Over 40,000 people have downloaded a browser ‘plugin’ that shields Internet users from photographs of Tony ‘Mad Monk’ Abbot, the Liberal Prime Minister of Australia. The nifty add-on, entitled Stop Tony Meow, replaces images of the esteemed Prime Minister with photographs of kittens. Incidently, the software is available here.
A simple, but quite funny, joke which proved very popular. Like the Nick Clegg Apology Song, it became a phenomenon that should have grown and then sunk into popular history. But not in this case. A Freedom of Information (FOI) request has established that Stop Tony Meow attracted extensive government attention. So much so that there are 137 pages of correspondence, files and memoranda related to it in the government’s response to the request- but they are charging Dan Nolan and Ben Taylor, who made the request, AUS$700 (£300/US$500), to see the file.
It’s a strange Freedom of Information system that sees such a large fee imposed for what is a relatively small document, given its cost. It is also alarming that the apparatus of government, not of the Liberal Party, was apparently so occupied with a joke made about the Prime Minister. There is little point speculating about what was said, but the Australian people have a right to know what their government was up to, particularly if freedom of speech could have been affected. Nolan and Taylor have said to the Sydney Morning Herald that they will probably be able to raise the fee from friends, but in this case the fee ought to be waived. It won’t be, of course.
