It is certainly rare that communications arises as an important election issue. Although we have seen important issues such as media ownership play a part in previous election campaigns, the scope of the communications policy at question in the 2010 election is sure to keep Senator Conroy’s Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy in the news for the coming weeks.

By all accounts Senator Conroy has had a patchy, but certainly high profile first term in his increasingly significant portfolio. For the first time the communications agenda is almost completely dominated not by broadcasting or the press, but by the Internet. Senator Conroy’s two equally polarising policies, regarding Internet censorship and the National Broadband Network (NBN) are both key issues in this campaign, and are also clear points of difference to the proposed policy of the opposition.

Both policies, when looked at broadly, seem to be somewhat contradictory. The NBN is a ‘once-in-a-generation’ commitment by the Government to open up the full possibilities of broadband to the Australian public. The promised super fast speeds (around 100mps) seems to suggest that the government is fully committed to opening up this resource for use by the Australian people. Conroy himself has talked of the network as opening up the possibilities of the Internet to people’s fingertips.

However, at the same time, Labour seem to be intent to try and reign in the potentials of the Internet by imposing a filtering system, which by most accounts would not only restrict the open nature of the net, but also slow speeds for consumers. Not surprisingly there has been significant backlash to the filtering system, and as such the Prime Minister has recently watered down Labour’s intentions, but the will does seem to be there to try and impart some kind of control.

The Opposition on the other hand have strongly opposed both policies, therefore landing itself in a similarly contradictory position. Tony Abbott, and a host of his colleagues have lambasted the NBN for its size and cost, and have promised to significantly change the policy if elected. This issue plays squarely into their ‘Labour = Big Government’ narrative, and they have been able to tie in their policy to their belief in the market as a driving force for industry, whether that allows for a super-fast, open broadband for Australians or not.

Interestingly they have also come out in opposition to the Internet filter. Opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey has labelled it a ‘flawed’ system, and has called for a return to the Howard-era tactic of relying on parent’s to monitor their children’s use of the web. Their stance seems to suggest that the Internet should be allowed to continue as an un-filtered open space, as opposed to the restrictive policy being presented by the Government.

Whilst these issues are perhaps not ‘election-deciders’, they are undoubtedly important. Both parties have taken up strong positions and seem unwilling to find a compromise. Australian’s use the Internet in more and more devices everyday, and therefore these issues will be of great interest to the public at large. Which party can convince the public that they have the right plan in place remains to be seen.

Blaise Murphet is in his final year of the Master (MA) of Global Media and Communication at the University of Melbourne