Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
Communications minister Stephen Conroy has been quick to capitalise on the latest sting by the AFP against child pornography, to brag about the government's support for the AFP. The Opposition, however claims he cut AFP funding for anti-porn activities in the last Federal Budget.
The AFP claims to have nabbed 22 Australian men, 15,000 videos and 500,000 images of child abuse following a 12 month investigation. This whole affair evokes a strong sense of déjà vu. Back in June, The Australian newspaper reported that "A Queensland-led investigation [has] smashed the oldest and most sophisticated internet paedophile ring ever known."
There were reports of the technological sophistication of the paedophile network. And I noted then that Conroy's utterances about support for law enforcement initiatives to target cyber crime appeared to be at odds with reality. "According to the Opposition the [Government's] Cybersafety programme also means "the removal of $2.8 million of Australian Federal Police funding to combat online child sex exploitation and to promote international cooperation."
So when Conroy this week, boasted that: "In the 2008-09 Budget the Rudd Government committed $49 million to increased law enforcement, including funding for 91 additional AFP members dedicated to online child protection by 2011," the question of the $2.8m budget cut quickly resurfaced.
Shadow justice minister, Chris Pyne, said: "Kevin Rudd must prove that he is fair dinkum that the exposure of a child pornography ring in Australia has made 'his stomach turn' by returning the $2.8 million that the Budget ripped out of the Online Child Exploitation Taskforce...charged with tracking and catching online child predators and paedophiles, and halting the proliferation of child pornography."
He claimed that this would "diminish the AFP's capacity to work with international agencies, which this week has had shown great results in tracking child pornographers...Under Labor's plan the AFP is left with fewer resources to pursue child predators and child pornography. This is another example of spin over substance."
Maybe. In politics there's plenty of spin with no substance, but never substance without spin one way or another.
David Bass
| For the fourth year in a row, IDC has placed content security provider Websense (NASDAQ: WBSN) at the top of the IDC Worldwide Web Security 2011 –…
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