Conroy wants telcos to wear undies on heads
And make them red, says Conroy as he brags of “unfettered power”
Ensure Ease of Recovery with Asigra’s Agentless Software
Australia's Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Stephen Conroy has bragged of his unfettered power to command local telcos, saying it gives him the power to compel them to wear red underpants on their collective heads.
Conroy's remarks were made at the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information conference in the USA last week. The context for the comment was Australia's imminent spectrum sale, which like others around the world will be conducted as an auction.
Conroy's speech saw him point out that Australia's auction rules differ from those in other nations, because the Minister has executive power to set the rules for the sale, to the extent that:
“If I say to you, everyone in this room, that if you want to bid next week in our spectrum auction, you had better wear red underpants on your head, I have got news for you: you'll be wearing them on your head. I have unfettered legal power.”
Inevitably, someone with a camera in the audience recorded the speech posted the results to YouTube.
While the comments are, prima facie, rather startling, they can also be construed as a colourful way of describing Australia's telecoms regulation landscape.
The reportedly teetotal Conroy is not generally gaffe-prone, but has acquired many fierce critics thanks largely to his backing of a policy to create a national internet filter for Australia. The antipodean nation has also recently tabled data retention proposals that have earned the ire of civil libertarians and the attention of Anonymous. ®
COMMENTS
"I have unfettered legal power"
His next words should be "I have no Job".
Seriously - that level of arrogance is dangerous in any democracy.
What a coc.
Seriously this is the type of parliamentarians that we have fostered in this once beautiful country, what is even more laughable than this type of elitist behaviour is that a majority of our MP's especially our ginga leader are paid more than our Yankee brethren! (Sorry to say far more than our English ones by far as well)
I mean come on, running a country of 23m vs. running a country of 300m not to mention that in all aspects of scale we are one of the smaller western nations compared to the G8 (I think we just make it into the G20 :) and we have a PM that pays itself <--intentional use> far more than the Yankee presso!
I digress though. Conroy is a coc---k and now we have video evidence, (like we needed it!)
Re: What a coc.
Arrogance is ugly and this guy oozes arrogance. I have no doubt he will lose his seat at the next general election.
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Steps to Take Before Choosing a Business Continuity Partner
Requirements Checklist for Choosing a Cloud Backup and Recovery Service Provider
Data control in the cloud
