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Stephen Michael Conroy (born 18 January 1963) is an Australian former politician who was an Australian Labor Party member of the Senate from 1996 to 2016, representing the state of Victoria. He served as a minister in the Rudd and Gillard governments. He resigned from the Senate in September 2016. He has since worked as a lobbyist, political commentator and soccer administrator.
Conroy is a leading member of the Labor Right and was criticised in early 2006 by members of the Labor Left and Simon Crean for working for the replacement of several long-serving MPs with new members, including Bill Shorten, Richard Marles, Mark Dreyfus, Nathan Murphy and Matt Carrick. After Simon Crean's win in the Hotham pre-selection, where Conroy supported Martin Pakula for the position, Crean attacked Conroy repeatedly, calling on him to resign his position as Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate.
In April 2009, Conroy faced criticism after he made comments disparaging the ISP iiNet's defence in a Federal Court case against a number of film studios and Seven Network. Opposition spokesmen described the comments as prejudicial. After iiNet won, Conroy said it was disappointing the two sides had ended up in court. In February 2010, he admitted using his influence to have a former Labor politician Mike Kaiser, take the position of Government Relations and External Affairs Executive with the National Broadband Network. Kaiser was previously forced to retire from the Labor party due to electoral fraud. Also in February 2010, he was reported to have spent some time while on holiday with Kerry Stokes weeks before cutting licence fees that are charged to free-to-air networks, including Stokes' broadcasting Seven Network.
In June 2010, Conroy was criticised by SAGE-AU for "misinformation that verged on fear-mongering" when he suggested Google street view cars could have captured internet banking details in their recording of wireless network traffic, as these are generally exchanged over secure HTTPS connections. In March 2013, he introduced six media reform bills, one of which would have been the establishment of a Public Interest Media Advocate, a government organisation set up to regulate the previously self-regulated media in Australia. After announcing there would be no discussion over the bills, and that they would be passed or failed as a package, he backed down, allowing negotiation with parties who held the balance of power in the senate. The content of the bills were largely condemned by media. Ultimately, only two of the six bills passed, and at that the least controversial ones. Should he have introduced the 7 bills, the controversy may have been surpassed.
In December 2009 "Internet pranksters" registered the domain name stephenconroy.com.au which was swiftly removed by auDA, raising concerns about auDA's political neutrality and the further potential for suppression of political speech after the proposed mandatory Internet filter is legislated.
In May 2010, Conroy was accused of deliberately misrepresenting iiNet's position with regards to the new internet filter. His department could also not say where he obtained other figures from, such as how he believes that 85% of ISPs support the new filter.
In September 2012 Conroy stated:
On 25 October, a joint sitting of the Victorian Parliament appointed Kimberley Kitching as his replacement.
In 2023 Conroy became the Independent Chairman of the Australian Professional Leagues, the organisation responsible for administration of the A-Leagues professional soccer competitions.
"I think the point I made was that while I would prefer there to be a parliamentary framework for the RU486, I think it was, debate, if the actual issue was before Parliament I would probably vote for the distribution of the pill. People often say, oh no Steve's a conservative Catholic, but they won't ever find on my voting record something that backs that up. I voted against the Northern Territory's euthanasia legislation. I voted for some of the cloning debate. So I voted in, I like to consider the issues on their merits and I voted what some would characterise as conservatively and some would characterise as progressively on a number of issues."
When a bill seeking to legalise same-sex marriage was debated by the Senate in 2012, Conroy was one of 11 Labor Senators to vote against the legislation. By the time of Conroy's resignation, Labor Party policy supported same-sex marriage and bound its MPs to vote in favour of legislation from the end of the 2016–19 parliamentary term.
He was a national volleyball representative as a teenager and was the President of Volleyball Victoria from 2004 to 2019. Profile , volleyballvictoria.com.au; accessed 18 September 2014.
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Categories: 1963 Births, Living People, Australian Labor Party Members Of The Parliament Of Australia, Labor Right Politicians, Australian National University Alumni, Australian Roman Catholics, Australian People Of Irish Descent, English Emigrants To Australia, English People Of Irish Descent, English Roman Catholics, Members Of The Australian Senate For Victoria, Members Of The Australian Senate, Members Of The Cabinet Of Australia, Naturalised Citizens Of Australia, People From Ely, Cambridgeshire, People Who Lost British Citizenship, 21st-century Australian Politicians, 20th-century Australian Politicians, People Educated At Daramalan College, Intelligent Community Forum, Australian Professional Leagues
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