Coalition: Establishing consumer confidence in the online environment is a critical element in Australia's transformation to an information economy. While recognising that there are some inherent technical and jurisdictional difficulties in regulating conduct and content on the Internet, particularly offshore, the Coalition believes that there is strong community support for taking appropriate action against the propagation of material that may constitute a criminal offence or is highly offensive by community standards.
Around 75 percent of the illegal and highly offensive material removed under the online content regime has involved the depiction of a child or minor in an offensive way, including paedophile activity. Given the serious nature of these complaints it seems incredible to suggest that the government should not take all reasonable steps to restrict access to this material within the bounds of jurisdictional and technical limitations.
Democrats: The Internet is an indiscriminate medium--that is, one of its intrinsically democratic characteristics. It is also one of the reasons why this Government's knee-jerk attempts to control or ban access are so misguided. The Democrats believe the emphasis must be on education to promote responsible Internet use; we remain opposed to applying constraints on the free flow of information and ideas.
Greens: The current content regulation regime needs review. The legislation was hastily enacted as part of a political deal. The Greens recognise the futility of unilateral content legislation, but respect the needs of parents and others to monitor and control content access.
The cost of this current form of regulation is not justified. As a political stopgap, the legislation could not ever be effective.
Labor: There is a place for the sensible regulation of Internet content, but this is a different proposition from attempting to restrict access to specified types of Internet content. The Online Services Act and the Interactive Gambling Act use different legal mechanisms to achieve a common outcome: to make con tent that was legal offline, illegal online. Both of these pieces of legislation demonstrate that the operational reality of the Internet is not understood, or has been deliberately ignored by the Coalition. In this context, Labor does not support the Coalition approach to the regulation of the Internet and the costs of implementing a law that is ineffective is obviously a waste. Labor's view is that there is a place for sensible regulation of Internet content. For example, providers of online trading or gambling services.
One Nation: One Nation believes the regulation of Internet content should be reviewed in consultation with industry and government regulators to ensure the most appropriate strategies are adopted. We believe it is extremely difficult to regulate Internet content and that any regulation proposals must have the full support of the industry and take into account concerns regarding civil liberties and freedom of speech.
It's disappointing that the only party the failed to address the current problems is the incumbent Liberal Party. It's equally disappointing that the Liberals were reelected.