Democrats lash-out over right wing 'spam-scam' - News - Communications

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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Democrats lash-out over right wing 'spam-scam'

By Andrew Colley, 0
November 25, 2003
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Democrats-lash-out-over-right-wing-spam-scam-/0,130061791,120281122,00.htm

Federal Democrat spokesperson for information technology, Senator Brian Greig, today accused the federal government of using its proposed anti-spam legislation to favour groups with conservative agendas.

Greig claims that the proposed laws would allow the religious-right to use e-mail to promote its views while blocking out alternatives offered by gay and lesbian, and family planning organisations.

The proposed anti-spamming laws, which attempt to curb the avalanche of unsolicited e-mail clogging Australian inboxes, exempt religious organisations, registered political parties and charities as long as their messages contain "factual information".

Greig decried the proviso as "farcical" and said it was "outrageous" that fundamentalist churches were allowed to send spam containing "campaign messages" opposing abortion, contraception or homosexual law reform while groups with alternative view points were left without an avenue of reply.

However, according to the federal government's logic, the legislation isn't discriminatory.

"The exemptions are there to favour groups that fall within the political, religious or charitable sector and they apply across the board and are not designed to discriminate against groups of any particular persuasion," said a spokesperson for Communications and Information Technology Minister, Daryl Williams.

The Australian Labor Party wants the government to extend the list of exemptions to trade unions and community groups.

However, Daryl Williams' office today argued that while the exemptions were necessary to protect some forms of communication, not everyone could come to the party.

"There would obviously be a number of groups that would wish to be exempted. In the end you can't exempt everyone for the effectiveness of the legislation," said the spokesperson.

Greig has called on both sides of the House to abandon debate over who should be excluded from the anti-spamming laws and remove all exemptions from the legislation.

He argues that while Labor's proposal could address imbalances in the current legislation, it risked destroying the purpose of the legislation, giving spamming rights to everyone other than the business sector.