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Written by fiona patten
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Monday, 26 October 2009 09:54 |
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Clive Hamilton’s decision to run for the Greens in Higgins makes a lot of sense for the former director of the Australia Institute but not much for the Greens. Hamilton’s personal support for internet filtering puts him to the right of the Liberals on this issue and at odds with his new party’s policy. Will he now do a Peter Garrett and say his personal views on censorship don’t count and it’s the party line that he will uphold? Or will the Greens allow him to carry his personal thoughts on an internet filter alongside the party’s policy?
Hamilton’s nannying attitudes are contained in his 2003 Australia Institute report called Regulating Youth Access to Pornography. Notwithstanding the problems of young boys wanting to seek out sexually explicit images on line, Hamilton reaches straight for the banning button as a way to solve the problem. Not only that, he went as close as you can get to calling for an all out ban on X rated films. He even went so far as to support the philosophies of fundamentalist feminists Dworkin and McKinnon that, ‘pornography is the theory, rape is the practice’.
The Greens have been looking at ways to make themselves more mainstream for quite a while now and the idea of co opting someone with Hamilton’s profile makes some sense. But Hamilton is so far left that he almost comes full circle and to the right of the right.
He has called for mandatory internet filters, new laws governing department store catalogues and he even weighed into the Bill Henson debate calling on greater control of the arts
He might have some great economic ideas but it is frightening that the Greens will endorse a candidate with such Nanny philosophies. When you consider that he joins another anti-sex campaigner endorsed by the Greens, Kathleen Maltzahn, we could be starting to see the rise of a morally conservative streak in the Greens as they increase their vote.
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