The internet filter is dead! Long live the filter!

In a few short sentences, Mr Hockey killed the proposal. telling the Triple J current affairs program Hack that the opposition would oppose the policy, that it was bad policy, and that it would instead revert to the Howard Government policy of giving away filter software to end-users for free.

And that we would hear more about the policy soon.

As shadow communications spokesman, Tony Smith might have preferred to unveil such a strategically important election policy himself, and been given the chance to put the policy into some kind of context.

And God help Mr Smith if the policy was not already generally known among the Coalition front bench and back bench. Because if the shadow Treasurer let slip the plan to oppose the filter before colleagues like Guy Barnett or Cory Bernardi – among others – had been fully briefed, there would have been hell to pay (and it would be Tony Smith paying it.)

Because regardless of what kind of instant hero Tony Smith might have become today among opponents of the filter – it was an idea that held considerable support on both sides of politics.

And among Liberals and Nationals, there were strong voices on both sides of the debate – many in favour of siding with the Government on mandatory filtering, and many opposed.

What Tony Smith is going to have to explain to colleagues is why he is rejecting a complaints-based policy that used a URL blacklist that Labor effectively shanghai’d from the Howard Government.

The difference is that whereas the previous Government's blacklist applied only to domestically-hosted content, the proposed mandatory ISP-level filter was to have applied to offshore content as well.

If those content standards are good enough to be applied locally, why should content imported from overseas be treated any differently is one question he might be called on to discuss by colleagues.

Mr Smith is expected to provide more detail on the policy in the next several days, and the filter issue is almost certain to get an airing at the Communications debate next Tuesday at the National Press Club, in which Stephen Conroy, Tony Smith and Greens spokesman Scott Ludlam will share a stage.

Read on at source