Senate ADJOURNMENT SPEECH
25 March 2003
Seven Reports in Seven Years – the Framework of the Future Report (FFF) makes it eight. So where is it?
Senator LUNDY (Australian Capital Territory) (7.07 p.m.)-I rise tonight to address an issue that is of considerable concern not only to many individuals in the information and communications technology industry but also to the industry itself.
The ICT industry in Australia is approaching a watershed in the form of the pending report on the Framework for the Future that has been promised to be tabled, or to be made public at least, in the very near future. That will be about a year after Prime Minister Howard appointed Senator Alston to chair the Framework for the Future committee. This committee is charged with the responsibility of coming up with this government’s final opportunity to state its credentials and get the policy settings right for the information and communications technology industry in this country.
I think I am being extremely generous, from the perspective of a member of the opposition, given that during this government’s period in government there have been no fewer than seven very specific reports that have addressed aspects of the ICT industry and the potential contained within that sector.
These seven reports include Spectator or player: competitiveness of Australia’s information industries by Allen Consulting in March 1997; Going for growth: business programs for investment, innovation and export, or the Mortimer report, in June 1997; Information Industries Taskforce: the global information economy: the way ahead, or the Goldsworthy report, in July 1997; IPAC: a national policy framework for structural adjustment within the new Commonwealth of information, or the Cutler report, in 1997; The IT engine room: SME’s in Australia’s IT&T Industry by the AIIA and the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts in 1999; Australia’s ICT research base: driving the new economy by the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council in 2000; and finally A chance to change: final report by the Chief Scientist, or the Batterham report, in 2000. That was a comprehensive intellectual endeavour by many individuals and organisations to try to get the message through to the coalition government for seven years-seven reports in seven years and the government still cannot get the settings right.
The Framework for the Future report is out there as this spectre, this potential saviour, for the ICT industry, and the industry wants to see it. The government said they would finish that report by 2002. It is now March 2003 and we are still waiting.
Add to this environment the fact that it is the Labor states that have now picked up the mantle of providing leadership on ICT industry development and that are driving forward with the policies that will stimulate competition-for example, in the telecommunications and broadband sector-and that have put in place strategic initiatives and provided leadership to subsectors of ICT, from computer games to supercomputing and to biotechnology and the related informatics in Queensland.
Every state has a far more well developed and articulated vision for ICT than this federal government has ever come up with, despite the seven reports in seven years.
Consider the international experience. Countries around the world put their policy settings in place five, six or seven years ago as they saw the information age bearing down upon them like a train. They knew they had to get their society and economy and policies in order to take advantage of the potential of new technologies, particularly information technology and the Internet.
Time after time I have watched from opposition over the last seven years as other countries have stepped forward and come from behind Australia and moved past us so quickly that we have been left for dead. We have not even come close to realising our potential, economically or socially, in relation to the Internet and information and communications technology because of this government.
What about other factors, such as industry advocacy? I have mentioned the seven reports in seven years, but we have an industry going absolutely berserk with frustration. They know what needs to be done. I think they have been telling the government quite clearly for many years now.
Perhaps if I did have to level a criticism, it is that they tried too hard to get on with this government: they were too keen to get in the door. When that did not work, they really should have been sitting on the outside, demanding that this government respond with a credible policy to what they knew and know is our potential.
Finally there is the role that we have been able to play in opposition, continually bringing the government to account over the neglect of this policy-free zone. We now have a situation where you can assume that there has been relatively little unsaid. There is very little that has not been articulated in a previous report about the elements that would constitute a very positive framework for the future, a specific plan that identified everything that needs to be identified. I must mention Labor’s role in stimulating the debate with the Knowledge Nation report, which identified the ICT sector, as one of four or five key industries, because of its enabling capacity and because of its untapped and unexplored potential in this country, as being worthy of far greater policy attention and public investment.
So that is the history of the report of the FFF, the Framework for the Future, which I think is the last chance for this government to have a plan that reflects Australia’s public interest and really takes advantage of the opportunities that technological change presents to us. Sadly, I do not know whether or not this report is going to be up to it, so I thought I would take this opportunity in the chamber tonight to go through what the terms of reference are, so we can be clear about what the expectation is. I think it was pretty smart that the industry insisted that Senator Alston be the chair of this committee, because he has to take some ownership and he has to be involved. Because I do have quite a high level of confidence in the participants, the members, of this steering committee for the Framework for the Future, I am actually hoping that they have got results.
Senator Boswell-What about Senator Alston? Do you have confidence in Senator Alston?
Senator LUNDY-Senator Boswell, I do not have confidence in Senator Alston but I am being so generous in saying, ‘Here’s your opportunity, Senator Alston. Share with us your credentials to finally get over your reputation as the Luddite of global ICT ministers and politicians.’ I wanted to reflect on that, and you have now given me the opportunity. Accompanying all of this, we have had a minister who has put his head in the sand. Time after time, when an opportunity has been presented to him to support our sector and to take it forward, there has been nothing but a sneering disregard from this minister about the potential of our industry.
The one debate where this is so manifest is the debate about whether we can just get away with being a country of ICT consumers or users or whether we need to make the investment in ICT and produce the goods and look at our high-tech manufacturing sector and understand that the potential for the production of software is completely untapped from a public policy point of view. It is potentially a huge revenue earner. We have done reasonably well in the provision of services but, let’s face it, in a downturn that is the soft area of the ICT economy. That is where the jobs are disappearing now and that is why we have hundreds-thousands-of ICT professionals out of work. The government have emphasised the soft sector so when there is a downturn those jobs are the first to go. There is no ballast or robust underpinning in high-tech manufacturing or in some of the more sophisticated areas developing software to maintain those employment levels. You distracted me, Senator Boswell; I want to get back to the terms of reference.
The development of the framework will be guided by a steering committee chaired by the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. The steering committee will assess the current state of the ICT sector in Australia in a global context and forecast the major drivers of global technological change and the underpinning success factors that will impact on the Australian ICT sector for the next decade. It will identify priority subsectors where Australia’s ICT sector can achieve or enhance world leadership and/or which will underpin ongoing innovation, identify the respective contributions that can be made by government, industry and the research community to the framework and make recommendations to both government and industry on strategies/actions to enable Australia’s ICT sector to take maximum advantage of future opportunities.
It is pretty plain-industry has spelt it out and the terms of reference spell it out. Unless every single one of those questions is answered in this framework for the future report, Senator Alston will not be able to hold his head up. He will not have the respect of ICT professionals or the ICT industry in Australia ever again-and I have to say I do not think he ever has anyway.
