When suicide collides with politics

Parents should monitor children's web use: PM - smh.com.au

Australia's outgoing* Prime Minister, John Howard, says parents should monitor their kids' internet use. Ths is the only thing he has to say about the suicide of two teenage girls recently in Australia. Both had posted suicide notes on their MySpace pages.
Howard you are a total hypocrite.
Why?
In this case he says that the Government can't do anything because "you start running up against freedom of speech". But when it comes to censoring other forms of communication over the web, the Howard Government has been in the frontline of increasing censorship, monitoring and surveillance.
This is a more accurate statement of the Coalition's real sentiments:

Although he was always on the lookout for ways to tighten laws in the public interest, it was a difficult task because governments could not trample on people's freedom of expression.

That's right, the sedition laws, tightening adult content provisions for free-to-air broadcasters and on the internet and cracking down on Islamic preachers. Howard and his cronies have been vigilant in looking out for opportunities to tighten the laws in these areas. But is not, it seems, willing to do anything to prevent tragic suicides.

*There's an election later in 2007 and I'm hoping Howard will go