[AusNOG] The new Minister for Communications is Senator Mitch Fifield

[Paul Wallace]

er no ... Thatcher did the opposite .. she privatised it!

As she explained in her memoirs, Lady Thatcher saw privatisation as "fundamental to improving Britain's economic performance". But it also chimed with her political ideology. "It was one of the central means of reversing the corrosive and corrupting effects of socialism," she declared, adding: "Just as nationalisation was at the heart of the collectivist programme by which Labour governments sought to remodel British society, so privatisation is at the centre of any programme of reclaiming territory for freedom."
As David Parker noted, in a paper for the Institute of Economic Affairs, the Britain she came to lead in 1979 had seen successive Labour governments extend state ownership.

Conroy is British born & didn't even move to Oz until 1973!

from wiki ..

In April 2009, Conroy faced criticism after he made comments disparaging the ISP iiNet's defence in a Supreme Court case against a number of film studios and Channel Seven. Opposition spokesmen described the comments as prejudicial.[6] After iiNet won, Conroy said it was disappointing the two sides had ended up in court.[7] In February 2010, he admitted using his influence to have a former Labor politician Mike Kaiser, take the position of Government Relations and External Affairs Executive with the National Broadband Network[8] Kaiser was previously forced to retire from the Labor party due to electoral fraud. Also in February 2010, he was reported to have spent some time while on holiday with Kerry Stokes weeks before cutting license fees that are charged to free-to-air networks, including Stokes' broadcasting Seven Network.[9]

and ...

Internet censorship[edit]
Main article: Internet censorship in Australia
Conroy 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 legal material traditionally refused classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (now known as the Australian Classification Board), including sites depicting drug use, crime, sex, cruelty, violence or "revolting and abhorrent phenomena" that "offend against the standards of morality".[15] On 19 March 2009 it was reported that ACMA's blacklist of banned sites had been leaked online, and had been published by Wikileaks. About half of the list was child-porn related; the remainder included sites dealing with legal porn, online gambling, euthanasia, Christianity and fringe religions; sites belonging to a tour operator, dentist and animal carers were also listed.[16] Conroy described the leak and publication of the blacklist as "grossly irresponsible" and that it undermined efforts to improve "cyber safety".[17] 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."[18]

In December 2009 "Internet pranksters" registered the domain name stephenconroy.com.au[19] which was swiftly removed by auDA[20] raising concerns[21] about auDA's political neutrality and the further potential for suppression of political speech after the proposed mandatory Internet filter is legislated.

In May 2010, Conroy was accused of deliberately misrepresenting iiNet's position with regards to the new internet filter.[22] His department could also not say where he obtained other figures from, such as how he believes that 85% of ISPs support the new filter.[23]

In September 2012 Conroy stated:

"The regulation of telecommunications powers in Australia is exclusively federal. That means I am in charge of spectrum auctions, and if I say to everyone in this room 'if you want to bid in our spectrum auction you'd better wear red underpants on your head', I've got some news for you. You'll be wearing them on your head ... I have unfettered legal power."[24]

what a germ!

-P





-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Newton [mailto:newton at atdot.dotat.org] 
Sent: Sunday, 20 September 2015 8:32 PM
To: Paul Wallace
Cc: George Fong; ausnog at lists.ausnog.net
Subject: Re: [AusNOG] The new Minister for Communications is Senator Mitch Fifield

On 20 Sep 2015, at 7:32 pm, Paul Wallace <paul.wallace at mtgi.com.au> wrote:

> Conroy nationalised telecoms.
> Nationalising industries is what communist countries do.

Makes sense, given the way that noted communist Margaret Thatcher nationalized the British water industry and Ronald Reagan nationalized the Continental Illinois National Bank.

Damn commies.

  - mark