Conroy promises to release ISP-level filtering report

Senator Conroy has committed to the public release of a report based on the data gleaned from the Federal Government's trial of ISP-level internet filtering.

"The Government has committed to publicly release the trial report prepared by the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy on the results of the live pilot trial," a spokesman for the Communications Minister told iTnews.

The report will be prepared internally by the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) and based on data collected by Enex TestLab during the trial it has conducted with nine Australian internet service providers (ISPs).

It is not known if the report will include the total sum of the data Enex TestLab was commissioned to provide, nor when the Department will make the findings public.

Earlier this month Senator Conroy told iTnews that the DBCDE would be receiving a report from the Enex TestLab by September.

Managing Director of Enex TestLab, Matt Tett, confirmed with iTnews that the lab is preparing a report for DBCDE's consumption.

Tett said that due to a non-disclosure agreement between Enex and the Federal Government, the lab is not permitted to release its findings to the public via any other conduit than the DBCDE.

But he said the government shouldn't have an issue with releasing all the data in Enex's report.

"We write our reports in such a way that allows them to be released without them having commercial-in-confidence information," he said. "If there was any commercial-in-confidence information within the report it'd be easy to remove without it making no sense."

A spokesperson for shadow communications minister Nick Minchin said it was hoped Senator Conroy would exhibit greater transparency on the internet filtering trial than it's "current record" of suppressing reports.

This year the Government has suppressed an expert panels' report on the National Broadband Network (NBN), a "secret letter" suggesting a way forward for the NBN and an ACCC report on regulation surrounding the NBN.

"For him (Senator Conroy) to be fair dinkum, we'd expect his department to release the report and any data sets accompanying it," the spokesperson said.

The DBCDE has spent close to $300,000 on the ISP-level filtering pilot this year. This figure does not include involvement of Enex TestLab in the filtering pilot.