The new anti-spam Act joins the ranks of "something must be done, something has been done" cosmetic legislation that intimidates the innocent and does little to protect victims, like the spanking and dog chipping Acts.

The Department of Internal Affairs gains another content control role to join their censorship enforcement duties, and one wonders if they'll be the home of the election speech suppression.

But what will be the benefit of the anti-spam bill?

At best, compliance by NZ senders of email. That's worth the trouble?

What does it mean to the receiver? Nothing, spam will continue to be sent from other jurisdictions.

In any case, the reason none of this has been on my radar is that I don't suffer from spam. GMail effectively solves the problem for me without the need of Nanny State to stop all those bad senders. It is the only way.