The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy is currently Senator the Hon Stephen Conroy

Stephen Conroy

Stephen Michael Conroy is an Australian politician and the current Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy in the Gillard Ministry...

. He replaced Senator the Hon Helen Coonan

Helen Coonan

Helen Lloyd Coonan is a former Australian politician, who was a Liberal member of the Australian Senate representing New South Wales from July 1996 to August 2011.-Early life:...

 (Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) on 3 December 2007.

Portfolio

The current Minister, Stephen Conroy

Stephen Conroy

Stephen Michael Conroy is an Australian politician and the current Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy in the Gillard Ministry...

 has overall responsibility for all of the matters falling within the Communications and Information Technology industry:

• Broadcasting
  Broadcasting
  Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
  
  
• Information and Communications Technology Industry
• Information economy
  Information economy
  Information economy is a term that characterizes an economy with an increased emphasis on informational activities and information industry.The vagueness of the term has three major sources...
  
  
• Telecommunications

Agency and bodies

Portfolio agencies and bodies include:

• Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
• Australian Broadcasting Corporation
  Australian Broadcasting Corporation
  The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
  
  
• Australian Communications and Media Authority
  Australian Communications and Media Authority
  The Australian Communications and Media Authority is an Australian government statutory authority within the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy portfolio...
  
  
• Australian Postal Corporation
• Special Broadcasting Service
  Special Broadcasting Service
  The Special Broadcasting Service is a hybrid-funded Australian public broadcasting radio and television network. The stated purpose of SBS is "to provide multilingual and multicultural radio and television services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect...
  
  
• NBNCo

The Communications Department was also responsible for Telstra

Telstra

Telstra Corporation Limited is an Australian telecommunications and media company, building and operating telecommunications networks and marketing voice, mobile, internet access and pay television products and services....

 until 1997 when the then new Howard Government

First Howard Ministry

The First Howard Ministry was the sixty-first Australian Commonwealth ministry....

 decided to privatize it completely. The Australian Government has recently bought back infrastructure from its former agency, Telstra in order to decrease the cost of construction of the National Broadband Network to taxpayers.

Australian Postmasters-General and Ministers for Communications

The minister responsible for telecommunications policy has had various titles but from 1901 until December 1975 it was always Postmaster-General, in charge of the Postmaster-General's Department

Postmaster-General's Department

The Postmaster-General's Department was created at Federation in 1901 to control all postal services within Australia. Its minister was the Postmaster-General. In mid-1975 it was disaggregated into the Australian Telecommunications Commission and the Australian Postal Commission...

.

Minister	Party affiliation	Period	Ministerial Title
John Forrest John Forrest Sir John Forrest GCMG was an Australian explorer, the first Premier of Western Australia and a cabinet minister in Australia's first federal parliament....	Protectionist Protectionist Party The Protectionist Party was an Australian political party, formally organised from 1889 until 1909, with policies centred on protectionism. It argued that Australia needed protective tariffs to allow Australian industry to grow and provide employment. It had its greatest strength in Victoria and in...	1901	Postmaster-General
James Drake James Drake James George Drake , Australian politician, was a member of the first federal ministry.Drake was born in London and educated at King's College School, and migrated to Australia in 1873, working as a storekeeper and journalist in Queensland...		1901–1903
Philip Fysh Philip Fysh Sir Philip Oakley Fysh, KCMG was an Australian politician, Premier of Tasmania and a member of the first federal ministry....		1903–1904
Hugh Mahon Hugh Mahon Hugh Mahon was an Irish-born Australian politician and a member of the first Commonwealth Parliament for the Australian Labor Party...	Labor Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...	1904
Sydney Smith Sydney Smith (Australian politician) -Early years:Born in Colyton, near Penrith, west of Sydney, the son of a hotel keeper, Smith was educated at public schools before gaining work with the railways...	Free Trade Free Trade Party The Free Trade Party which was officially known as the Australian Free Trade and Liberal Association, also referred to as the Revenue Tariff Party in some states and renamed the Anti-Socialist Party in 1906, was an Australian political party, formally organised between 1889 and 1909...	1904–1905
Austin Chapman Austin Chapman Sir Austin Chapman KCMG , Australian politician, was a member of several early federal ministries. He was born in Bong Bong near Bowral, New South Wales and educated at Marulan Public School and was apprenticed as a saddler at an early age...	Protectionist	1905–1902
Samuel Mauger Samuel Mauger Samuel Mauger was an Australian social reformer, hat manufacturing unionist and a Protectionist politician.-Early life:...		1907–1908
Josiah Thomas Josiah Thomas Josiah Thomas was an Cornish Australian miner and politician.Thomas was born in Camborne, Cornwall, UK and went to Mexico as a child with his father and later worked in mines in Cornwall. He travelled to Australia in the mid-1880s and worked at the Barrier Range, near Broken Hill...	Labor	1908–1909
John Quick John Quick (politician) Sir John Quick , Australian politician and author, was the federal Member of Parliament for Bendigo from 1901 to 1913 and a leading delegate to the constitutional conventions of the 1890s.-Early life:...	Commonwealth Liberal Commonwealth Liberal Party The Commonwealth Liberal Party was a political movement active in Australia from 1909 to 1916, shortly after federation....	1909–1910
Josiah Thomas Josiah Thomas Josiah Thomas was an Cornish Australian miner and politician.Thomas was born in Camborne, Cornwall, UK and went to Mexico as a child with his father and later worked in mines in Cornwall. He travelled to Australia in the mid-1880s and worked at the Barrier Range, near Broken Hill...	Labor	1910–1911
Charles Frazer Charles Frazer (Australian politician) Charles Edward Frazer was an Australian politician.Frazer was born in Yarrawonga, Victoria and educated locally until he was 15, when he left for Western Australia during its goldrush...		1911–1913
Agar Wynne Agar Wynne Agar Wynne was an Australian politician.Wynne was born in London, but his family emigrated to Australia when he was a child. He educated at Melbourne Church of England Grammar School and enrolled in an articled clerk's course at the University of Melbourne and was admitted as an attorney in July...	Commonwealth Liberal	1913–1914
William Spence William Spence William Guthrie Spence , Australian trade union leader and politician, played a leading role in the formation of both Australia's largest union, the Australian Workers Union, and the Australian Labor Party.-Early life:...	Labor	1914–1915
William Webster William Webster (Australian politician) William Webster was an Australian politician. Born in Everton, Lancashire in England, he was the son of John Webster, a labourer, and Elizabeth, née Poynton. Leaving school at 13, Webster migrated to New South Wales in 1879 and, having quarried stone at Pyrmont and saved prodigiously, was able to...	Labor/Nationalist Nationalist Party of Australia The Nationalist Party of Australia was an Australian political party. It was formed on 17 February 1917 from a merger between the conservative Commonwealth Liberal Party and the National Labor Party, the name given to the pro-conscription defectors from the Australian Labor Party led by Prime...	1915–1920
George Wise George Wise George Henry Wise was an Australian politician and solicitor.Wise was born in Melbourne and educated at Scotch College from five years of age to he matriculated in 1868. He became an articled clerk and was admitted to the bar in September 1874 and set up his own practice in 1877 in Sale...	Nationalist	1920–1921
Alexander Poynton Alexander Poynton Alexander Poynton, OBE, , was an inaugural member of the Australian House of Representatives.Born in Castlemaine, Victoria to Alexander, who took part in the Eureka Stockade rebellion, and Rosanna Poynton, Poynton left school at 14 to work as a shearer, station-hand and miner, and marry Harriet...		1921–1923
William Gibson		1923–1929
Joseph Lyons Joseph Lyons Joseph Aloysius Lyons, CH was an Australian politician. He was Labor Premier of Tasmania from 1923 to 1928 and a Minister in the James Scullin government from 1929 until his resignation from the Labor Party in March 1931...	Labor	1929–1931
Albert Green		1931–1932
James Fenton James Fenton (Australian politician) James Edward Fenton CMG was an Australian politician. He is notable for having been appointed a cabinet minister by two governments of different political complexions, but resigning from both governments on matters of principle.Born at Nette Yallock, near Avoca, Victoria, Fenton was educated at a...	United Australia United Australia Party The United Australia Party was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. It was the political successor to the Nationalist Party of Australia and predecessor to the Liberal Party of Australia...	1932
Archdale Parkhill Archdale Parkhill Sir Robert Archdale Parkhill KCMG was an Australian politician. He was born at Paddington in Sydney to Robert Parkhill, a stonemason, and Isabella, née Chisholm. He attended Paddington and Waverley Public schools and became known as an excellent sportsman, participating in cricket, fencing, boxing...		1932–1934
Alexander McLachlan Alexander McLachlan Alexander John McLachlan was an Australian politician.McLachlan was born in Naracoorte, South Australia and educated at Hamilton Academy, and Mount Gambier High School. He was an articled clerk in Mount Gambier and completed the Final Certificate in Law at the University of Adelaide in 1895. He...		1934–1938
Archie Cameron Archie Cameron Archie Galbraith Cameron , was an Australian politician. He was Leader of the Country Party 1939-40, and Speaker of the House of Representatives 1950-56.-Biography:...	Country National Party of Australia The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...	1938–1939
Eric Harrison Eric Harrison Sir Eric John Harrison KCMG KCVO was an Australian politician who became the first Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia....	United Australia	1939–1940
Harold Thorby Harold Thorby Harold Victor Campbell Thorby was an Australian politician and government minister.-Early life:Thorby was born in the Sydney suburb of Annandale and was educated at Geurie Public School and Sydney Grammar School and worked on his grandparents' farm at Geurie. He studied woolclassing, veterinary...		1939–1940
George McLeay George McLeay George McLeay was an Australian politician and senior minister in the Menzies Liberal government.McLeay was born in Port Clinton, South Australia and educated at Port Clinton Public School until 1906 when he was sent to Adelaide where he continued his education at Unley Public School...		1940–1941
Thomas Collins Thomas Collins (Australian politician) Thomas Joseph "Tom" Collins was an Australian politician and stock and station agent, born at Yass, New South Wales to storekeeper John Collins and Mary, née Hartigan. In 1902, having attended the local Catholic school, he enlisted in the 5th Battalion, Australian Commonwealth Horse, to fight in...		1941
Bill Ashley	Labor	1941–1945
Don Cameron		1945–1949
Larry Anthony Hubert Lawrence Anthony Hubert Lawrence "Larry" Anthony , Australian politician, founded the only three-generation dynasty in the history of the Australian House of Representatives....	Country	1949–1956
Charles Davidson Charles Davidson Sir Charles William Davidson KBE was an Australian politician. He attended Townsville Grammar School in 1912 and 1913. He served in World War I and on his return was a dairy farmer and later grew sugar cane. During World War II, he served in the 42nd Battalion of the Australian Army in New...		1956–1963
Alan Hulme Alan Hulme Sir Alan Shallcross Hulme KBE was an Australian politician, accountant and cattle breeder. He was born in the Sydney suburb of Mosman and moved to Queensland before World War II, where he practised as an accountant...	Liberal Liberal Party of Australia The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...	1963–1972
Lionel Bowen Lionel Bowen Lionel Frost Bowen AC , Australian politician, was a senior Labor Party figure, serving in the ministries of Gough Whitlam and Bob Hawke...	Labor	1972–1974
Reg Bishop Reg Bishop Reginald Bishop AO was an Australian politician. He was born in Adelaide and left school at fifteen and became a clerk in the South Australian Railways at the Islington Railway Workshops. He was an official of the Australian Railways Union from 1937 until 1956 and Secretary of the South...		1974–1975
Peter Nixon Peter Nixon Peter James Nixon AO is a former Australian politician representing the National Party ....	National Country National Party of Australia The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...	1975–1975
Victor Garland Victor Garland Sir Victor Garland KBE , usually known as Vic Garland, is an Australian former politician, Australian High Commissioner in the United Kingdom and director of many UK and US public companies. A Liberal Party member of the Australian House of Representatives, he represented the Division of Curtin in...	Liberal	1975–1976	Minister for Post and Telecommunications
Eric Robinson Eric Robinson (Australian politician) Eric Laidlaw Robinson was an Australian politician.Robinson took over his family's sporting goods business and built it up from a single store into a chain along the Queensland coast. He was president of the Queensland branch of the Liberal Party in from 1968 to 1973. He was elected to the...		1976–1977
Tony Staley Tony Staley Anthony Allan Staley, AO is an Australian politician, member of parliament and businessman....		1977–1980
Ian Sinclair Ian Sinclair Ian McCahon Sinclair AC , is an Australian politician and former leader of the National Party of Australia.Sinclair was born in Sydney, the son of a suburban accountant. He was educated at Knox Grammar School and at the University of Sydney, where he graduated in arts and law...	National Country	1980–1982	Minister for Communications
Neil Brown Neil Brown (Australian politician) Neil Anthony Brown, QC is an Australian lawyer, arbitrator, mediator and former Member of the Federal Parliament of Australia and Minister in the Federal Government....	Liberal	1982–1983
Michael Duffy Michael Duffy (politician) Michael John Duffy, ONZ , Australian politician, was an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives for the Division of Holt from 1980 to 1996...	Labor	1983–1987
Gareth Evans Gareth Evans (politician) Gareth John Evans, AO, QC , is a former Australian politician from 1978 to 1999 representing the Australian Labor Party, serving in a number of ministries including Attorney-General and Foreign Minister from 1983 to 1996 in the Hawke and Keating governments. He was president and chief executive...		1987–1988	Minister for Transport and Communications
Ralph Willis Ralph Willis Ralph Willis AO , Australian politician, was Treasurer for the final years of the Keating Labor Government.-Career:Willis was born in Melbourne to Stan and Doris Willis and educated at Footscray Central School, University High School and Melbourne University, gaining a Bachelor of Commerce degree...		1988–1990
Kim Beazley Kim Beazley In the October 1998 election, Labor polled a majority of the two-party vote and received the largest swing to a first-term opposition since 1934. However, due to the uneven nature of the swing, Labor came up eight seats short of making Beazley Prime Minister....		1990–1991
John Kerin John Kerin John Charles Kerin, AM is an Australian economist and former Australian Labor Party politician.-Career in politics:...		1991
Graham Richardson Graham Richardson Graham Frederick Richardson , a former Australian politician, was a Senator for New South Wales from 1983–94 for the Australian Labor Party, a senior minister in Hawke and Keating governments, and is now a political lobbyist, public speaker, and media commentator. During his time in politics,...		1991–1992
Bob Collins*		1992–1993
David Beddall David Beddall David Peter Beddall is a former Australian politician.Beddall was born in Manchester, England and was employed by the Commonwealth Bank and was a self-employed commercial finance consultant before he entered parliament. He was elected as Australian Labor Party member for the seat of Rankin in... *		1993	Minister for Communications
Michael Lee Michael Lee (Australian politician) Michael John Lee is an Australian Labor politician. He was a member of the House of Representatives 1984–2001, a minister in Paul Keating's government, and a member of the City of Sydney Council 2004–08....		1993–1994
		1994–1996	Minister for Communications and the Arts
Richard Alston Richard Alston (politician) Richard Kenneth Robert Alston was a Liberal member of the Australian Senate from 1986 to 2004, representing the state of Victoria....	Liberal	1996–1997
		1997–1998	Minister for Communications, the Information Economy and the Arts
		1998–2003	Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts
Daryl Williams Daryl Williams Daryl Robert Williams AM QC , Australianpolitician, was a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives from March 1993 to October 2004, representing the Division of Tangney, Western Australia.-Biography:...		2003–2004
Helen Coonan Helen Coonan Helen Lloyd Coonan is a former Australian politician, who was a Liberal member of the Australian Senate representing New South Wales from July 1996 to August 2011.-Early life:...		2004–2007
Stephen Conroy Stephen Conroy Stephen Michael Conroy is an Australian politician and the current Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy in the Gillard Ministry...	Labor	2007–	Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy

• David Beddall was a junior minister who had served concurrently as Minister For Communications with his Cabinet colleague, Transport and Communications Minister Bob Collins from 24 March to 24 December 1993.