All quiet on political front

We might have had an interesting federal election just 17 days ago, but traces of wild debate on the World Wide Web are hard to find. Both major combatants, the Liberal and Labor parties, have left their election sites exactly as they were on polling day, October 3.

The Liberals' official party page -- as distinct from its election page -- has not changed a jot. It still operates as a place where Net users can find out about the party and join it if they wish. Labor's home is under construction for a relaunch, possibly incorporating the java and latest technology that made its election page the snazziest -- visually -- during the campaign. The National Party and the Democrats continue to use the Web as a supplementary information tool.

And Pauline Hanson's One Nation page has come to a virtual halt with the addition of only one press release since the party's figurehead was dumped by the people of Blair.

The Web does not appear to be a major political weapon in this country. It is doubtful we will ever see its use for the mass release of a damming political document like the Starr report on Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky in the US, for example. Nor are we likely to hear of high-profile hackings such as the one carried out on the Indian Army's Kashmir pages last week.

The Kashmir pages which log -- from an official Indian point of view -- actions against Pakistani insurgents in the region, were replaced by reports of the alleged torture of Kashmiris by the Indian security forces. The sabotage happened as India and Pakistan began talks in Islamabad to ease tensions.

We in Australia did see a political hacking during the election campaign. Two young ALP staff members lost their jobs for encouraging the hacking of the Liberal site. But the alterations were undergraduate in comparison to the Kashmir episode. The Liberals' pages were altered to link to pornography sites, or biographies were changed with the inclusion of misleading words. Hardly international incident stuff.

The "highlight" of the Web's contribution to political debate during the campaign was fairly undergraduate too.  Labor included two games -- one that could be played online and the other that could be downloaded -- as part of its interactive package. Both games are still available at the campaign site. The online one is called Creamfields. Users are invited to try to hit Prime Minister John Howard with as many cream pies as possible. The other is Howard's End in which users have to hit various targets -- one is a Telstra for sale sign -- that pop up around a cartoon figure of Mr Howard.

While this indicates a lack of high drama in the relationship between the Net and politics, it also points to a lack of intervention in the Net by politicians. But what might the future hold? It is all fairly quiet and undramatic now, but the Net will certainly become more a household necessity than a luxury in the next few years.

Net campaigners Electronic Frontiers Australia recently analysed the major parties' policies towards the medium. The Liberal-National coalition and One Nation fared worst in the EFA's estimation, scoring only half the ratings the free-speech advocates gave to Labor, the Democrats and the Greens.  EFA board member Danny Yee described coalition policy on offensive and pornographic material as "not only impractical, but also wildly overbroad and highly illiberal. John Stuart Mill will be turning in his grave."

Mr Yee also commented that none of the parties had taken a bold stance in support of online liberties. "EFA is convinced that this will be an increasingly important issue. Trampling on the freedoms of Australians in order to appear tough on porn or to curry favour with the United States defence establishment will not be a vote-winner," Mr Yee said.

Do we take note and go on alert, or sit back and watch Mark Taylor? For the time-being, a bit of both would not hurt.