As if Stephen Conroy’s grand plan to protect us from the Internets wasn’t bad enough. Now his office has taken to attempting to stifle criticism:
On Tuesday, a policy advisor for Senator Conroy, Belinda Dennett, wrote an email to Internet Industry Association (IIA) board member Carolyn Dalton in an attempt to pressure Newton into reining in his dissent.
“In your capacity as a board member of the IIA I would like to express my serious concern that a IIA member would be sending out this sort of message. I have also advised [IIA chief executive] Peter Coroneos of my disappointment in this sort of irresponsible behaviour ,” the email, read.
It is understood the email was accompanied by a phone call demanding that the message be passed on to senior Internode management.
Newton said he found the bullying “outrageous” and Senator Conroy was “misusing his influence as a Commonwealth Minister to intimidate a private dissenting citizen into silencing his political views”.
I hoped that abandoning conservative government would have made a social and digital nanny state less likely. The Rudd Government has done some things for Australia that I am proud of. It has done some things that I disagree with. But Stephen Conroy’s portfolio is the one part of our current Government that I am truly disgusted with.
The Government is being by hit by this from all sides – and they bloody well deserve it.
On the upside, I am proud to be an Internode customer and a Whirlpool community member – well done, Mark Newton.
Speaking of Internode, I’d just like to add that as an Internode customer, I’m happy for Mark to be out there fighting this rubbish Conroy is putting about. More power to him.
Agreed – the ISPs and their staff have the technical knowledge, the customer service interests and the basic right to tell the Government what they think of a policy proposal for the Internet.
Can you imagine the reaction if we were told that the ACTU or the Business Council of Australia shouldn’t go interfering in industrial relations policy by criticising Government proposals?
Thanks for the trackback and your inclusion of some other perspectives on the issue in your links. This is a completely ridiculous policy and I hope the Coalition have the good sense to throw their support behind those who would seek to ensure the continued freedom of the internet. NetAlert was certainly an object of derision but it’s the right way to go about this sort of project. You’ve got to empower individuals to make decisions for themselves and with their families.
Spot on, Sam. I already have the tools and rules to feel comfortable about letting my kids use the Internet. I wouldn’t have used NetAlert, simply because there are other applications that do the job fine.
But the idea that the Government is going to make the decisions for me, not only about what my kids can view, but also about what I can view, is overstepping of the highest order – and that’s setting aside the issue of false positives.