Wow - the NSW Liberal right really is split

NSW Liberal Alex Hawke has told ZDNet that he and other thirty something Liberals are opposed to Conroy's plans for webpage blocking.

He is quoted as saying "If the stated aim is to reduce the availability of child pornography, which is an objective everyone agrees with, the solution is to increase funding to target crime."

His (right) colleague Jamie Briggs is quoted as saying "I'm inherently against this concept, it's a very bad way to do governance. When you examine takeup rates of the voluntary filter the Howard Government put in place, you see that most people are perfectly capable of using the internet to their own satisfaction within the existing law and to supervise their children in the same way."

I guess they've both missed the fact the webpage blocking proposal applies to only Refused Classification material. Presumably Briggs and Hawke believe the same rules they've just espoused should apply to other media. We should let refused classification books and videos into the country and just prosecute people for anything criminal and trust that people are perfectly capable of using books, magazines and DVD players "to their own satisfaction within the existing law".

Actually they are just double standard hypocrites. Hawke goes on to say "I'm a Christian and I have spoken to the Christian lobby and told them that this policy will not be effective. It could even potentially lead to some of their views being added to a government filter. I don't think they're open to the danger of this policy mechanism. It will go beyond [child pornography] and that's where it could run into trouble. I'm going to be arguing strongly inside the liberal party that we should oppose this policy."

We await anxiously for Hawke to explain to us why he is going to seek the removal of the Refused Classification standard for books and DVDs because "they could lead to some of their views" being listed as refused clssification material.

Clearly one of those Liberals he will need to convince is former mentor David Clarke with whom he is reportedly at loggerheads. A long way since the days Clarke went in to defend Hawke over the Brogden demise.

Who'd have thunk that Alex Hawke would align himself with the Libertarians/