Returning officer admits his bluff failed ...
... Council had NO power to shut down the blogs.
Comments in the latest Toowoomba City Council Committee meeting agenda (5 and 6 September 2006) vindicate the stance taken by 4350water blog.
As you may recall (See - Local Government Minister tries to shut down blogs), the Department of Local Government made comments in April 2006 that blogs would not be permitted to remain online during the referendum period without complying with the authorisation requirements.
4350water blog made some comments on this - see - The end of the blogs - the short answer and The end of the blogs - the long answer.
The Returning Officer then made similar comments to the Local Government Minister's representative in relation to the blogs. In his view, the law was being breached if these blogs remained online during the referendum period.
He now admits he may not have been correct - raising in his Report on the Water Futures Poll the prospect that the State government should be asked to amend the law to ensure that blogs can be shutdown (See - Agenda Item No 37).
His comments during the referendum and the comments of the Local Government Minister's representative were in fact a bluff - trying to scare the blogs into closing down - with no legal basis whatsoever for their comments.
It was an extraordinary attempt to shutdown free political expression.
Had the majority of blogs been in favour of Mayor Thorley's failed sewage recycling scheme, it seems unlikely that there would have been any attempt to shut them down.
During the current State election, has any party made any comments regarding the need to shutdown blogs which contain political commentary?
No.
It was a biased attempt to stifle debate on the issue of recycled sewage and all those involved should be ashamed of resorting to such tactics ...
posted by Concerned Ratepayer at 8:11 AM
3 Comments:
Thank-you and water futures blog as it always kept us up to date on the truth and that's what won the day!!
7:31 AM, September 08, 2006
It was outrageous behaviour to try to shutdown blogs which sought to give an opposing view to Mayor Thorley's proposal.
The only way the Council's misinformation campaign (we will run out of water, there are no other options) would work was if they controlled the information flow.
The blogs frustrated them because it allowed people to read another perspective.
That is not to say that some of the blogs didn't carry extreme views on recycled sewage. Some did.
However, the fact remains that Council tried to shutdown the blogs because they presented a contrary view. Had the blogs been in favour of the Water Futures project, they would have left them alone.
Such a biased attempt to interfere with free political communication should never have occurred.
It was another example of Toowoomba City Council not thinking through the ramifications of what they were proposing to do. But there were many examples of this!
11:36 AM, September 08, 2006
Good luck TCC trying to get the State government to change the law so that internet commentary on blogs is outlawed. It is the exact opposite to the way things are going federally.
11:19 PM, September 14, 2006
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