There’s been a number of comments circulating online that a vote for the Greens in the upcoming election is a vote for Conroy, due to the recently announced preferences deal between the Greens and Labor. Unfortunately there seems to be some misunderstanding how the electoral system for the Senate works, because nothing could be further from the truth. Here’s why.
You’d be forgiven for thinking, were you to spend a bit of time reading through a Twitter search for the term “Conroy” today, that the plan for mandatory ISP level filtering was scrapped. It’s not. It’s been delayed and there are some changes that have been announced for greater transparency, but the government’s policy for cyber safety is still the same as it was yesterday: mandatory filtering for everybody.
As part of Senator Conroy’s announcement that the government is delaying the implementation of its incredibly narrow minded internet filter, he announced that large ISPs would be voluntarily blocking child porn and child abuse websites.
Stephen Conroy held a press conference this morning around the future of the Cyber safety policy. According to tweets from Crikey’s Bernard Keane, that means putting it off for 12 months while the classification system gets an overhaul. [UPDATE: Added official department statement.]
It’s been nearly three years since the Labor government was elected, and for almost the entire time they have been pushing their plan to censor Australians’ internet connections. The debate has been highly controversial from day one. Many people expected that the Government would back away from their plans once they realised how unworkable and contentious they were, but at every step of the way they have pushed ahead with renewed enthusiasm.
Stephen Conroy told journalists yesterday that he expects the government’s plan for internet censorship filtering to hit parliament by the end of this year. Great.
Despite the fact that there are a lot of people out there who openly oppose the mandatory internet filter proposed by the current Labor government, most are unable to argue their case from a purely technical standpoint. Fortunately they don’t need to, thanks to outspoken critic and engineer Mark Newton, who is now claiming that the ISP filter trials held last year may have been illegal.
Renai LeMay over at Delimiter was at a door stop interview with Senator Conroy this afternoon. And if you thought the change in Prime Minister might bring some common sense to the party regarding its plans for a mandatory internet filter, you’d be wrong. When asked about Kate Lundy’s proposed “opt-in” amendments to the proposed legislation, Conroy responded by saying, “I’m not into opting in on child porn”.
The election by Caucus of Julia Gillard as Prime Minister is an opportunity for the government to reimagine the ministry and the way Cabinet is run. Under Kevin Rudd, the “kitchen cabinet” that made up the Strategic Policy and Budget Committee, cutting decision-making out of the responsible Ministers’ hands can be remedied, with power rightly back in the hands of portfolio Ministers with appropriate expertise.
