Democrat Slams Howard's It Way
The Age
Tuesday October 30, 2001
BE CAREFUL who you next chat to online - it could be Democrats Senator Brian Greig pressuring his political opponents during a parliamentary debate.
The 34-year-old Western Australian gay-rights activist spent a dozen years working for the Australian Labor Party but swanned into Federal Parliament on his first attempt two years ago on a Democrats ticket. He was appointed to that party's IT portfolio last April after Natasha Stott Despoja's ascent to the party leadership.
Although new to the portfolio, Greig makes good use of the technologies under policy consideration.
``I'm very much an e-mail person," Greig says. ``I enjoy the immediacy of e-mail and it often happens in the parliament that bills come up quickly or amendments are thrown up quickly from out of left field.
``In the middle of debate I've asked a question (via e-mail), was given the answer and then stood up, poked the minister or provided the answer."
Greig says he was once participating in an online chatroom discussion while he was in the parliamentary chamber ``and the people I was talking to (online) refused to believe that it was me and that I was actually speaking to them from parliament, and why should they?"
He says Democrats senators used online resources such as Hansard, chat and e-mail to prod the main parties, such as during the Border Protection Bill debate.
Greig says he is still finding his way, and you won't find any press releases on the Democrats website from his IT portfolio. But his sexuality sensitises him to some of the most-attacked Howard Government policies.
He accuses the government of ``pandering" to the fears of an ignorant constituency and of being unwilling to address issues confronting the IT industry and citizens. He says he is particularly frustrated and exasperated ``with the Howard Government turning Australia into the global village idiot, to borrow a phrase. Just the extraordinary ignorance and it's not just confined to the Howard Government".
He accuses the Coalition of rusting tired approaches from the Menzies era on to the Internet.
``They think of (the Internet) in much the same way they think of publishing or TV broadcasting; they still think it is a medium that can be censored, as opposed to regulated, and of course it can't.
``The government panders because there's general ignorance in the community - particularly for those people who represent its constituency. The government panders to that with simplistic sloganeering and basic rhetoric.
``You know, `cracking down on gambling', `cracking down on pornography', protecting children from what I don't know. And a large section of the community buys that.
``When Howard says he is cracking down on gambling on the Internet, other people think that's a good thing. They don't scratch the surface of that policy and find it's just glossy rhetoric stuck as a Band-Aid over a system that can't be dealt with in that way."
Greig tells the story of a Perth university lecturer who was unable to access Federal Government sexual discrimination legislation from WA's Battye reference library because the word ``sex" tripped the government-endorsed censor software.
Another time, a youth worker employed by a regional Victorian city to counsel gay teens was unable to send an e-mail considered by the censorware as ``profane".
The offensive word was ``frigate", stopped due to its first few letters, Greig says. Other times software had stopped e-mails that contained words such as ``gay" and ``lesbian".
``All that does is reinforce the notion that homosexuality or a gay or lesbian identity is something that is wrong or bad or should be censored," says Greig. He also says he is impressed with the work of online rights group Electronics Frontiers Australia and its chairman, fellow Western Australian Kim Heitman.
In an election where the youth vote is tipped to be a deciding factor, Greig appeals to the young and technically literate.
Already, the Democrats boasted a ``disproportionate number" of IT workers among its members, he says. One of this year's Democrats Senate hopefuls is Damian Meyer, chief technology officer with Harvest Road, a WA content management software maker.
Greig, a graduate of Perth's Murdoch University with a degree in English, grew up in the beach-side fishing and tourism community of Lancelin, a few hours north of the capital. While at university in 1986 he became active in student politics, making his first trip to Canberra to establish the National Union of Students.
Six years ago, and while still involved in gay-rights campaigning, he was elected to the inner-suburban council of Vincent. But it was his disillusionment with Labor that tipped him into the Democrats camp and on the road again to Canberra.
He says neither major party fully understood the issues technology threw up. He related the story of the chair of a government IT committee who he says was unable to drive his own laptop and had to call a Parliament House IT support technician to attach a mouse and release the laptop from a docking cradle.
``Now, he's the very person who went on to produce a glowing government report in defence and advocacy of the Online Services Bill, suggesting, I think, that perhaps the people at the helm don't know what they are doing."
LINKS
www.democrats.org.au
© 2001 The Age