Online advocacy group Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) says the Government's decision to fund its mandatory "clean feed" internet in the 2008-09 Federal Budget is a waste of taxpayers money.
"At a time when the Government is cutting services to fight inflation, it's bewildering that they would decide to spend tens of millions of taxpayer dollars on a filter before feasibility trials are even complete," EFA spokesman Colin Jacobs said.
"Given the manifest impracticality of the clean feed scheme, I'm sure this money could have been put to much better use."
The Budget allocates $24.3 million to the Government's "cyber-safety" initiative, rising to $51.4 million in the 2009-10 financial year.
Some of the funding will come from the now-defunct NetAlert filter scheme, which provided free internet filters to all Australian homes.
"Funding will be redirected to support internet service providers (ISP) making available a filtered internet service, or clean feed, to all homes, schools and public internet points accessible to children," Federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said.
The EFA said most Australians were unhappy with the Government's decision to filter internet content at the ISP level.
"Australians are very uncomfortable with the idea of having the Government decide what's appropriate for them and their families," Mr Jacobs said.
"In fact, in a survey of 18,000 internet users, only 13 per cent agreed with the policy.
"That's why we feel it is a shame, when the Government has identified real needs for better education and policing, that their approach to internet policy is so skewed towards the filter initiative."
EFA has launched a website to highlight its concerns at http://nocleanfeed.com
