How Stephen Conroy went from digital zero to broadband hero

Tim Burrowes

April 8, 2009 12:33

Yesterday’s announcement on the government’s broadband plan has generated that rarest of things – good PR for digital minister Stephen Conroy.

After months of being made to look technically clueless over his plans for Internet filtering, a figure of fun via the fake Stephen Conroy Twitter persona and out of control of the broadband build process, today has seen almost universally positive press coverage for the minister.

But the stories also throw up a number of intriguing angles.

High on the list is the fact that it didn’t leak to the press ahead of time, creating the unusual spectacle of a press conference with a genuinely surprising announcement. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, this was achieved by keeping the work to a “secret team” of ministers since the plan was formed in January.

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Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.