The Family First senator was “completely wrong” and “grossly irresponsible” in making the claims, Senator Coonan said.
Porn filtering has been an uncomfortable issue for Government. Senator Coonan last year succumbed to backbench pressure last year to trial ISP filtering – and to provide free PC-level filtering software to any Australian that asks for it to help fight the online porn scourge.
“Senator Fielding (claimed) that the Australian Government had cancelled an ISP-level filtering trial without bothering to contact my office for clarification,” Senator Coonan said.
“A privately-run ISP-level filtering trial has been cancelled, but that is completely unrelated to the ACMA ISP-level filtering trial and yet this fundamental error does not seem to have bothered Senator Fielding.
“One call to my office to find out the facts would have saved everyone’s time. It is grossly irresponsible for Senator Fielding to issue misleading statements, careless of the facts,” Senator Coonan said.
In June 2007, Senator Coonan issued a direction to ACMA to conduct another trial of commercial ISP-level filtering products in Tasmania. This trial will assess any advances in such filtering technologies since they were tested in 2005-06.
“Far from being cancelled, the ACMA ISP-level filtering trial is progressing well, with the request for tender for companies to conduct the trial closing (on July 18),” said Senator Coonan.
“Three tender bids were received by ACMA and their formal evaluation will be underway shortly. I look forward to receiving the results of that ACMA ISP-level filtering trial.”
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