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I guess that's better than the IT Minister's previous claim that anti-spam legislation was just "too hard" to bother with (sigh!).

However, if we are to become just another state of Australia from a cyber-law perspective then make sure you read about the latest proposal to come from the other side of the ditch.

Yes, that's right -- if you're "offensive" (whatever that means) or engage in seditious activities, encourage violent protests, or just harass others using the Net then it's two years in the pokie for you.

The way I see it this law is good and bad.

On the one hand it could be alleged that repeat spammers such as the recently outed Christchurch bulk emailer might be locked up for harassing those who were on his mailing lists.

However, on the other hand you might also find yourself in jail if you used the Net to organise a peaceful protest (thus exercising your democratic rights) which unexpectedly turned into a violent conflict with police.

Now, given the fact that corruption within the ranks of Aussie's boys in blue is not unheard of, a law like this could make it pretty easy to victimise otherwise innocent protest organisers simply by forcing a bit of argy-bargy on them.

But what's worse is that if such a law were introduced here, YOU might find yourself in the clink simply for venting your frustration at a spammer by sending him a rude email.

Indeed, my own payback page could land me in very hot water.

My Cruise Missile website would also probably be seen as inciting violence and therefore against this law.

It strikes me that the way the proposed law is worded, Australia might be headed down the same slippery slope as the USA when it comes to eroding the individual's right to free speech.

While one can't fault the intention of such a law, I think that civil liberties groups in Australia (and here) ought to be keeping a very close eye on this. After all, it's not unknown for "last minute" changes to be tacked onto bills before they're passed and those changes, although small, can sometimes have a tremendous effect its scope.

I seem to recall a very wise man once telling me that government usually operates according to the mantra "if you can't tax it, ban it." Let's hope that's not going to apply to free speech on the Internet down-under.

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