Censorship of the internet is a pretty contentious issue. I personally believe that the internet should not be censored. I know that there is some bad stuff out there, but those sites will exist whether Australia implements the filter or not, and there will always be people who will find a way around the filter. There needs to be better cooperation between governments to target the makers of those sites directly. I know this is easier said than done. But the freedom and access to information that the internet provides is too great to be filtered. Controlling access to this resource based on an undisclosed list of banned sites will give the government too much control over our right to knowledge. Implementing this system now may seem harmless, but the possible exploitation of it by future governments is a real and scary possibility. I personally believe that the majority of people are morally self-governing enough to limit their internet use to legal activities, and would be even more so if they were educated from an early age that everything they do on the internet is recorded and stored. The internet provides us with a wealth of knowledge that would have once seemed impossible, and has amazing potential to reveal important information about our governments and politicians (e.g. through sites likes Wikileaks). It also gives transparency to the reportings of the mass media through citizen journalists and blogs. I think that this access to real, uncensored information could drive us closer to the global awareness needed to achieve real and meaningful change.
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