Senator Lundy opened the AuDA Australia and New Zealand Best Practice Awards event last month with this short pre-recorded video.
Entries close for the awards the 31st August 2009, and information is available here: http://www.bestpracticeawards.org.au/
Transcript:
Hello everyone. I’m really pleased to be here as part of the launch – albeit by recording – of the Australian and New Zealand Best Practise Awards. It’s a terrific initiative and occuring during a week when there is lots going on in relation to the Internet. I particularly want to mention ICANN who I know are meeting at this time. It’s an incredibly important organisation that looks at all of the issues confronting the domain name system right around the world, and I acknowledge the work particularly of a number of Australians.
Formally a very active member here in the National Office of Information Economy, Dr Paul Twomey and his role now with ICANN. I’d also like to acknowledge Chris DeSpain and his work.
The Internet still remains at the forefront of many Govenrment initiatives and many business initiatives. It’s driving new economies right around the world, and it sits at the heart I think of many of the economic recovery strategies that governments now are very focused on as we’re in the grip of the global financial crisis. So I’d like to commend the work of all of you, that you’re doing to promote the role that the Internet plays and the care we have to take in administering the Internet around the world.
In Australia with the advent of a sensational new policy if I may say so by the Labor Government – the National Broadband Network – how we use the Internet as a society is once again at the forefront of political and public discussion. For my part as a Government Senator I’m busy innovating myself, using my new Public Sphere environment to promote debate and participation in developing policy ideas, using the online space. And just earlier this week one of the things that we’re investing our time in is the whole idea of government online and what we do with Web 2.0 and the social networking services that are going to be available to citizens and agencies and departments in the 21st century.
Open Government and how we use social networking tools I think will define what it is to be an active citizen of the future. And for governments, partiocularly the Commonwealth of Australia, Web 2.0 tools will define what it is to be a citizen-centric government. And I commend to you your thoughts and considerations about those levels of participation and how they grow with the National Broadband Network delivering 100MB per second to 90% of the population.
It’s an exciting time. Good luck with your deliberations. I think to recognise best practice in relation to the Internet is a fantastic initiative and I congratulate you on this event and I’m very pleased to participate in the formal awards.
Thank you very much.
