According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there were 6.14 million household internet subscribers at December 31, 2007. At a rate of $10 per user per year, the ongoing cost to Australian Internet users would be about $61.4 million per annum.

The censorship was uncovered when a visitor to the tourist town found that his searches for “Whakatane” were rejected, with the Freenet website offering the explanation that “the content is filtered so this service is for legitimate use”.