Stephen Michael Conroy was born on 18 January 1963 and is an Australian former politician who was an Australian Labor Party member of the Senate from 1996 to 2016, representing the state of Victoria.
16 Facts About Stephen Conroy
2.
Stephen Conroy served as a minister in the Rudd and Gillard governments.
3.
Stephen Conroy obtained a Bachelor of Economics at the Australian National University in Canberra.
4.
Stephen Conroy moved to Melbourne to pursue a political career where he met Robert Ray, and served for a time as Superannuation Officer with the Transport Workers Union and as a City of Footscray councillor.
5.
Stephen Conroy was appointed to the Senate in 1996 when Gareth Evans resigned to contest a seat in the Lower House.
6.
In October 1998, Stephen Conroy joined the Opposition Shadow Ministry and in 2001 became Deputy Opposition Leader in the Senate.
7.
Stephen Conroy was Shadow Minister for Trade, Corporate Governance and Financial Services from 2003 to 2004, and became Shadow Minister for Communications and Information Technology in October 2004.
8.
Stephen 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.
9.
In June 2010, Stephen 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.
10.
Stephen Conroy was Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy in the First Rudd, First Gillard and Second Gillard Ministries.
11.
Stephen Conroy faced severe criticism over his Internet censorship policies from various groups.
12.
Stephen Conroy described the leak and publication of the blacklist as "grossly irresponsible" and that it undermined efforts to improve "cyber safety".
13.
In May 2010, Stephen Conroy was accused of deliberately misrepresenting iiNet's position with regards to the new internet filter.
14.
Stephen Conroy foreshadowed his resignation from parliament in a tabled speech on 15 September 2016; he resigned on 30 September 2016.
15.
In December 2016 it was announced that Stephen Conroy would be head of a new industry body for the gambling industry, Responsible Wagering Australia, backed by bookmakers CrownBet, Sportsbet, Betfair, Unibet and Bet365.
16.
Stephen Conroy was a national volleyball representative as a teenager and was the President of Volleyball Victoria from 2004 to 2019.