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.
It’s official: Senator Conroy will remain as Minister for Broadband, Communications, and the Digital Economy. We made some noise, hoped for the best, but always had a feeling we’d be served up more of the same. That was confirmed today with Gillard’s decision to keep to a very minor adjustment in cabinet.
Geordie Guy, Vice Chair, Electronic Frontiers Australia, offers the enticing analogy that Senator Lundy is like Google and Senator Conroy is like Apple. Will Apple win this battle, too?
The Parliament of Australia website has updated its site with a new Ministry list to reflect the change in PM. The bad news is that the PDF link – found here – still has Stephen Conroy as Minister for Broadband, Communication and the Digital Economy.
So the federal government #spill is done and we have our first female PM in Julia Gillard. Wow. Kevin Rudd, we hardly knew you. If this is to change what matters to people like us, we want to see Conroy follow Rudd to a seat up the back [UPDATE: or move him up to Finance now Tanner is leaving... -ed] . Give the Broadband, Communications, and Digital Economy portfolio to someone who really understands how important and exciting the future of the BCDE portfolio really is. We want the job to go to Senator Kate Lundy — unquestionably the best person for the job.
This would be hilarious if it weren’t for the fact that this man is in charge of the digital economy in Australia.
