Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

It is important that everyone in this chamber supports the efforts to get this filter organised, and that is exactly what is happening. I think it is quite appalling that anyone would actually suggest that this government has not taken efforts to ensure that this very pernicious thing is addressed. Through the online content scheme, which the government established in 2000, any Australian can make a complaint about material, and I certainly urge Senator Polley to make complaints about any offensive material of which she is aware on the internet. The complaint is then investigated as a priority by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, the online body. If it is found to be a breach of classification standards administered by the Attorney-General, the image can be taken down immediately or the host faces significant penalty sanctions.

In addition, if the regulator considers that the content is sufficiently serious it must also notify the Australian police force. In relation to prohibited content hosted outside Australia, which is the case with certain websites like YouTube and MySpace, the regulator, ACMA, must notify the filter vendor so they can add it to their list of sites to be blocked. There are a number of measures that I do not have time to go into, but this government is serious that this is incredibly important and we are making serious efforts and putting a great deal of money towards addressing this problem in an emerging and difficult area.