Politicians and accusations

Unfortunately for Christian Porter my views on his statement today are tainted by the circumstances around Tony Abbott and the accusation that he threw a punch at Barabara Ramjan. Abbott's first comment was that it did not sound like him, but he followed it up with a categorical denial.

We know that Ramjan was successful in a defamation action against News Corp. An affidavit was provided by a third party witness to the event. That is, the event did happen and was witnessed.

Now it is highly unlikely that anyone witnessed the event in question in the Porter matter. We do have the statements of Jo Dyer on the ABC last night which are no more than heresay. But it does appear that there were near contemporaneous discussion of the alleged victim's claims. With her passing these are the closest that can be found to 'evidence.' We have another friend reporting a consistency in the telling of the events by the aleged victim. 

There have also been suggestions in the media of detailed diaries and other evidence kept by the alleged victime.  

Yet the NSW Police seem to have terminated their investigation simply on the basis that the passing of the complainant meant that there was no chance of a prosecution. Yet they don't seem to have even spoken to the alleged perpetrator. All those lovely episodes of crime dramas where skillful interogation is used to test a person's recollection are apparently not just fiction, they are fantasy.

The grilling by the media was not forensic, and I genuinely feel for the Minister who is clearly stressed by the events (though not dead like the alleged victim). There are all sorts of other explanations, including that the victim has recalled the wrong perpetrator. But it does beggar belief that when the Minister heard the whispers in November, and that those whispers seemed to have been pretty significant, he did nothing. I understand the alleged victim has already died in June, yet the Minister seems to have had no interest in sorting out the matter. He should have known that once the whispers started they would snowball.

The real villain though still seems to be the Prime Minister, whose stonewalling only made matters worse for the Minister. There never was a scenario where this allegation went away without the Minister having to speak...so the PM should have brought that about. The PM didn't even read the letters. When he sought the assurance of the Minister about the matter the Minister was provided with none of the details.

The Minister can't recollect when he and the alleged victim wewre together, what happened on the night of a dinner and dancing after which the incident was supposed to have occurred. He can recall, however, the matter of being taught how to iron a shirt. This suggests to me the presence of alcohol affecting recollections - and this could be the alleged victim's just as much as the Minister's.

There is no basis for Porter to be standing down as AG. There should not have been such a protracted period creating pressure on him. But unfortunately, the matter is probably not over. And the PM only has himself and his office to blame (and I suggest his mate whose bins he brings in occassionally). 

To be clear, I am making no accusation against Porter. I genuinely feel sorry for him. I am also making no accusation that the NSW Police investigation has been politically interfered with. I am just gob-smacked about how badly the PM and PMO have managed the matter (which includes the fact that while Porter showed great grace to reflect on the events relating to claims against Bill Shorten, others in the party seem to be trying to revive them as a counterfoil).

Finally, the one lesson we keep learning is that victims of sexual abuse need to be supported to report the crime immediately. 

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Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans JWL

Online Safety meets Classification

The Federal Government has introduced a new Online Safety Bill, that is evoking memories of Stpehen Conroy's ill-fated attempts at introducing a mandatory internet filter. While some might see the Bill as milder because it only introduces a take-down regime rather than a mandatory filter, that is false comfort because it extends far beyond the intent of Labor's scheme. 

First some history. As Minister Senator Conroy was only proposing an internet filter on content that could not be distributed in any other form in Australia. Material that is rated RC (Refused Classification) by the Classification Board is this material. Conroy did not intend that it extended to anything other than that. He was not attempting to impose a higher standard for online content than for other content.

However, the National Classification Code has a very clear gap between what they describe as RC and what they describe as X 18+. There was a particular deficiency in relation to computer games where the guidelines did not include an X 18+ category. The consequence was that an internet filter would capture a much greater range of content than the ALP policy proposed.

The ALP referred the matter to the Australian Law Reform Commission and the report was tabled in 2012. In a section of the report headed 'The need for fundamental reform' the ALRC observed:

2.69 The ALRC considers the major principles that have informed media classification in Australia—such as balancing the rights of adults to make informed media choices with the protection of children—to continue to be relevant. However, the framework that underpins these principles is in need of reform. 

2.70 In the context of media convergence, there is a need to develop a framework that focuses upon media content rather than delivery platforms, and which can be adaptive to innovations in media platforms, services and content. Failure to do so is likely to disadvantage Australian digital content industries in a highly competitive global media environment. 

2.71 The current classification framework is highly fragmented, with different guidelines and regulatory arrangements for different media platforms, and unclear lines of administrative responsibility. The relationship between the Commonwealth, states and territories in particular requires significant reorganisation, and there is a case for a new Act governing all media content classification, as well as revised regulatory arrangements. 

2.72 The costs and regulatory burden of the current classification framework align poorly to community standards and expectations. There is too much top-down regulation of some media content and platforms, while regulatory requirements are unclear in relation to other media. 

The ALRC identified the classification gap above, and recommended that the classification scheme have a clearly defined category of Prohibited Content. It also proposed a fundamental reform of classification procedures. 

Unfortunately, at that time the Classification Act was legislation administered by the Attorney-General. The AG's office in response to the ALRC report prepared a proposal for the States and Territories to adopt the title of Prohibited for RC without making any of the other changes. It took some work to explain the AGs that this was not the intent of the ALRC report.

However,  the Classification Act is now included in the administered legislation of the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications. That means the same Minister introducing the Online Safety Bill is the Minister who could and should be acting on the ALRC recommendations.

So that is the first issue with the Bill. The second, and just as troublesome, is that the Bill also proposes that all X18 + and R18 + material should be subject to take down notices unless they are subject to a restricted access system. Horrifyingly, restricted access systems are defined under s108 of the Bill, where we learn that the e-Safety Commissioner can 'declare that a specified access-control system is a restricted access system in relation to material for the purposes of this Act.' 

Similarly the Bill is extremely vague in terms of exactly what is or isn't covered because in relation to all kinds of content it adds that where the content has not been classified it is subject to restriction if it would 'be likely that the Classification Board' would give it the classification. Effectively this empowers the e-Safety Commissioner to become a secondary Classification Board.

The Government needs to rethink this legislation. This is more restrictive than anything the ALP contemplated and goes well beyond what ordinary citizens expect. 

The idea of have restricted access systems for content is also not objectionable, but it needs to be implemented in such a way that any user can access the content through their arrangements with their service provider. If I want to see an R 18+ film I just have to demonstrate to the theatre owner that I am over 18, I don't need to buy a ticket to the cinema and then separately demonstrate to the content maker that I am over 18.

Of course, ideally, global comms Ministers could have got together with the Internet Community and added a classification field to the DNS. That would have then logically created the ability for clear access controlo to websites based on the category of their content (and to be clear, even with user generated content on sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, ultimately the content on any domain is controlled by the owner of the domain). 

It is inexcusable that after nearly eight years in Government, the best that the LNP can come up with is an approach that ignores the recommendations of the ALRC and is potentially more restrictive than anything that Stephen Conrioy's giant internet filter was going to cover.

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Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans JWL