EFA brands Conroy’s attacks ‘cowardly’

From his behaviour is seems like fair comment to say that Sen. Conroy appears to be a bully, a coward and either a bit forgetful in his statements or an outright lier.

I applaud the EFA for maintaining their dignity, their professionalism and their committment to the facts. It is a pity, but unsurprising, that Sen. Conroy has chosen to behave the way he is.

Distasteful indeed... just like his proposed legislation.

Conroy is scared, because he is not willing to have a public debate about his plan. If we are to have sustainable internet development in Australia, hiding behind parliamentary privilege is not conducive to getting the people behind him, or help the Labor Party.

I for one, am tired of Government using "secret" lists when we are talking about censorship and the internet. We need full and open access to the internet today if we are going to be players in the global knowledge economy, and Mr. Rudd needs to step in and censor his minister.

The reason Mr. Conroy is doing this is he wishes to censor beyond the reason he is stating publicly. Many of the experts in this field are going in a far different direction. The FCC in the US just put out a report based upon a much more open and transparent internet than we seem to be heading for..

Just like his Labor counterparts in Victoria, who think it is all right to share police files on individuals who want to protest about the Desalinization plant with private companies, Conroy wants to keep his lists secret, and try to inflict his religious views on the wider community.

And when confronted with this issue, K Rudd just wants to impose rules that do not make sense, and do not stand up to public scrutiny. Why? Get real Mr. Rudd, we may allow you to spend tremendous amounts to give us a world class internet, but not to shove backdoor censorship down our throats.

Are you trying to lose backing for the Labor Party Mr. Rudd? A whole lot of us are paying attention.

It's been like this right from the start.

All along there have been cogent, well-stated, well-thought-out criticisms of Rudd's censorship plan on economic grounds, technical grounds, civil liberties grounds, child protection grounds, public policy grounds, and basic workability.

Throughout the whole saga, the Minister has refused to engage any of those arguments, limiting his participation in the debate to belligerently maligning and marginalizing his critics.

Suzor's openness to a dialogue with Conroy is commendable, but we all know it ain't gonna happen. Rudd wants to ramrod this policy through whether anyone else likes it or not (including, increasingly, whether his own party likes it or not), and Conroy is just the fall-guy he's deployed to take all the flack.

The focus needs to shift: We all know Conroy is an idiot, but what about Rudd?

- mark

john kirrabilly, your comments sound very fair and, sadly, very accurate.

But tell us, what do you really think of Conboy the Barbarian?

Keep up the good work EFA!

The fact that you're getting an honourable mention in Parliament is evidence that your campaign to raise awareness of this hare-brained filtering scheme is working.

An enemy of Conroy's is a friend of the internet user!

KRudd is right behind this school yard bully.

For all the sham moralising, the continual effort to make us all 'better people' by deciding what is righteous for us, he has remained completely silent on a bully who has continually relied on hyperbole, personal attacks and outright lies (but hey, he's a politician, no big surprises there) and still managed to fail to get any sort of policy slated to replace the long defunct netfilter scheme (which wasn't great, but it was something parents could choose to use).

Believe me, if KRudd actually gave a crap, Conroy would have his marching orders. As it stands, both of those numpties share the same Kool Aid and want to invite us to the party...

Damn the EFA and their well considered, reasoned rebuttals! Who do they think they are; bringing information about ridiculous proposed legislation to the public! ...and in a democracy of all places!!

It is in the hands of the Victorian people to get rid of "Cowboy Conroy" his senate seat is up for re election in the forthcoming federal election.

Put the party politics to one side and teach ALL politicians that we still have the final say.

As usual the electorate doesn't get a say Conroys' get internet farce. EFA can't get a meeting with Conroy but members of the Australian Christain Lobby (ACL) can get in and see him as they're stakeholders!

It's a shame that Channel 7, 9 and 10 have all been paid off with their $250 million tax cut and have remained quite on Conroy's "It won't be like China, but can Google filter it like they do for China?" internet filter. So much for all media defending free speech, I guess some journalists do have a price after all!

As mentioned in various comments, one should not over look the tyranical leader of the party K Rudd. He is the one pulling the shots on his ministers and hence focus and questions should be directed to him as well. Now that debates are starting please Tony Abbot raise this issue for debate with K. Rudd. Put him on the spot and tell the whol eof Australia the Liberal parties policy on Internet filtering. If a halt is not put to this then its clear that the Rudd government are supporters of the whole New World Order concept.