Stephen Conroy

Stephen Conroy
Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
Incumbent
Assumed office  3 December 2007
Preceded by	Helen Coonan
Born	18 January 1963 (1963-01-18) (age 46) Ely, Cambridgeshire, England, UK
Nationality	Australia, British
Political party	Australian Labor Party
Religion	Catholic
Website	www.minister.dcita.gov.au

Stephen Michael Conroy (born 18 January 1963 in Ely, Cambridgeshire, England, near Norwich) is an Australian politician and the current Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy in the Rudd Labor Government. He has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian Senate since May 1996, representing the state of Victoria^[1] and is a member of the Labor Right.

Early life

Conroy's parents worked at an air-force base, where his mother Jean monitored radar and his father Bill was a sergeant. In December 1973 the Conroys moved to Canberra, where he attended Daramalan Catholic school. He obtained a Bachelor of Economics at the Australian National University in Canberra. His involvement in student politics was minimal, although he helped organise a rally against student fees.^[2][3]

Politics

After university, Conroy worked as an advisor to Ros Kelly and Barry Jones. He moved to Melbourne to pursue a political career where he met Robert Ray, and served for a time as Superannuation Officer with the Transport Workers Union and as a Footscray councillor.

He was appointed to the Senate in 1996 when Gareth Evans resigned to contest a seat in the Lower House. In October 1998, Conroy joined the Opposition Shadow Ministry and became Deputy Opposition Leader in the Senate. He was Shadow Minister for Trade, Corporate Governance and Financial Services from 2003 to 2004, and became Shadow Minister for Communications and Information Technology in October 2004.^[2][3]

Conroy is a leading member of the Labor Right and was criticised in early 2006 by members of the Socialist Left and Simon Crean for working for the replacement of several long-serving MPs with new members, including Bill Shorten, Richard Marles, Mark Dreyfus, Nathan Murphy and Matt Carrick.^{[citation needed]}

After Simon's Crean win in the Hotham pre-selection, where Conroy supported Martin Pakula for the position, Crean attacked Conroy repeatedly, calling him to resign his position as Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate.^[4]

Portfolio

Conroy is Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy in the First Rudd Ministry. In that role, he is responsible for internet censorship,^[5] the proposed National Broadband Network, and the proposed switch to digital television as a complete replacement for analogue.^[3][6].

Internet censorship

Conroy has faced severe criticism over his Internet censorship policies from various groups. While initially promoted as a way to block child pornography, the censorship policy has been extended to include a much broader range of material, including sites depicting drug use, crime, sex, cruelty, violence or "revolting and abhorrent phenomena" that "offend against the standards of morality".^[7]

On 19 March 2009 it was reported that ACMA's blacklist of banned sites had been leaked online, and had been published by Wikileaks. Conroy described the leak and publication of the blacklist as "grossly irresponsible" and that it undermined efforts to improve "cyber safety".^[8]

Stephen Conroy had not faced an interview about the issue for at least six months,^[9] before appearing on the ABC show 'Q&A' on March 26 2009, and the SBS show 'Insight' on March 31 2009, where he defended the policy in front of critics and supporters of the policy.

In June 2009 he was named "Internet villain of the year" at the 11th annual Internet industry awards in the UK, for "individuals or organisations that have upset the Internet industry and hampered its development - those whom the industry loves to hate."^[10]

In December 2009 "Internet pranksters" registered the domain name stephenconroy.com.au^[11] which was swiftly removed by auDA^[12] raising concerns^[13] about auDA's political neutrality and the further potential for suppression of political speech after the proposed mandatory Internet filter is legislated.

Personal life

Senator Conroy is a Catholic, and is said to be socially conservative. While he voted against the abortion drug RU486 in a conscience vote,^[14] he has claimed not to have taken a conservative position on all issues:

"I think the point I made was that while I would prefer there to be a parliamentary framework for the RU486, I think it was, debate, if the actual issue was before Parliament I would probably vote for the distribution of the pill. People often say, oh no Steve's a conservative Catholic, but they won't ever find on my voting record something that backs that up. I voted against the Northern Territory's euthanasia legislation. I voted for some of the cloning debate. So I voted in, I like to consider the issues on their merits and I voted what some would characterise as conservatively and some would characterise as progressively on a number of issues."^[15][16]

Conroy and his wife, Paula Benson, have a daughter born in November 2006 with the assistance of an egg donor and a surrogate mother, both friends of the Conroys. The procedures were performed in New South Wales instead of their home state Victoria, where altruistic surrogacy is banned.^[14][17][18]

He was a national volleyball representative as a teenager and has been the President of Volleyball Victoria since 2004.^[3][19]

References

External links

• Stephen Conroy's website as minister for DBCDE
• Stephen Conroy's parliamentary webpage as senator for Victoria