Party President Fiona Patten said that bringing logical perspectives to the area of internet censorship was not always easy but the Sex Party used political lobbying and rational arguments to win its wars. “Senator Conroy however uses unfair tactics by continuing to ban the Australian Sex Party website from within his own department” she said. “Despite letters of protest about the unconstitutional nature of such bans he refuses to budge. These bans have now spread to state government departments with the Victorian Dept of Infrastructure the latest government agency to ban access to the sex party’s site”.

She said that Senator Conroy’s actions clearly went against numerous High Court findings that there were implied rights to political free speech in the Australian Constitution. “One of the most important aspects of this political free speech must surely be the right of a registered political party to broadcast its policies and platform to the electorate free from interference”, she said. “Any government department that actively seeks to stop that broadcast would be in breach of federal discrimination law and we are looking at our legal options”.

Of almost greater concern is Senator Conroy’s statements in Senate Estimates this week that he admired Google’s role in blocking content in countries such as China and Thailand. “First he tells us that it is only Refused Classification (RC) material that will be blocked and only via a complaint driven scheme. Now he is discussing getting Google to block search requests for what might be considered RC material”, she said. “It is bad enough that material such as female ejaculation or sites featuring small breasts could be banned but to suggest that this could also be done via Google and other search engines, takes the filter to a new and dangerous level.”

The film depiction of Saddam Hussein’s execution, which the Eros Association had classified as Refused Classification, would be on Senator Conroy’s black list. It is currently available on Youtube and parts of it are also on CNN’s website. Will Conroy blacklist CNN?