Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Coonan, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. Is the minister aware that on 24 August, just four days after the government’s $84 million NetAlert ISP filters were released, it was reported that a 16-year-old schoolboy had bypassed one of the filters in a little over 30 minutes? Isn’t the government wasting $84 million of taxpayers’ money on a program, as well as a further $22 million on advertising, when the filters could not stop a 16-year-old schoolboy from accessing inappropriate material? Isn’t this why we need the extra protection of ISP filtering provided for under Labor’s policy, which will ensure the offensive material does not enter Australian homes?