Mandatory filtering plan an ‘ultimate embarrassment’

James Riley
Wednesday, 02 September 2009 05:18

IT Industry - Market

The Rudd Government plan to introduce mandatory ISP-level filtering was dead in the water and Communications Minister Stephen Conroy should end the farce now, the Opposition’s leader in the Senate Nick Minchin said.

Senator Minchin, who risks a backlash from elements within the Coalition, says Senator Conroy already knows the mandatory filtering plan is heading for the rocks and was delaying its demise to “avoid ultimate embarrassment.”

The Government came to office in December 2007 with a policy to explore mandatory ISP filtering, but trials have been delayed and no data about the viability of such a plan has yet been released.

Senator Minchin complained that Government had not even said what metrics it planned to use to determine whether a filtering trial could be considered successful or not.

“Almost two years after coming to office with a plan to censor the internet, Senator Conroy has not even managed to release results for long overdue filtering trials, let alone come close to actually implementing this highly controversial policy,” Senator Minchin said.

“Previous trials of filtering technology have exposed serious problems with both the over-blocking and under-blocking of content and concerns also remain about the adverse impact a national filtering regime could have on internet speeds,” Senator Minchin said.

“Huge doubts also continue to surround the type of content Labor wants to filter and how it will compile a black-list which would form the basis of its filtering regime.  

The Labor mandatory filtering plan has been under enormous scrutiny from the internet community, the vast bulk of which say it is unworkable at best, and dangerous at worst.

But the calls from Senator Minchin to scrap the initiative do not come without risk.

Labors’ attitude to filtering – whether the optional “clean feed” policy under then Opposition leader Kim Beazley or the more ambitious mandatory ISP level filtering plans of the Rudd Government – were born out of demands from backbenchers from all political persuasions to clean up the internet.

Tasmanian Liberal senator Guy Barnett ran a successful campaign in which he gathered the signatures of 63 backbenchers who demanded that then Communications Minister Helen Coonan further investigate filtering options – even after she had conducted trials and decided the performance cost of filtering was too heavy.

Senator Minchin has couched his demands for Government to scrap the mandatory filtering plan with the huge qualification that the Coalition remains prepared to look at it – a policy stand that will not win support from the more active elements of the internet community.

“The Coalition has said from the beginning it was prepared to assess any credible trial results, but almost two years after coming to office Senator Conroy has failed to produce them, let alone put forward any formal proposal for consideration,” Senator Minchin said.