By Monique Ross
Video: Technology reporter Jake Sturmer on the Coalition's backflip (Lateline)
Photo: Malcolm Turnbull later admitted to having only seen the policy a short time before the interview. (AAP: Dan Himbrechts, file photo)
Labor has seized on a stunning Coalition backflip on plans to enforce an opt-out internet filter, saying it shows the party has hidden agendas.
Late yesterday it emerged the Coalition had released a policy which would have blocked adult content on internet and phone services, and people would have to opt out if they wanted unfiltered content.
But just hours later - after communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull defended the plan during an interview with triple j's Hack - the policy was retracted.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has blamed a lack of "quality control" for the error, but that explanation has done little to dispel a storm of Labor criticism.
Key points
- Coalition policy proposed opt-out filtering of adult content for all internet and mobile services.
- The policy document which was released only yesterday said the filter would be based on what "has recently been achieved in the UK".
- Australians could deactivate the filter by contacting their ISP with proof they are 18+.
- Coalition figures Malcolm Turnbull and Paul Fletcher originally defended the policy.
- By yesterday evening the Coalition backtracked, saying the policy was a "mistake" and poorly worded.
- Read the original policy document here (page 7 on filtering).
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has labelled the announcement a "debacle" that reveals a party in "policy shambles", and his deputy Anthony Albanese says voters should think twice when they head to the polls tomorrow.
"We saw it released in the afternoon and it didn't last until the evening," he said.
"How many other policies do they have in their bottom draw that they don't want to tell Australians about?
"People will think to themselves before they cast their vote on Saturday - are these people really worth the risk?"
Treasurer Chris Bowen has also rounded on the bungled policy, which would have marked a stark change in the Coalition's stance on censorship.
"This is policy on the sprint. It's a policy that's lasted less than a few hours," he told Lateline.
"We have this running away from it at a million miles an hour and an attempt to cover it up by saying it was a typo or a badly worded document, and it's simply not true.
Video: Bowen says policy backflip is a farce (Lateline)
"It really goes to the heart of the policy preparation of the Opposition and whether they can be trusted with government."
Greens Senator Scott Ludlam has accused the Coalition of trying to sneak the policy in just days before the election.
"This is a complex policy document. It's clearly had a lot of work go into it," he said.
"The idea that they would release it five minutes to midnight so that people will have no time to assess what's in it is actually a very dangerous way to do policy."
Turnbull defends policy, then backtracks
The Opposition document on enhancing child safety online originally said an Abbott government would force mobile phone operators and internet service providers (ISPs) to install filtering services to block adult content.
How many other policies do they have in their bottom draw that they don't want to tell Australians about?
Anthony Albanese
The campaign soon went into damage control, releasing a statement saying it was a poorly-worded mistake, but party figures had already been talking about the plan.
"The filter will be contained in software installed in either people's smartphones or modems – if they've got broad fixed line broadband, which can be disabled at their option," Mr Turnbull told triple j's Hack.
Mr Turnbull later admitted to having only seen the policy a short time before the interview and was doing his best to "make sense of it".
"It was published as a policy by the campaign headquarters and I did my best to explain it as I'm bound to do as a member of the team," he said.
"But it was clearly a mistake and I obviously had to speak to some of my colleagues and get the matter corrected, which it has now been authoritatively corrected."
Video: ZDNet journalist says Coalition spokesman confirmed opt-out policy (ABC News)
Liberal MP Paul Fletcher, who heads the Coalition's working group on online safety, had also defended the plan while talking to technology website ZDNet Australia.
ZDNet journalist Josh Taylor says he was "surprised" when he heard Mr Fletcher's remarks.
He says a Coalition spokesman had also confirmed that the opt-out system was indeed the Coalition's policy.
"Essentially, they told me yesterday at around 5.00 that this was the policy they were going with. It was going to be an opt-out internet filter," he told ABC News Breakfast.
"It was going to be something that people would have installed on either their home device or it would be on their mobile phone and the only way you could get out of it is if you called up your internet service provider and said, "I want to access adult content'."
Abbott blames poor wording for error
Mr Abbott has admitted to reading the policy statement "quickly" but says it was not clearly worded and he thought it referred to PC-based filters.
He says the Coalition does not support internet filtering and this is the first time anybody has been able to find "a lack of clarity" in their policies.
"I'm sorry that it was poorly worded but that's been cleared up... we don't support filtering the internet. We don't support censoring the internet," he said.
"We have released, I think it is now up to 800 pages of policy, and this is the first time anyone has been able to find a lack of clarity in any of our policy.
I'm sorry that it was poorly worded but that's been cleared up... we don't support filtering the internet.
Tony Abbott
"I am happy to submit myself and to submit our work to the judgment of the Australian people."
The Opposition Leader earlier gave an insight into one of the reasons he thinks Australians do not need Labor's fibre to the home National Broadband Network.
"So many people use their laptop with various wi-fi systems and with modems and so on. One of the reasons why we don't need to dig up every street for the NBN is because these days it's actually mobile systems that people use half the time," he said.
Almost a year ago, the Labor government scrapped its own proposal for a filter amid fierce criticism.
Instead of a filter, then communications minister Stephen Conroy announced that ISPs would be forced to block websites listed on Interpol's "worst of" database - such as those that provide child pornography.
Read the original policy's wording on filtering:
As has recently been achieved in the UK, we expect these standards will involve mobile phone operators installing adult content filters on phones which will be switched on as the default unless the customer proves he or she is at least 18 years of age.
The Coalition will work with internet service providers (which provide fixed line broadband services to the home) to develop online safety standards for those services, recognising that they are very often accessed by children. As has recently been achieved in the UK, we expect these standards will involve the major internet service providers providing home network filters for all new home broadband services, which will be switched on as the default unless the customer specifies otherwise.
The original document has been made available here
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Election analysis
