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Stephen Conroy

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For other people named Stephen Conroy, see Stephen Conroy (disambiguation).
"Senator Conroy" redirects here. For other uses, see Senator Conroy (disambiguation).

The Honourable
Stephen Conroy
Deputy Leader of The Opposition in The Senate
In office
18 September 2013 – 30 September 2016
LeaderPenny Wong
Preceded byGeorge Brandis
Succeeded byDon Farrell
Leader of the Government in the Senate
In office
4 February 2013 – 26 June 2013
Preceded byChristopher Evans
Succeeded byPenny Wong
Minister for Broadband, Communications
and the Digital Economy
In office
3 December 2007 – 1 July 2013
Prime MinisterKevin Rudd
Julia Gillard
Preceded byHelen Coonan
Succeeded byAnthony Albanese
Senator for Victoria
In office
30 April 1996 – 30 September 2016
Preceded byGareth Evans
Succeeded byKimberley Kitching
Personal details
Born (1963-01-18) 18 January 1963 (age 61)
Ely, Cambridgeshire, England
NationalityAustralian
Political partyLabor
SpousePaula Benson
Children1
Alma materAustralian National University

Stephen Michael Conroy (born 18 January 1963) is an Australian former politician who was an Australian Labor Party member of the Senate from 1996 to 2016, representing the state of Victoria.[1] He served as a minister in the Rudd and Gillard governments. He resigned from the Senate in September 2016.[2] He has since worked as a lobbyist, political commentator and football administrator.

Early life

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Conroy was born in Ely, Cambridgeshire in the United Kingdom. His parents both worked at an air force base, where his mother Jean worked as a radar technician and his father Bill as a sergeant. In December 1973 the Conroys moved to Canberra, Australia, where he attended Daramalan College. He obtained a Bachelor of Economics at the Australian National University in Canberra. His involvement in student politics was minimal, although he helped organise a rally against student fees.[1][3]

Politics

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Official portrait, 1996

After university, Conroy worked as an advisor to Ros Kelly and Barry Jones. He moved to Melbourne to pursue a political career where he met Robert Ray, and served for a time as Superannuation Officer with the Transport Workers Union and as a City of Footscray councillor. He was appointed to the Senate in 1996 when Gareth Evans resigned to contest a seat in the Lower House. In October 1998, Conroy joined the Opposition Shadow Ministry and in 2001 became Deputy Opposition Leader in the Senate. He was Shadow Minister for Trade, Corporate Governance and Financial Services from 2003 to 2004, and became Shadow Minister for Communications and Information Technology in October 2004.[1][3]

Conroy is a leading member of the Labor Right[4] and was criticised in early 2006 by members of the Labor Left and Simon Crean for working for the replacement of several long-serving MPs with new members, including Bill Shorten, Richard Marles, Mark Dreyfus, Nathan Murphy and Matt Carrick.[citation needed] After Simon Crean's win in the Hotham pre-selection, where Conroy supported Martin Pakula for the position, Crean attacked Conroy repeatedly, calling on him to resign his position as Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate.[5]

In April 2009, Conroy faced criticism after he made comments disparaging the ISP iiNet's defence in a Federal 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 licence fees that are charged to free-to-air networks, including Stokes' broadcasting Seven Network.[9]

In June 2010, Conroy was criticised by SAGE-AU for "misinformation that verged on fear-mongering" when he suggested Google street view cars could have captured internet banking details in their recording of wireless network traffic, as these are generally exchanged over secure HTTPS connections.[10][11] In March 2013, he introduced six media reform bills, one of which would have been the establishment of a Public Interest Media Advocate, a government organisation set up to regulate the previously self-regulated media in Australia. After announcing there would be no discussion over the bills, and that they would be passed or failed as a package, he backed down, allowing negotiation with parties who held the balance of power in the senate. The content of the bills were largely condemned by media. Ultimately, only two of the six bills passed, and at that the least controversial ones. Should he have introduced the 7 bills, the controversy may have been surpassed.[citation needed]

Portfolio

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Conroy was Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy in the First Rudd, First Gillard and Second Gillard Ministries. The NBN roll out was dogged with delay and cost blowouts in his time as minister. In that role, he was responsible for internet censorship,[12] the National Broadband Network,[citation needed] and the proposed switch to digital television as a complete replacement for analogue.[3][13] In May 2010 he was appointed as a founding member to a new United Nations commission, the Broadband Commission for Digital Development.[14]

Internet censorship

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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]

Resignation from Parliament

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Stephen Conroy foreshadowed his resignation from parliament in a tabled speech on 15 September 2016; he resigned on 30 September 2016.[2][25]

On 25 October, a joint sitting of the Victorian Parliament appointed Kimberley Kitching as his replacement.[26]

Career after politics

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In December 2016 it was announced that Conroy would be head of a new industry body for the gambling industry, Responsible Wagering Australia, backed by bookmakers CrownBet, Sportsbet, Betfair, Unibet and Bet365.[27] In 2017, he joined Sky News Australia as a political commentator.[28]

In 2023 Conroy became the Independent Chairman of the Australian Professional Leagues, the organisation responsible for administration of the A-Leagues professional soccer competitions.[29]

Political positions

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Conroy is a Roman Catholic and socially conservative. While he voted against the abortion drug RU486 in a conscience vote,[30] he has claimed not to have taken a conservative position on all issues:

"I think the point I made was that while I would prefer there to be a parliamentary framework for the RU486, I think it was, debate, if the actual issue was before Parliament I would probably vote for the distribution of the pill. People often say, oh no Steve's a conservative Catholic, but they won't ever find on my voting record something that backs that up. I voted against the Northern Territory's euthanasia legislation. I voted for some of the cloning debate. So I voted in, I like to consider the issues on their merits and I voted what some would characterise as conservatively and some would characterise as progressively on a number of issues."[31][32]

When a bill seeking to legalise same-sex marriage was debated by the Senate in 2012, Conroy was one of 11 Labor Senators to vote against the legislation.[33] By the time of Conroy's resignation, Labor Party policy supported same-sex marriage and bound its MPs to vote in favour of legislation from the end of the 2016–19 parliamentary term.[34]

Personal life

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Conroy and his wife, Paula Benson, have one daughter.[30][35][36]

He was a national volleyball representative as a teenager and was the President of Volleyball Victoria from 2004 to 2019.[3][37][38]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Former Senator Stephen Conroy". Senators and Members of the Parliament of Australia. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Former minister Stephen Conroy announces retirement". ABC News. 16 September 2016.
  3. ^ a b c d Minister for the Future, smh.com.au, 12 December 2008; accessed 18 September 2014.
  4. ^ Millar, Royce (25 November 2013). "Labor factions show scant regard for democracy push". The Age. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
  5. ^ "Conroy shrugs off resignation call". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 8 March 2006.
  6. ^ Moses, Asher (2 April 2009). "Conroy rapped for 'improper' iiNet gaffe". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  7. ^ Andrew Ramadge (8 February 2010). "Conroy calls for 'mature' talks after iiNet case". news.com.au.
  8. ^ "Conroy under fire over mate's top job". Canberra, Australia: ABC. 8 February 2010. Retrieved 9 June 2010.
  9. ^ Whinnett, Ellen (13 February 2010). "Minister in 'secret' snow meeting with mogul". Sunday Herald Sun.
  10. ^ "Conroy gets it wrong on Google: SAGE-AU".
  11. ^ "Google Street View cars may have obtained bank details". The Australian. 7 June 2010.
  12. ^ Conroy announces mandatory internet filters to protect children – ABC News, 31 December 2007
  13. ^ National Broadband Network Archived 21 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ "Conroy joins UN broadband commission". 11 May 2010.
  15. ^ "Web censorship plan heads towards a dead end - BizTech - Technology". 26 February 2009.
  16. ^ Dentist, tuckshop cited on web blacklist, smh.com.au; accessed 18 September 2014.
  17. ^ Moses, Asher (19 March 2009). "Blacklisted websites revealed". Brisbane Times. Retrieved 19 March 2009.
  18. ^ Conroy named Internet Villain of the Year, smh.com.au; accessed 18 September 2014.
  19. ^ Moses, Asher (18 December 2009). "Spoof Conroy website protests at internet filter plan".
  20. ^ "The swift takedown of stephenconroy.com.au". 21 December 2009.
  21. ^ "Media Release: Electronic Frontiers Australia Surprised at auDA Decision to Remove StephenConroy.com.au - Electronic Frontiers Australia".
  22. ^ "iiNet says Sen. Conroy lied". Archived from the original on 3 June 2010.
  23. ^ "iiNet: Conroy misrepresents our filtering stance".
  24. ^ "Senator's 'red undie' remarks fall flat in New York". The Sydney Morning Herald. 29 September 2012.
  25. ^ "Labor senator Stephen Conroy retires". 16 September 2016.
  26. ^ "Vic parly green lights Kitching for Senate". AAP. 25 October 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2016.[permanent dead link‍]
  27. ^ "Labor powerbroker Stephen Conroy joins new gambling lobby". 7 December 2016.
  28. ^ "Stephen Conroy joins Sky News as political contributor". Mediaweek. 20 March 2017. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  29. ^ "A-Leagues Alumni".
  30. ^ a b "The senator, the surrogate and the new baby - National - theage.com.au". 7 November 2006.
  31. ^ "AM - Sounds of Summer: Stephen Conroy on his complicated surrogacy arrangement". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 27 June 2023.
  32. ^ "Senate rejects RU486 veto - National". The Sydney Morning Herald. 9 February 2006.
  33. ^ "Marriage Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2012". Journals Of The Senate No. 114—20 September 2012. Commonwealth of Australia: Senate. 20 September 2012. p. 3055.
  34. ^ Phillip Coorey (26 July 2015). "Bill Shorten forced to compromise on gay marriage". Australian Financial Review.
  35. ^ "Senator battles infertility laws - National". The Sydney Morning Herald. 3 December 2007.
  36. ^ "The Australian, Labor rooster's surrogate by two mothers". Archived from the original on 22 March 2009. Retrieved 18 March 2009.
  37. ^ Profile Archived 20 August 2006 at archive.today, volleyballvictoria.com.au; accessed 18 September 2014.
  38. ^ "General Manager's Update | Volleyball VictoriaVolleyball Victoria". volleyballvictoria.org.au. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
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Political offices
Preceded by Minister for Broadband, Communications
and the Digital Economy
2007–2013 		Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by Leader of the Australian Labor Party in the Senate
2013 		Succeeded by
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