[LINK] Conroy's net filter still alive and kicking

[Stilgherrian]

On 10/09/2010, at 3:01 PM, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
>  <brd>
> He still doesn't get it.
> It's not the problem people disagree with, it's his solution.
> </brd>

In the Senate, nothing has yet changed and nothing will change until 1 July 2010. Until then, government legislation will still require the support of Senator Steve Fielding to pass, unless the Coalition agrees with it. Whatever Senate preference deals which might have been made between the ALP and Fielding are still in place. Mandatory filtering is still part of the ALP platform until a national convention says it's not.

In short, nothing has changed, so why would Senator Conroy change what he's doing?

Meanwhile, the legislative implementation of the filter is on hold until the Attorneys-General finish their review of the Refused Classification concept. They won't even have their next meeting until November, so it won't be until then before they even design a process, let alone start the review. And the review is expected to take at least a year.

DBCDE has also noted that the legislation would be quite complicated, which is the public reason for no draft having appeared before the election -- although obviously it's also handy to keep this toxic issue off the table during a campaign.

In short, nothing is happening with the filter in practical terms until ... gosh, until long after the Senate changes into something which might well be more manageable.

Meanwhile, Conroy does his job as Minister, which is to appear to be progressing government policy.

Stil


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