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. Can the minister confirm that the Australian Communications and Media Authority, ACMA, has identified more than 2,000 overseas websites containing prohibited internet content, including disturbing images of child pornography and sexual violence? Does the minister maintain her claim that Labor’s plan to require ISPs to filter out pornographic content for households, schools and libraries would cost around $30 million per year? Given that the government is sitting on a surplus in excess of $14 billion, can the minister explain to Australian parents why she thinks $30 million is too much to pay to block access to websites identified by ACMA as containing prohibited content?