Speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra today, Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Turnbull, said that Senator Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy was “positively youthful”, though doesn’t deserve to be a Parliamentarian any longer.
“Stephen Conroy appears positively youthful,” he said.
Turnbull remained speculative of the Government’s broadband decision, noting that the National Broadband Network (NBN) had no financial analysis released with its announcement.
“This is a man that has completely bungled the National Broadband tender and presumably suggested to the Prime Minister that they announce a 43-billion dollar broadband project without any financial analysis at all,” he told delegates
In concluding his analysis of another Minister and Senator Stephen Conroy, he stated that Conroy didn’t deserve to be a minister at all.
“Now I don’t think either of those two Parliamentarians, relatively useful youthful though they may be, deserve to be…Ministers or even in Parliament based on their capacity and performance.”
Australia’s favourite communications minister, Stephen Conroy, is back from getting his photo taken with Arnold Schwarzenegger and speaking at CeBIT in Germany. Just yesterday he spoke at the Australian Telecommunications Users Group Conference in Sydney, where he defended his plans to filter Australia’s Internet.
He told attendees and journalists at the conference:
“There is this argument out there that says – my God! We can’t let the Senate have a say on this!”
“The Government of Australia is elected,” he said. “If the parliament wants to take this path, the last time I checked, that’s ok.”
With bold comments like this to be made by a politician that’s seen so much debate against himself, it seems he’s just digging himself deeper and deeper.
I asked Senator Scott Ludlam of the Greens a couple of weeks ago what he thought of Conroy’s filtering scheme, he had this to say:
“We’ve been emphasising all along that there are more important issues like violence against women and children,”
“Not a single one of these issues will be addressed by Conroy’s filtering scheme, so why not tackle the problem head on by using law enforcement, parental supervision and education from primary school all the way through university.”
I asked Ludlam what the Greens would do if they were in Conroy’s position:
“I think if it was up to us we’d be more collaborative,”
“You’d put ISPs, entertainment and child welfare in a room and say here are the issues, what’s the best way to tackle it”
I asked if he thought Conroy was being collaborative at all:
“No, he’s not being collaborative at all”
I also had the chance to speak to a spokesperson for Senator Nick Minchin who told Tech Wired:
“Based on all the evidence it’s not practical, nor is it doable,”
“When The Broadcasting Services Act in 1999 was raised it found evidence that filtering didn’t work,”
Tech Wired also asked what the opposition would be doing if they were in power:
“We think Opt in filters add value, though our core view is that through law enforcement, good resources and parental and teacher supervision we can attempt to fix the issue”
One has to question why Conroy still wants to go ahead with the filtering scheme.
Conroy maintains that his filtering scheme will not block political content, though with ACMA adding to their block list an abortion website the day after this was brought up, he has a lot to answer for.
“We are not building the Great Wall of China. We are going after the filth – like child pornography. Its been done around the world and it can be done here.”
To add to the irony, yesterday also saw a take-down notice issued by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to BulletProof networks, the hosting provider behind Whirlpool.
The take-down was issued to Whirlpool to remove a URL posted by user Matthew Law. The URL was to an abortion website that ACMA deemed “potentially prohibited”.
This confirms that the ACMA added the URL to its blacklist and deemed it prohibited, a thought that many are currenltly debating on the Whirlpool forum.
The Australian Government is refusing to release the commissioned National Broadband Network Report that suggests possible tenders for the NBN, saying that it…
“…has the potential to prejudice the outcome of the process.”
As such, the government wont be letting anyone, including the opposition, scrutinise the report. What does this mean? It means that it will allow the Department for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy to choose whoever they see fit as the tenderer for the National Broadband Network, without any fear of being scrutinised. Therefore Tech Wired has decided to take action… Read more
WITH the panel of experts’ report for the National Broadband Network tender complete; it’s crunch time. Read more
The filter, the future, the network; Can they coexist?
Don Solo on Flickr
WITH the Australian Government offering a contribution of 4.7 billion dollars towards a National Broadband Network, disqualifying one of it’s major players Telstra, and considering a Censorship regime; What’s next? Read more
THE GUYS at Happener observed a Google SEO battle occurring not too long ago between @Gregory_Brine and @likeomg. It was all about making a certain keyword that didn’t exist get to number #1 on Google. Happner decided to turn it into a competition, setting a date and time, and offering a prize. The word was Velociroflcoptersaurus. Read more
THIS afternoon the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy officially released a wide net expression of interest for a trial phase of ISP level filtering.
According to publicly available documents that have been released by the Department…
“Limited funding is available for ISPs participating in the Pilot”
What exactly does this mean? Read more
I had the opportunity to Interview Mark Newton, a network engineer for Internode. We talked about the Australian Government’s plan to filter the Internet.
On Friday I interviewed Tim Marshall, Senator Stephen Conroy’s media adviser, about what was in fact proposed. I been since been told that I did not “probe” him enough for information.
I stated to those of whom have asked about this, that:
“Drawing blood from a stone isn’t easy”.
Read more
TODAY Federal Communications Minister STEPHEN CONROY released a timetable for the switchover from Analog to Digital TV.
Conroy has announced plans for the switchover to be gradually rolled out with Mildura (Victoria’s north-west corner) getting the axe on June 30, 2010 ending with Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, remote western, central and eastern Australia moving to be digital-only by the end of 2013.
Read more
Australian Internet Filter – Interview With Media Contact Tim Marshall For Senator the Hon Stephen Conroy.
Expression of Interest announced as an upcoming proposal announced for live testing to occur amongst Australian ISP’s.
Read more
