Senator Kate Lundy describes her personal story of how she became interested in ICT and what meaning it has for her in politics and government.
Transcript
My interest in ICT really started back when I worked for a Trade Union. I didn’t go to university, so I didn’t know about the Internet before about 1993. But when I did become aware of it, I was really struck by the potential of the medium to break down the normal power relationships if you like in society. Part of the work I did with the Union was prepare a lot of their magazines, their bulletins, their brochures and that gave me a bit of an insight into … I suppose … desktop publishing – graphic design, when it came out of the shop and onto the desktop.
I learnt about the Internet on the job and was fascinated as to what it could provide and in the really early days started … I suppose … cutting and pasting html, marking up very flat single pages, trying to develop a little bit of skill in publishing on the Internet, which was exciting and the pages weren’t very good, but it started something that I was able to follow through when I was later elected in parliament. And for me, coming into parliament in 1996, I felt that this issue was incredibly important, the Internet, the whole Digital Age, where we were going, what it was going to mean for us both economically and socially.
And I was really itching to join the debate. But in parliament in 1996 I was shocked to find there wasn’t much of a debate at all. Not much was being said, hardly any of parliamentarians really knew what the Internet was, and what it could do. So, it was a fantastic time to start really arguing the case for the implications of the Digital Age.
And with the advent of the Dot Com boom – yes, that arrived with a pretty healthy dose of political cynicism about whether or not the Internet was a fad or not. But coming into the issues in the way that I did, started to show that there was not only substance to the role that ICT could play, but over time it will become more and more central to how and why and the wherefores of public policy and how we make the most of our prospects as a nation.
You can appreciate, as the world became more and more globalised, Australia’s relationship with the rest of the world was enhanced, by being online! It shut down some of those geographical barriers, that Australia has long endured in our trade relationships, and opened new doors for a generation of online entrepreneurs, who could export to the world through that pipe, through the bandwidth that was afforded us as a nation.
So, all of this meant that I started to look at different facets of ICT policy. Whether it was the network and the bandwidth required – campaigning for many years for higher bandwidth networks, so you can appreciate why I’m so enthusiastic about the National Broadband Network and the policy that federal Labour has announced in that regard. But also participation, the closing of the Digital Divide, how we skill up people in this country to be able to participate in an online environment. Moving on to what we actually do with it: government services online across spheres of government and through different portfolios like health and education.
And then there is the creative industries. What we do with bits and bytes – whether it’s filmmaking, post production, incredible software and applications, the games development sector – Australia really does have enormous strength that I think for a long period of time were under-recognised for their economic importance. These are growth sectors, and now that we are in a recession the opportunities for growth in the future are more important than ever.
So, in terms of these vodcasts – it really is about dialog. So, can I encourage you to post your own vodcast back and make this a real conversation, or at least provide your opinions through comments on my website. I’d certainly appreciate that and it starts to make the dialog genuine rather than me talking at you through the medium of a vodcast.
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Kate,
Very interesting and it helps us understand where you are coming from and context is critical to understanding.
IT is to communication and interaction as bulldozers are to digging. Interaction between “entities” is the building block of life and evolution so when we have a technology that impacts on this fundamental building block of what we call life its importance is apparent – so you picked your technology well. To read more about communication and “life” I can recommend “Non Zero” by Robert Wright.
Now we can communicate so quickly, comprehensively and efficiently all sorts of things become possible. What these are we do not know but they will evolve and the great thing is that we will be surprised and in awe when they happen. The important thing for us at this time is to point that evolution in the “right” direction. Government 2.0 is a great step.
For myself my part of trying to get the system right is to help each individual have access to and control over their own IT “bulldozer” so they can deal with others (and groups of others) as near equals.
Excellent work Kate! the gains we can make with a better understanding of the value of ICT are huge. keep educationg your colleagues because when we change the way we communicate we change society.
Good article in the Australian today, too…