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Stephen Michael Conroy (born 18 January 1963) is an Australian former politician who was an
Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms t ...
member of the
Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
from 1996 to 2016, representing the state of Victoria. He served as a minister in the
Rudd ''Scardinius'' is a genus of ray-finned fish in the family Cyprinidae commonly called rudds. Locally, the name "rudd" without any further qualifiers is also used for individual species, particularly the common rudd (''S. erythrophthalmus''). T ...
and Gillard governments. He resigned from the Senate in September 2016. He now works as a lobbyist and political commentator.


Early life

Conroy was born in Ely,
Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to t ...
,
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,
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. His parents worked at an air force base, where his mother Jean monitored radar and his father Bill was a sergeant. In December 1973 the Conroys moved to
Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
, where he attended Daramalan College. He obtained a Bachelor of Economics at the
Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies an ...
in Canberra. His involvement in student politics was minimal, although he helped organise a rally against student fees.Minister for the Future
smh.com.au, 12 December 2008; accessed 18 September 2014.


Politics

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 The City of Footscray was a local government area about west of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. The city covered an area of and existed from 1859 until 1994. Its civic centre, after which it was named, was 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. Conroy is a leading member of the Labor Right 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 Richard Donald Marles (born 13 July 1967) is an Australian politician serving as the 19th deputy prime minister of Australia and the Minister for Defence. He has been the deputy leader of the Labor Party since 2019 and previously served as ...
, Mark Dreyfus, Nathan Murphy and Matt Carrick. 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. 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. After iiNet won, Conroy said it was disappointing the two sides had ended up in court. 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. 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 Kerry Matthew Stokes (born John Patrick Alford on 13 September 1940) is an Australian businessman. He holds business interests in a diverse range of industries including electronic and print media, property, mining, and construction equipment. ...
weeks before cutting licence fees that are charged to free-to-air networks, including Stokes' broadcasting Seven Network. In June 2010, Conroy was criticised by SAGE-AU for "misinformation that verged on fear-mongering" when he suggested
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cars could have captured internet banking details in their recording of wireless network traffic, as these are generally exchanged over secure HTTPS connections. 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.


Portfolio

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, the National Broadband Network, and the proposed switch to digital television as a complete replacement for analogue. In May 2010 he was appointed as a founding member to a new United Nations commission, the
Broadband Commission for Digital Development The Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development (until 2015: Digital Development) was established in May 2010 as a joint initiative by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural ...
.


Internet censorship

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". On 19 March 2009 it was reported that ACMA's blacklist of banned sites had been leaked online, and had been published by
WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...
. 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. Conroy described the leak and publication of the blacklist as "grossly irresponsible" and that it undermined efforts to improve "cyber safety". 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." In December 2009 "Internet pranksters" registered the domain name stephenconroy.com.au which was swiftly removed by auDA raising concerns 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. 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. In September 2012 Conroy stated:


Resignation from Parliament

Stephen Conroy foreshadowed his resignation from parliament in a tabled speech on 15 September 2016; he resigned on 30 September 2016. On 25 October, a joint sitting of the Victorian Parliament appointed
Kimberley Kitching Kimberley Jane Elizabeth Kitching (16 February 1970 – 10 March 2022) was an Australian politician, lawyer, and trade unionist. A member of the Labor Party, she was a Senator for Victoria from October 2016 until her death. Early life Kitchin ...
as his replacement.


Career after politics

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. In 2017, he joined Sky News Australia as a political commentator.


Personal life

Senator Conroy is a Roman Catholic and socially conservative. While he voted against the abortion drug
RU486 Mifepristone, also known as RU-486, is a medication typically used in combination with misoprostol to bring about a medical abortion during pregnancy and manage early miscarriage. This combination is 97% effective during the first 63 days of p ...
in a conscience vote, 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."
Conroy and his wife, Paula Benson, have one daughter. He was a national volleyball representative as a teenager and was the President of Volleyball Victoria from 2004 to 2019.


See also

* First Rudd Ministry * First Gillard Ministry * Second Gillard Ministry


References


External links


Stephen Conroy's website as minister for DBCDE

Summary of parliamentary voting for Senator Stephen Conroy on TheyVoteForYou.org.au
  {{DEFAULTSORT:Conroy, Stephen 1963 births Living people Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Labor Right politicians Australian National University alumni Australian Roman Catholics Australian people of Irish descent English emigrants to Australia English people of Irish descent English Roman Catholics Members of the Australian Senate for Victoria Members of the Cabinet of Australia Naturalised citizens of Australia Government ministers of Australia People from Ely, Cambridgeshire People who lost British citizenship 21st-century Australian politicians 20th-century Australian politicians People educated at Daramalan College Intelligent Community Forum