The political battle of censorship in Australia has been relatively futile so far for those of us against it. By its proponents, issues have been muddled together, sensationalist terms like "child porn" have been bandied about and claims have been made that it's safer for Australian children using the Internet. That last part is supposed to be the official reason for the policy -- or is the one written down, at least. Senator Conroy redefines the purpose of the filter every time he opens his mouth.
Those of us against it are trying to cut through this nonsense and point to the bigger issues. Suppose that they were only out to block child pornography websites. The material is obviously bad. The material is obviously illegal. But it still does not make the filter the right policy because of the level of the trust we put in the Government not to abuse their power now and in the future. (And in reality they want to block "refused classification" material, which is a very fuzzy definition which definitely includes material which is legal to own.)
So can we trust the Government? My instinct says no. However there's nothing like the benefit of hindsight. Gizmodo has recently posted a short article about what's happened in Turkey since the introduction of their filter, including a 3-minute video report [youtube] from Al Jazeera about how badly the situation has devolved. Not only are all kinds of websites being blocked for political or religious reasons, but no progress is being made in the attempt to have the laws appealed.
Could it happen in Australia? You bet. You bet our civil rights on it.
EDIT: Another highly recommended article about the flaws of censorship in general: The State of trust: it's a one way street