It appeared at first as if Stephen Conroy, the Australian minister for communications, was being advised by the Chinese government. The plan was to censor the Internet (an oxymoron in and of itself) but he was not telling you what was being censored. When the proposed list of censored sites was leaked he became all high and mighty and threatened legal action. In the end it made him look like a fool and out of touch with the realities of the Internet, out of touch with his constituency and out of touch with the principles of open government.
Now it appears as if he has made a massive back-down. Coming off his pedestal of self righteousness, declaiming all who disagreed as pedophiles or anti-society he has stumbled and fallen (or is that crawled) into a hole of his own making. Not that he would see it as such, looking thorough his strongly tinted political spectacles.
His answers to the Senate estimates committee are the typical double speak and mass of contradictions of a politician who has been weighed and found wanting. The writing may not be on the wall for him but it appears as if it is for his mess of a censorship plan. Don’t get me wrong – unlike those liberals in the media who claim that they don’t believe in censorship (and on close analysis really do) I am open in my support of censorship. If there was a mechanism whereby a consistent, legal and open method by which unacceptable sites could be regulated then I would be all for it. The Minister’s plan however was a complete and utter disaster before it even left the hangar. He is desperately trying to salvage some credibility, too late I think.
I am afraid that as far as the Internet goes the horse has well and truly bolted and the dyke long since burst its banks.