Kate,

My congratulations on creating a blog / podcast.

It's great to see politicians taking part in the Great Public Conversation as opposed to that behind closed doors.

You are, after all, an 'information worker' as defined by your esteemed former Party President, Barry Jones.

It's early days yet, but blogging will assist the conversation between electors and the elected.

The internet is such a vast beast that we tend to think of it in global terms.

My fearless forecast is that what you are doing will be of greatest benefit at a local level, that blogging is an ideal way of chatting with people in your electorate, the people of Canberra.

This, I'm sure you will agree, is a very good thing, providing instant feedback containing pertinent points for you to consider.

And 'Radio Kate' is an excellent metaphor, allowing for a radio programming approach to be taken to the development of content.

Your willingness to adopt new forms of communication provides a lead to your colleagues.

Let's see more politicians with the courage to enter into open discourse with the citizens!

Oriana Barry
Megalong Valley NSW

The Attorney-General has argued that the copyright amendment bill will enable to people to transfer their music onto iPods and other MP3 players.

However, Apple, the maker of iPods, put in a stinging submission, suggesting that many everday uses of MP3/MP4 players would still be illegal under the bill.

Furthermore, Apple observed that the provisions dealing with time-shifting television broadcasts did not extend to digital video recorders or video iPods.

None of the ALP senators asked Apple a question about its key submission in the Senate Hearing.

Why didn't you ask about Apple about its concerns about the new copyright amendment bill, when you had the chance?

Google put in a highly critical submission of the new copyright bill, complaining that the exceptions did not provide any protection for the activities of search engines like itself. Google suggested that there needed to be a broad defence of fair use, like in the United States.

The Senate Report - both the sections dealing with the government, the ALP, and the Democrats - ignore the submission entirely. Was this an oversight? Or does Parliament lost in a pre-google era?