THE HON TONY SMITH MP

SHADOW MINISTER FOR BROADBAND, COMMUNICATIONS AND THE

DIGITAL ECONOMY
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR CASEY

M E D I A R E L E A S E

Friday, July 9, 2010

CONROY’S LATEST FILTER BACKDOWN

Today’s humiliating backdown by Stephen Conroy in relation to his mandatory ISP filtering plan
vindicates the Coalition’s concerns about the complex and problematic nature of Labor’s
proposal.

It took more than two years for the Minister to even produce a plan and release results of a
‘filtering trial’. Since then the Minister has refused to conduct an independent audit of the trial
results and has failed to produce any legislation to implement his proposal, despite pledging to
do so months ago.

We welcome moves put forward by industry to voluntarily take steps to block child abuse
websites.

In relation to online safety, all Senator Conroy has achieved in nearly three years is his
cancellation of the Howard Government’s program to protect Australian families online.

The previous Coalition Government provided all Australian families with access to a free,
optional PC-based content filter, which could be specifically tailored to assist parents in
protecting their children from being exposed to inappropriate content.

The Rudd-Gillard Government cancelled this program at the end of 2008 without putting in place
any alternative.

Protecting families online is an area of concern for all Australians, particularly parents.

The Government has to do more than make sympathetic noises and provide spin about this
serious matter. They have to actually help people deal with this issue in their homes.

Whilst we support a review of the Refused Classification guidelines we believe this review
should be conducted more broadly across various media platforms. As we have already
announced, we would support a more comprehensive review.

Media Contact: Andrew Cox, ph: 0427 460 063