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

I noted comments last week by the shadow treasurer, Mr Hockey, that internet filtering of refused classification content was a threat to freedom. He said he does not trust a democratically elected government in Australia to never introduce widespread censorship. I wonder if this view is shared by those opposite. I remind those opposite that in 1999 the previous government, including Mr Hockey, supported the bill to prevent RC content from being hosted on Australian websites. That is right: in 1999, those opposite who were here at the time voted to ban RC content on the internet here in Australia. That is what they actually did. I want to remind the Senate that RC content includes child sexual abuse content, bestiality, sexual violence including rape, detailed instruction in crime, drug use and terrorism. I would like to table a document outlining some of the Electronic Frontiers’s outrageous misleading— (Time expired)