Wait continues for content filtering report

No release date set for the trial report -- still under consideration with representatives for Conroy saying it is to be published "in due course"

The Australian public will have to continue to wait on the release of the Federal Government’s report on ISP-level filtering, with a spokesperson for the Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, confirming no date has been set for the report’s release.

“...No date has been set. The trial report is under consideration and will be published in due course,” the spokesperson said in an email response to Computerworld’s enquiries.

The news is likely to frustrate many consumers and those in the industry, not least of all the managing director of the company that carried out the testing on the internet filter trial Enex Testlabs.

In mid-October, Enex Testlab managing director Matt Tett called for the government to release the report on the trial to the public so people could see the methodology used in evaluating whether ISP filtering worked.

"I think at this stage I would definitely [want it made public], it is such a public thing it should be released. I think the minister or the minister's offices made undertakings in the past that it will be but we honestly don't know," he said in October. "As far as the testing goes people will see the transparency we have and it is better if it is out there."

The move is also likely to frustrate the Opposition communications minister Nick Minchin, who in October told Computerworld sister publication ARN, that the Opposition did not support Government having mandatory ISP-based filtering.

“We’ve said we’ll give Senator Conroy the benefit of the doubt in relation to his trials and our attitude will be influenced by the outcome of his trials.” Minchin said in October. “But we’re happy, given that he’s spending millions of dollars of taxpayers money on trials, to see what these trials indicate before making a final judgement.”

That judgement, too, is likely to take a while.

Email Computerworld or follow @computerworldau on Twitter.

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Tags Enex TestLabinternet content filteringSenator Stephen Conroy

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