Senator Conroy - wrecking ball in a suit

Let's face some facts about government in Australia:

1. The Treasurer is a prize fool
2. The Prime Minister can't buy a jacket that fits properly
3. Wilkie is never getting his pokie reforms

These are all blatant failings, but there is one getting under the radar even though he gets mentioned in the press almost every day.  He doesn't make big headlines very often, offers next to nothing in terms of sound bites, but he is going to wreck free speech in this country.  That's right I'm talking about Senator Stephen Conroy, Minister for Communications and Broadband.

Here's some recent articles from The Age where he is quoted or mentioned:
The Age search page

On top of being the guy responsible for what will be one of the great loss-making ventures of all time - the NBN, he may well be the one who curbs your right to have a ridiculous blog like this one or perhaps read a bit of insanity.  He may control how much football or cricket gets shown on delay by channel seven; got the last say on video games and porn as well.  Let's not forget that he blackmailed Telstra into selling the copper network to the NBN and agreeing to 'structural separation'.

Over the past couple of years Senator Conroy has been at the forefront of the proposed internet filter for the whole country, recently he's talking about media diversity.  'Media diversity' is used in the recent context of stopping people like Gina Rinehart and Rupert Murdoch from having the media outlets in which they have large shareholdings reflect their personal views since the ALP and greens do not agree with them.  Former Senator Bob Brown thought along these lines too.  He thought News Ltd was out to get him: turned out it was just some of the more radical Greens who wanted him gone!

In this day and age a pretty good argument can be mounted that media diversity laws are completely un-necessary.  The digital age is seeing the rapid convergence of media types and a much greater overall choice in news services.  Sure the big channels/mastheads/websites are owned by a few big companies, but that it basically the nature of the Australian economy as a whole.  If you don't like those outlets there are plenty of blogs, foreign agencies and street corners wackos you can turn to.

Had you read just one of the articles in the link above you will have noticed that the reporting is in no way neutral.  Mainstream media has been bereft of facts and plagued by over-editorialising for the past decade and a half at least, so no more complaining about Fox News.  At least they don't pretend to be neutral.

During his tenure, Conroy has strengthened the minister's control of the ridiculous anti-siphoning list of big events that must be shown on free to air TV, started spending $40 billion without a cost-benefit analysis and is seeking to curb free speech and expression via an internet filter and limit the rights of directors to control their companies.  Seriously consider your Senate vote at the next election people!!