I recently received a letter from my local Federal MP, Labor's Tony Zappia, informing me that he would be holding a series of "street corner meetings" in my district on the afternoon of Saturday 23 April, and inviting me to come along and raise any issues that were important to me.

That day I got home a bit late from the usual Saturday parental duties but saw that I still had time to make it to the last street corner meeting so I headed along to raise my concerns about, yes, you guessed it, Senator Conroy's proposed Internet censorship regime.

I pulled up at a small park in Adelaide's north-east suburbs to find a group of local residents waiting for Zappia and eyeing the grey clouds warily. A staffer arrived and put up a couple of folding Zappia signs shortly before Zappia himself got there. With the exception of myself the attendees were all white senior citizens. At 37 I was probably the youngest attendee by at least a quarter century, while the oldest would have been the woman who mentioned in conversation that she was 92.

I felt it would be polite to wait my turn so I stood back for a while and allowed the others to begin raising their issues of concern. It was at this point that the event took on a surreal quality. Discussion revolved around the following topics for the first half an hour or so:

• Asylum-seekers and immigrants, and what Labor was doing to keep them out. (Subtext: I'M NOT A RACIST BUT KEEP THE DARKIES OUT MATE)
• Foreign investment in Australian corporations and what Labor was doing to restrict it. (Subtext: I'M NOT A RACIST BUT KEEP THE ASIANS OUT OF OUR COMPANIES MATE)
• Privatisation in general and would Labor promise not to do any more of it. (Subtext: I'M NOT A RACIST BUT IN MY DAY YOU COULD RING UP THE POST OFFICE AND SPEAK TO AN AUSTRALIAN MATE)
• Exports of natural resources to China and residential-property sales to foreigners, and what Labor would be doing to curb it. (Subtext: I'M NOT A RACIST BUT THE CHINESE ARE BUYING UP OUR COUNTRY MATE)
• The inadequacy of healthcare for senior citizens... ("Whew, a sane line of discussion at last")  ...and how frustrating it is to be unable to find a doctor who can speak English properly. ("FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUU")

Yeah, but then it got weird.

Think about this for a second: these are the people who turn up to meetings with their local MPs.

I found myself listening to an elderly lady complaining in a strong English accent that she could never seem to get treated by an Australian (see: "white") doctor, somehow oblivious to the fact that she was an immigrant complaining about immigrants.  Zappia tried to give a polite answer in terms of budgets and health expenditure. I saw my opening and took it, with the world's worst segue of "Excuse me, but while we're on the topic of Government expenditure, Tony, I'd like to talk about the proposed Internet censorship program." I won't repeat the conversation verbatim, if you're reading this and interested in the issue you know the main points I raised. I'll summarise some of Zappia's replies. I seemed to retain Zappia's attention for some time, this perhaps reflecting the fact that I wasn't batshit crazy. Zappia said he was unaware of the cost of the filter and admitted that he had been under the impression that it would be "cheap". Zappia asked why there was so much consternation over the filter if it would be, as I claimed, so easily bypassed. While light-hearted his reply seemed to be in essence "well, if it's not actually going to do anything, what's the problem? No harm done!" Searching for some way to show, given the crowd, that this is a seniors' issue as well, I pointed out that the censorship regime would make it illegal to provide the elderly with advice on assisted suicide and euthanasia options. Zappia expressed surprise and said that he was not aware of that and had thought the filter was aimed at child pornography. #headdesk

Zappia said he had received "some correspondence" on the censorship proposal, but I suspect that probably means his office has received some copied-and-pasted GetUp form emails. I told Zappia I found it offensive that the Government considered itself a better judge of what my children should be able to see and hear than me. Zappia responded that while I am a responsible parent, not every parent was. That line of discussion went no further.

I asked Zappia for his personal position on the censorship proposal; he responded by saying that the issue was still under discussion and that he personally had not been too involved, and so was not really across all of the issues. He asked if I was aware that Kate Lundy had proposed an alternative, although he seemed unclear as to exactly what Lundy's proposal was; when I said that yes I was aware of it and started referring to aspects of Lundy's plan, I sensed that Zappia had only a vague idea what I was talking about.

People started heading home as the sky grew dark. An elderly couple said their goodbyes, the husband very frail, making small slow movements assisted by a crutch, the wife turning to me and saying "That thing you said about, you know, that was really interesting, thanks for that," as they departed.

When I looked around I realised that Zappia, his staffer Dale, and myself were the only people left. I said to Zappia something like this: "Tony, I know you can't be familiar with every issue, I know you've had a lot of people talking to you today, and I have avoided going in to any great depth about any one of my points. Bottom line, I think Senator Conroy's censorship plan is technically unfeasible, philosophically offensive, and a waste of millions of dollars that could be better used elsewhere. Tony, even if you're not across the details, I'd like you just to remember that one of your constituents came out today to tell you how much he disapproved of Labor's plan to censor the Internet." I thanked Zappia for his attention. Zappia said he would "look into the censorship plan further", Dale wrote down my contact details just in case some sort of follow-up ensued, and we all headed our separate ways as the rain began to fall.

I give Tony Zappia a lot of credit for holding these events and getting out into the community (and I use the term loosely, I felt like I had little in common with everyone else who turned up). He may not have been tremendously informed on the issue I wanted to talk about, but he turned up and listened when I gave my 2 cents. Thanks, Tony.

Right. Let's be honest. Internet discussion isn't worth jack. So you got 10,000 people to sign your anti-censorship thing at petitiononline.com, so EFA_OZ has a bajillion fans on Facebook, so #openinternet trends every time Conroy says something inane on Q&A.

Isn't. Worth. Jack.

Airing your concerns to your MP in person is what gets your issue into your MP's head. If my meeting is any indicator, the people who are getting out and talking to their MPs in person are fucking insane. I am scared shitless at the thought that MPs' community meetings across Australia are dominated by people who instinctively begin sentences with "I'M NOT A RACIST BUT..."

I've participated in countless online discussions about Internet censorship. I've shared articles by EFA_OZ on Facebook. I've signed the GetUp petitions. I've been part of the Twitter echo chamber during Conroy television interviews. But in terms of actually raising the issues with someone who matters, none of that even comes close to the couple of hours I took out from my family time to go and talk to a Federal MP. Please do the same if you can.