Crucial broadband report kept secret ( Andrew Colley – January 22, 2009 )

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24947794-5013040,00.html

On Tuesday Opposition communications spokesman Nick Minchin challenged Senator Conroy to adhere to a promise in December 2007 to “hold an open transparent tender process”.

“The Rudd Government should release both of these reports and seek public comment before making any final decision on a preferred tenderer. If it refuses, the Australian public has every reason to view this process with deep suspicion considering $4.7 billion of taxpayers’ money is at risk.”

“It seems the only person who doesn’t think the public should be kept fully informed about this process and given a say is Senator Conroy,” Senator Minchin said.

Another comment Conroy made at the ALIA conference, regarding the (always the bridesmaid, never the bride) “live trials”:

“Several technical claims have been made about ISP filtering – including that it will slow down the internet or result in over-blocking of content.

“Let’s put those claims to the test. ”

I don’t think we need to do that anymore, Mr. Conroy. You’ve just proved that even if your proposed system is 100% perfect and exhibits no overblocking whatsoever, YOU’LL STILL BLOCK CONTENT THAT SHOULDN’T BE BLOCKED.

Remind me again: What’s the point of the live trial? I think you’ve just relegated it to a face-saving exercise, you’re just doing it so nobody will ever be able to say that those damn hippies on the internets forced you to stop. You bozos budgeted $1m for this, so I guess you’re putting a price-tag on your pride.

- mark

“out at Penrith we had nearly 600 people turn up to talk and literally it is an open forum and you can get asked ANYTHING (!) – he’s got the entire cabinet there – he’s up there himself and he just takes whatever questions get thrown at him and passes them on to relevant minsters as well…”

“he’s consultative.. he’s open… there’s changes to FOI laws that are coming… he wants to run a more transparent and open government…”

“more consultative.. more dynamic…”

noting that the Howard government had “become tired” Conroy stated…

“we’re determined to pick up the pace…”

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However when criticism of his filtering plan emerged in open dialog on Whirlpool (and similar Internet forums) what was the Minister’s response ? Was it open and transparent ? I don’t think so.

My understanding is that he attempted to stifle freedom of speech. I was one of the “nearly 600 people” who attended the Penrith South Cabinet where I sat opposite Senator Conroy. I also attended the Sydney Institute function from which the podcast referred to above was recorded. I believe you can find reference to both in my writings.

Penrith South Community Cabinet 15th. April 2008

Bob Bain – LiveJournal

http://bobbain.livejournal.com/215666.html

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“I sat in the third row almost directly opposite Stephen Conroy (who wants to censor the Internet) and Robert McLelland who looked exactly as he does in the photograph on Wikipedia. I noted Stephen Conroy and Robert McLelland greeting each other as they took their places. Neither spoke at the event as there were no questions raised that related to their portfolios. There were more people wishing to ask questions or make comments than could possibly be accommodated. Kevin Rudd (God) appeared to acknowledge every hand that was raised and pointed to people in “red or blue” polo shirts who could be contacted such that the Ministers were aware of the issues the people wished raised. A few people had fact sheets relating to their personal meetings with selected cabinet ministers the logistics of which Kevin Rudd admitted he wasn’t sure about. I shuffled out tired and weary and even if I could have found a person in a red or blue polo shirt I was too exhausted to find them.”

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I found it interesting that the Minister seemed amazed that Ministers could get asked ANYTHING (the emphasis is mine). To my hearing he didn’t seem familiar with the concept.

The Sydney Institute podcast contains reference to the mandatory Internet Filtering scheme. It can be downloaded from the Sydney Institute podcast page:-

http://www.thesydneyinstitute.com.au/

Click on Podcast – select Tue, 06 May 2008 – The Hon. Stephen Conroy MP – Broadband and the Digital Economy

See also “Somebody Think of the Children” May 7 2008

http://www.somebodythinkofthechildren.com/et-call-filth-mr-conroy-and-the-dirty-iphone/

“In his speech last night at a Sydney Institute talk on the topic of Broadband and the Digital Economy, Conroy expressed concern about the new fangled phone, noting that because of it the need for mandatory filtering was now even more essential.

Bob Bain was in attendance and reported back on the event to the No-Censorship mailing list. Here’s Conroy’s reasoning:”

(for reasoning see the STOTC entry..)

BTW: You have to click a box that states you are over 12 years of age to view the prohibited content page. If you click the box it let’s you view the page. If you dismiss it then it also let’s you view the page. There is no “I’m not yet 12 years of age button please permit me to leave” button.

In fact the page loads before the button.

I’m not sure if people who handed questions to people in red or blue polo shirts at the Penrith South Community Cabinet were accomodated with replies.

One thing’s for sure. Kevin didn’t know all the answers !

So will ACMA add all religious sites to its filters?

How about Barney the Purple Dinosaur? I read somewhere on the scary Internets that he is the anti-christ… Add him to the ACMA list I say.