Live coverage of the Senate Standing Committee (watch here):
Senate Standing Committee update 1: Senator Conroy at 8:30PM (ACT Local Time) confirmed he is committed to introducing mandatory filtering at an ISP level. ISP filtering trials in Tasmania will end before June 30th and a ‘live trial’ will follow.
Senate Standing Committee update 2: 8:48PM ACMA says they are looking to expand blacklist. Liaising with International groups. Current sites listed on the trial will only need to block the current ACMA blacklist – just 800 URLs. Expected final blacklist numbers unable to be answered. Question on notice.
Senate Standing Committee update 3: 8:52PM Question asked (Sen Birmingham): What current technology is used around the world to block large lists of URLs? ACMA Response: A blacklist not the only technique that could be used. Human intervention also an option. BT clean feed given as example (with estimated 1500 URLs on their lists but admit those URLs change.)
Senate Standing Committee update 4: 8:53PM Question asked (Sen Birmingham): Is current ACMA list still being expanded upon? ACMA Response: Yes, it’s updated weekly.
Senate Standing Committee update 5: 9:53PM NetAlert now officially on the agenda.
Senate Standing Committee update 6: 10:19PM NetAlert advertising funds under previous Gov discussed.
Senate Standing Committee update 7: 10:22PM Conroy says 1.4 million families were expected to download the filter, but many less actually did. Estimated end usage according to Conroy is just 30,000 – despite a $22 million advertise campaign. Why not use extra advertising money to advertise the filter campaign is asked.
Senate Standing Committee update 8: 10:24PM Conroy says Howard gov filtering plan a waste of 84 million dollars. Has not worked.
Senate Standing Committee update 9: Female Senator asks are NetAlert software filters too hard to install? Response is that instructions are provided and people are trying more than one filter. Filters were installed but ongoing use decreased.
Senate Standing Committee update 10: Female Senator asks how many calls have been made to ACMA call centre? Response is 20 to 40 calls per day, 7 days a week. How many questions to call centre relate to installing the product? Answer unknown. Also unknown how many people are working at the call centre.