Coalition won't support internet filter: report

The Liberal-National Coalition will scrap Labor's mandatory internet filter proposal should it gain power in this month's election, according to reports.

Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey reportedly told ABC-owned radio station Triple J's Hack program that the Coalition believed the filter policy was "flawed" and "will not work".

"It is not going to capture a whole lot of images and chatter that we all find offensive ... that are going through email," Hockey said.

The policy announcement was welcomed almost immediately by the Greens and the Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA).

EFA chair Colin Jacobs said that with the Greens "long record" of opposition to the filter regime, "Mr Hockey's announcement means that Labor's legislation is effectively dead on arrival in the Senate."

"The Opposition are very welcome among the ranks of those many organisations and individuals that see the filter as a policy failure," Jacobs said.

"We call on Minister Conroy and the Gillard Government to now admit the mandatory filter policy is dead, and to move on to a debate more grounded in reality."

Greens communications spokesman Scott Ludlam agreed that Labor "should drop the censorship proposal rather than fighting what now looks inevitable".

"Tonight belongs to the huge number of people who contributed to a tenacious self-organised campaign that stretched from online civil libertarians all the way up to the US Department of State," Ludlam said.

"The Australian Greens will work with any party in the parliament on constructive cyber safety proposals. At last that debate can start properly."

The Government delayed any action on the filter until after a review of the refused classification (RC) guidelines, expected to take at least a year.

The Coalition had, just hours before, been critical of the Government's policy, without openly stating a policy of its own.

"The best internet filter a child can have is a parent that is engaged in what their children do and see on the internet," the Coalition stated.