It seems personal freedom is not on the top of the agenda of the new Australian government. Telecommunications Minister Stephen Conroy has made public plans to block pornography on the internet. Internet service providers (ISPs) will have to set up filters for listed web sites, and internet users have to "opt in" if they want access to these sites.

The address list of these "opt in" customers will have more value than the infamous Liechtenstein Bank DVD containing data of German tax refugees which was sold at more than US$ 6M to the German authorities. Think of the marketing potential.... especially for mail marketing, more exactly blackmail marketing.

To top this, Conroy, as quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald, thinks about forcing the ISPs to track illegal music and movie downloads using peer to peer technology. Any users will be warned first, then their internet access temporarily suspended and finally completely removed. As peer to peer data exchange is usually encrypted, in consequence this means all encrypted p2p traffic will have to be forbidden.

The apparatus and tools to enforce this might well be bought in China - the communist dictatorship has much experience in that field. Personally, I am very disappointed about Labour's policy in that area!

For your freedom and ours! (T. Kosciuszko) (Australia's highest mountain is named after the famous Polish freedom fighter!)

After leading continuously in polls, Labour with Kevin Rudd wins in a landslide! Check out the official results here. Of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives, 83 go to Labour (9 still undecided at the moment). John Howards coalition of Lib / Nat receives only 56 seats. That means "Good Bye Johnny" for sure - also for him personally, losing his seat of Bennelong.

In voter percentage, the count is 53,5% for Labour vs 46.5% for Liberals/Nationals (for two-party preferred votes, ie after counting out the smaller parties) - due to the majority voting system, this translates in the large swing in seats above. Without the majority voting system, Labour would be at 44% and the Greens at 7.6%.

Another mini-landslide at the Senate - Nick Xenophon wins one or maybe two seats in South Australia. Bad news for casinos and RSL clubs (Xenophon is fighting against gaming!). The Greens now have 5 seats! According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Labour will have 32 and Liberal/National 37, which means that the Greens now have the balance of power in the Senate. But until July 2008, the old Senate will remain in place, with its Lib/Nat majority, and probably block the new Labour government.

Congratulations to the winners - and to the Australian Electoral Commission which has an excellent website with accurate and speedy details - very impressive, compared with most other countries!

Labour leader Kevin Rudd is proposing a new plan to save the Great Barrier Reef which will cost AUS$ 200m. The money may be well spent - the Reef is one of the major attractions of Australia (see Queensland section), especially for Scuba divers. He announced the plan on a Glass Bottom Boat tour in the Reef.

One factor threatening the Reef is climate change, but the plan cannot cover that, of course - it aims to reduce water pollution, mainly caused by farms, by trying to change the agricultural methods used.

Strangely, the new plan seems to be ignored by major Australian newspapers like the Sydney Morning Herald.

On the APEC leaders meeting, Prime Minister John Howard again confirmed his support for George W. Bush's climate politics of doing more or less nothing.

The nationally televised debate between John Howard (Liberal) and Kevin Rudd (Labour), according to the votes of Channel Nine viewers, was won by Rudd.

Howard claimed to support the fight against Global Warming, planning to influence George W. Bush to change the U.S. policy - a not really credible position. Rudd attacked him sucessfully on his Iraq policy, pointing to his doubling of Australian forces in Iraq right after the last election.