Mark Newton tells it like it is on Conroy's mad national censorship plan

It is no secret now that Senator Stephen Conroy has decided that he will go forward with a plan to impose national ISP-level mandatory censorship on Australia's access to the Internet, despite the many problems which have been highlighted concerning this repressive course of action.

Nor is it a secret that one of Conroy's advisers, Ms. Belinda Dennett (belinda.dennett@aph.gov.au or ph: 0417 011 991) attempted to silence informed dissent by Mark Newton commenting in a private capacity on the Minister's grand plan for a Great Wall of Australia .

The Age on 24 October 2008 reported:

On Tuesday, a policy advisor for Senator Conroy, Belinda Dennett, wrote an email to Internet Industry Association (IIA) board member Carolyn Dalton in an attempt to pressure Newton into reining in his dissent.
"In your capacity as a board member of the IIA I would like to express my serious concern that a IIA member would be sending out this sort of message. I have also advised [IIA chief executive] Peter Coroneos of my disappointment in this sort of irresponsible behaviour ," the email, read.
It is understood the email was accompanied by a phone call demanding that the message be passed on to senior Internode management.

Mark wrote a letter to the Minister for Youth and Sport, Kate Ellis, on 20 October 2008 comprehensively outlining problems with a mandatory filtering scheme and included the following on Senator Conroy:

While I approve of the general thrust of the Cyber Safety proposal, I have serious objections to the "clean feed" section, which will erect an online Government censorship regime in Australia for the first time.
I also have significant objections about the professional conduct of Senator Conroy as he has pursued this issue.

The Senator has attacked critics by comparing them to child abusers

2;
refused to provide details of his policy then maligned opponents for their "speculative" remarks 3;
lied to the Australian voting public about the availability of an "opt-out" in December 2007 4;
and failed to consult with the 21 million Australian stakeholders who will be most affected by this plan, in contravention of the Prime Minster's oft-repeated aim to implement a "Government for all Australians" 5.

Rather than addressing the serious policy objections which I outline below, Senator Conroy has preferred to respond with aggressive, offensive, extremist bluster.

Bravo, Mark!