Senator Stephen Conroy – the great Canberra Communications Cluebie – was interviewed on ABC Radio National Breakfast this morning – (19 February 2010) – in regards to a recent substantial ($250M) financial gesture to Australia’s commercial television networks.

The context of the following portion of the discussion was IPTV and how it might effect minimum Australian content regulations, so I have to admit that the context is not specifically in regards to internet filtering, however the interesting sound bite, spoken from his very mouth, is “You can’t regulate the internet”. Take extra special note of the “very pregnant pause” when he realises what he said! A full download of the interview is available here.

Okay – this comment was specifically in the context of IPTV, but if you can’t regulate the internet in terms of IPTV, how can you regulate it in terms of anything else? How is IPTV content any different to any other internet content?