Australia needs shift in internet policy

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    Date: 
    13 September 2010

    Judging by the response of some governments, their biggest fear about the internet is its ability to bring about their downfall. Pick your poison. Over the past couple years, we've seen Tweeting revolutionaries, anti-war wikileaks and, of course, good old cyber warfare, usually in the form of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks from one country against another.

    Last week Australia saw a reversal of that. Thanks to a proposal by the new Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, that promised to bring high-speed internet access to more areas of the country, the Labour party was able to grab the allegiance (at least temporarily) of the two additional MPs it needed to have a majority in parliament.

    In Australia, the lack of internet access is seen as a problem that is hindering economic growth.