being restricted to cover terrorism and organised crime. In essence, they want to be able to get police to search through newly extended records from ISPs to look for evidence of illegal filesharing. In the words of the executive director of the Open Rights Group, the music industry’s attempt to hijack this legislation is a travesty and a gross affront to civil liberties and human rights
The census will take its first step into cyberspace next year, in a move the Australian Bureau of Statistics says is the future of the national head count
The case for identity cards has been branded bogus
after an ex-MI5 chief said they might not help fight terror. Dame Stella Rimington has said most documents could be forged and this would render ID cards useless
. The Conservatives said her comments showed the cards could be counter-productive. The Lib Dems said plans should be abandoned — via Boing Boing
Greens Health spokesperson Senator Kerry Nettle said that Tony Abbott had failed as Health Minister by prioritising his own loony fundie views above his responsibility as Health Minster to ensure that all women in Australia have access to the full range of reproductive health services. Mr Abbott’s decision to deny Australian women access to RU486 is a dereliction of his duty especially to women in rural and regional Australia,
said Senator Nettle
Spanish police have traced up to 42 suspected CIA operatives believed to have taken part in secret flights carrying detained or kidnapped Islamist terror suspects to interrogation centres and jails in Afghanistan, Egypt and elsewhere
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has suffered his first parliamentary defeat during his eight years in power as MPs voted down a core aspect of his anti-terrorist legislation
Carnegie Mellon University is fighting back against a requirement that taps on campus internet access must be quickly obtainable. The technology that would allow the FBI to monitor internet access, after a court order, at the flip of a switch
would cost at least $450 per student
The Online Freedom of Speech Act was defeated in the House of Representatives yesterday. The Act would have immunised political bloggers from having to comply with hundreds of pages of FEC rules
ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope says a key national counter-terrorism body was not informed of the latest terrorism threat. Perhaps because the supposed threat is yet another fantasy from John Howard in his campaign to force his dodgy police state powers through the Senate with an unhealthy dose of fear attached. Mr Stanhope says the ACT was excluded from a telephone hook-up this week in which the matter was discussed by the Prime Minister and state premiers
Jon Stanhope, Chief Minister of the ACT, had his web site hijacked. Stanhope was the brave soul who recently posted the Government’s draft, but draconian, anti-terrorism legislation on his web site — via journoz
Britain’s Deputy PM has proposed a law that would allow local councils to move families into any building that had sat empty for a year or more, and to keep the buildings in use as council housing for seven years. Some depressed UK cities have tens of thousands of buildings sitting empty, used as shooting galleries or flophouses. The objective is to persuade owners in these circumstances to pass the responsibility for bringing the property back into housing use to the local authority. Of course, we want this to be with their consent, but where that consent is not forthcoming we do not apologise for granting local authorities powers to secure occupation without the need to obtain consent
— via Boing Boing
A Chicago Tribune obit for a veteran called Theodore Roosevelt Heller contains the best admonition to mourners I’ve ever seen: In lieu of flowers, please send acerbic letters to Republicans
— via Boingboing
The Bush administration pledged to veto legislation banning the torture of prisoners by US troops after an overwhelming and almost unprecedented revolt by loyalist congressmen. The mutiny was the latest setback for an administration facing an increasingly independent and bloody-minded legislature. But it also marked a key moment in Congress’s campaign to curtail the huge powers it has granted the White House since 2001 in its war against terrorism
The retarded monkey boy has claimed he was told by god to invade Iraq and attack Osama bin Laden’s stronghold of Afghanistan as part of a divine mission to bring peace to the Middle East, security for Israel, and a state for the Palestinians. The President made the assertion during his first meeting with Palestinian leaders in June 2003, according to a BBC series which will be broadcast this month
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