Conroy commits to public consultation on filtering

James Riley
Monday, 19 October 2009 15:00

Your IT - Home IT

Government will release the Enex Testlab report on internet filtering "in full" at the same time it issues a discussion paper on policy options, and has committed to a public consultation on the controversial issue before it proceeds further.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said he had received the Enex report on filtering trials over the weekend. He gave no specific undertaking when the report will be made public except that it would be "shortly" and "as soon as practical."

Having received the ISP test report, Government would now author a formal response, which will be released with the Enex report and a discussion paper that included policy options. The discussion paper will call for public comment.

"Over the weekend my department received the Enex report. I haven't had a chance to read it yet and we are preparing a (discussion) paper on these matters to release at the same time," Senator Conroy told a Senate Estimates hearing in Canberra today.

"The discussion paper … has got a number of ideas and options. It is not quite finalised yet, but it is close to being finalised so hopefully you will be able to see it soon," he said.

Senator Conroy did not say how long the consultation period would last, but said four weeks would be reasonable.

"I haven't made a final decision on that … (but) I think a public consultation on the web site for a four week period would be a reasonable comment period," Senator Conroy said. "I am not seeking to limit commentary on that by a shortened time frame."

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will conduct one of his regular web chat to include a discussion of Government internet filtering plans on Thursday morning from 9am. Other topics will include mental health, climate change, alcohol-fuelled violence and empowering you people.

Western Australian Greens senator Scott Ludlam said the Mr Rudd's decision to include internet filtering as a topic for his web chat reflected the unease the ISP filtering plans have created in the broad community – and in particular the noisy campaign of grassroots lobby group GetUp.

But Senator Ludlam, who has advocated for greater transparency for any filtering policy plans, welcomed the plans to publish the Enex report on filter trials in full, and Senator Conroy’s plans for a public consultation on policy options.

"To me it feels like we are edging slowly towards some sort of accountability on this, and perhaps on to a debate about the broader issues that we have been kicking and screaming about right from the very start," Senator Ludlam told iTWire.

"My greatest fear had been that we would see the test results tabled on the same day that we saw the policy or bill and that they would move straight to implementation without pausing to see if it was a good idea or not," he said.