Joe Hockey in Cairns

After a huge breakfast and a nap I thought a stroll along the Cairns boardwalk would be nice. An interesting stream full of crabs and mud skippers caught my eye. Generally, no one is much interested in mud skippers but for some reason a mess of activity broke out behind me. I thought to myself: 'Finally, the importance of the mud skipper is coming to light.' Then I heard from behind: 'I'm Joe Hockey.'

Swoosh! I'm on my feet. Heart in my throat. I wait for him to finish with his small talk with a tourist couple from UK. I think he knows I have a question.

Hand thrust forward to meet mine he introduces himself. No niceties from me. I only want to know one thing, so I ask: 'What is the Liberal Party's policy on net filtering?'

I know that Mr Hockey is personally against it but I want to know how the party will force him to vote, not his personal opinion. He says he's always been against it. Heart still pounding I cut him off and insist that he tell me what the Liberal Party's policy on is on net filtering.

Mr Hockey stated:
. The Liberal Party is against Labor's net filtering plan
. that PC based filtering software is the effective means of keeping kids away from adult material
. that Labor's net filter wont stop the spread of child abuse material.

This is not Mr Hockey's private musings, this is Liberal policy. How they have managed to reign in Mr Abbott's overt Christianity and cosiness with the ACL? I don't know. But, there it is. Hopefully they will campaign on it to give the anti-filter lobby some credibility.

Anyway. The camera crews seemed very interested in this discussion. I am hoping that it might make the news. There were channel 7 crews there along with some other camera crews.