An Internet virus attack that hit Parliament House last night for the second time this month emphasises the necessity of upgrading our commitment to e-security, the Shadow Minister for Information Technology, Senator Kate Lundy said today.
“Last night an email was sent to Parliament House staff warning them that the Bugbear virus had re-occurred with Parliament House,” Senator Lundy said.
“No major harm was caused by the virus, but it provides a timely wake-up call to the Government. The Coalition Government has to give a higher priority to e-security and the protection of the National Information Infrastructure.
“It was only yesterday in Question Time that I pointed out to the Minister for Information Technology that in comparison to the United States Government, which is spending around $A28 per head of population on e-security, the Coalition is spending a mere 32 cents.
“This also comes after the Australian National Audit Office described the level of Internet security in Government agencies as being ‘insufficient’,” Senator Lundy said.
“This is in spite of the fact that computer and information systems are crucial to the operation of our society and economy. Computers control banking and financial systems, utilities, transport systems and telecommunications systems.
“This incident should be a message to the Coalition that it needs to do more to protect Australia from e-security threats,” Senator Lundy concluded.
Media contact: Simon Tatz - (02) 6277 3334 or the Electorate Office - 0418 488 295.
“In the wake of the increased terrorist threat posed to Australia, the Coalition can no longer afford to lag behind on e-security,” the Shadow Minister for Information Technology, Senator Kate Lundy, said today.
“In Question Time today I asked the Minister for Information Technology, Senator Alston, to explain why the Government has waited so long, and done so little, to protect Australia’s National Information Infrastructure (NII).
“The NII comprises information and computer systems that control critical sectors such as the Internet, telecommunications, transport and distribution, energy and utilities, and banking and finance.
“What Minister Alston failed to address in his answer is that, according to Leif Gamertsfelder, the head of the e-security group at the national law firm Deacons Graham James, the Coalition spends just 32 cents for every man, woman and child in Australia on e-security.
"By comparison, the Government of the United States was calculated as spending around $A28 per head of population.
At the time, Mr Gamertsfelder said:
“The Federal budget has failed to deliver adequate protection for the National Information Infrastructure”
“With the Australian National Audit Office’s report into Internet Security within Commonwealth Government Agencies also reflecting on the Coalition’s poor performance, the Minister is being negligent about e-security by investing such a small comparative amount,” Senator Lundy said.
“Clearly, by international standards, Australia is lagging behind. It is just a shame that the Howard Government’s budget spending spree has left no money in the bank to give Australia the e-security it requires,” Senator Lundy concluded.
Media contact: Simon Tatz on (02) 6277 3334 or the Electorate Office: 0418 488 295
In a report released today, the Labor Party has recommended bringing sanity and consistency to urban planning in the Canberra suburbs of Forrest and Deakin.
The report, Striking the Right Balance: Draft Amendment 39 National Capital Plan, slams the National Capital Authority (NCA) for treating the Parliamentary Committee contemptuously and for failing to adhere to its own consultative guidelines.
At the moment, a group of Canberra residents living near Parliament House, in Section 39, have completely different planning and consultation requirements. This is because Section 39 is the only remnant of residential land under the jurisdiction of the NCA.
This planning anomaly undermines the democratic rights of the residents of Section 39, who cannot take planning issues to their elected representatives in the ACT Legislative Assembly.
This is why Labor members of the Joint Standing Committee on the National Capital and External Territories (JSCNCET) have recommended bringing balance and fairness to the planning process as well as removing planning red tape.
One planning authority is enough for any resident to deal with, so the NCA’s control should be removed (uplifted) from Somers and Canterbury Crescents to National Circuit, and between Canterbury Crescent and Hobart Avenue and jurisdiction for detailed planning and development control of these areas should pass to the Territory Government.
However, because of the proximity to Parliament House, there will always be a need for NCA involvement in the State Circle frontage. So rather than create more red tape through dual planning responsibility, Labor members have recommended these blocks stay with the NCA, with updated procedures.
This is consistent with Labor members’ aims of achieving ‘certainty and clarity in planning guidelines’ for residents.
We urge Minister Tuckey to consider Labor’s sensible approach and adopt the recommendations of the Minority Report.
Media contacts: Simon Tatz (Kate Lundy) 6277 33334 or Amanda Walsh (Annette Ellis) 6277 4372
Yesterday’s announcement that ICT employment continued to
fall in September will not concern the Coalition Government in the slightest,
the Shadow Minister for Information Technology, Senator Kate Lundy said today.
“It is abundantly clear that the Minister for Information
Technology, Senator Richard Alston, and the Coalition have washed their hands of
Australia’s information and communication technology (ICT) industry,”
Senator Lundy said.
“We are seeing an alarming number of ICT businesses
pulling out of Australia, rising unemployment, and an increasing ICT deficit,
and yet the Coalition, fronted by Senator Alston, keeps repeating the same old
mantra: that Australia must be an ICT consumer rather than an ICT producer.
“Unfortunately this attitude does nothing for the
thousands of out of work ICT professionals, who have been sadly neglected by
this Government,” Senator Lundy said.
“Although yesterday’s figures put out by the Olivier
Internet Job Index indicate that ICT employment dropped by 11.2% just in the
month of September, it probably won’t raise an eyebrow down in Senator
Alston’s bunker.
“All we’ve had so far from the Coalition to address the
problem of the increase in ICT unemployment is the feeble cuts to the Migration
Occupations in Demand List. Where are the effective policies to build the
domestic ICT industry? Where are the programs that encourage the training
and up-skilling of Australian ICT professionals?
“There are none, because the Coalition isn’t interested
in this sector,” Senator Lundy said.
“The Coalition has decided to be a follower, rather than
a leader in the ICT industry, and they are dragging the rest of Australia down
with them,” Senator Lundy concluded.
Media contact: Simon Tatz: (02) 6277 3334; or Electorate
Office: 0418 488 295.
“IT Minister Richard Alston can stand up proudly to wave Ericsson’s longstanding R&D effort ‘goodbye’,” Senator Kate Lundy said today.
“After years of championing Australia’s consumption of technology as
being our key strength, and refusal to support Australia’s capability for
production of technology-driven intellectual property and high-tech
manufacturing, the Coalition has succeeded in chasing ICT investment from our
shores.”
“It is a national disgrace that the Coalition has undermined confidence in Australian ICT capability so much that Ericsson has up and left our shores,” Shadow Minister for IT, Senator Kate Lundy, said today.
“What was Senator Alston doing in Stockholm, Sweden, last week anyway? He absolutely failed to impress Ericsson. And now the market is judging the Coalition in the light of the reduced presence of Ericsson, Nortel, Lucent, ADC, Alcatel and Dell. All point to the failing of the Coalition Government and its refusal to understand that our high-tech manufacturers’ ICT R&D effort and capability represents a critical economic foundation for our future.”
Having neglected Australian ICT SME’s over the last five years, the ignorance with which the Coalition approaches ICT industry development has inevitably impacted on multinational investments, like Ericsson’s Asia-Pacific Lab, in Australia.
Australia’s best chance to grow a significant and globally engaged ICT sector rests with creating opportunities for Australian companies based on world-class R&D. In turn this capability stimulates the interest of large global corporations who invest where the ideas are being generated.
The Coalition has failed on both counts and under Richard Alston and a cohort of ineffectual industry Ministers, Australia is at risk of losing critical mass of ICT R&D.
“No Centre of Excellence will fill this gap,” Senator Lundy concluded.
Media contact: Jason Ives on (02) 6277 3334 or 0411 237 683
“The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) and the Coalition Government should stop playing partisan politics over the Gungahlin Drive Extension and negotiate an acceptable outcome for all parties,” Federal Opposition sports spokeswoman, Senator Kate Lundy, said today.
“The Federal government is playing political games and using the ASC as a political football,” Senator Lundy said.
“The ACT Government remains committed to the Western route and is still in the process of examining the Fitch Report.
“The ACT Government is demonstrating goodwill to all parties to reach an acceptable outcome, and has acted at all stages to address the concerns of both the Australian Sports Commission and the untenable traffic problem faced by the residents of Gungahlin.
“Political interference by the Minister for Sport, Senator Kemp, and the Minister for Territories, Wilson Tuckey, is undermining the process.
“I have complete confidence in the ACT Government and ASC being able to sort out a compromise without political games from the Coalition.
“I urge the Sports Commission, Senator Kemp and Mr Tuckey to show the same goodwill in negotiating an acceptable outcome and to stop using the Gungahlin Drive Extension for partisan political purposes,” Senator Lundy said.
Media contact: Simon Tatz on 0418 488 295
Telstra has virtually conceded that its network is not future-proof in its submission to the Senate Inquiry into Australian telecommunications, admitting that its pair-gain technology robs users of access to its heavily promoted “ADSL” service, the Shadow Minister for Information Technology, Senator Kate Lundy, said today.
After spending months insisting that its use of pair-gain systems is an acceptable technology choice, the giant Telco has finally conceded that it will no longer order the non-ADSL-compatible technology. This is only after one million people have already been affected.
“Telstra is finally acknowledging what Labor has said all along - ADSL can never be the basis of a comprehensive broadband service, because of its numerous technological limitations,” Senator Lundy said.
“It has vindicated my grass-roots pair-gain-victims campaign I initiated in March.”
In its submission, Telstra admits that:
“Some [pair-gain systems] currently deployed in the Telstra network are not compatible with ADSL high-speed Internet access”; and
“Data transmitted using ADSL is currently limited by technology and network conditions to a distance of 3.5 km from the exchange (dependent on cable gauge, type, and number of bridgetaps).”
[Source: “Submission to the Senate Inquiry into the
Australian Telecommunications
Network”, Telstra Corporation Limited, page 52.]
“These concessions raise further questions. If Telstra now admits that it knew of these technological limitations, such as pair gains, how does it justify advertising a service that it knew many Australians could not access?
“What other technological limitations prevent Australians receiving affordable, reliable broadband, and how many Australians will be affected?
“Labor will press for these and other questions to be answered in the Senate Inquiry into the Australian Telecommunications Network.
“My pair-gain-victims campaign has made it clear that Telstra’s network right around Australia - in metropolitan areas, as well as in rural and regional Australia - is far from being future-proof, and this submission confirms it.
“People who are affected by pair gains, and who are frustrated at not being able to get broadband Internet should detail their concerns in a submission to the Senate Inquiry,” Senator Lundy concluded.
The Terms of Reference and submission details to the Senate Inquiry into Australia’s Telecommunications Network are online.
Please note that the Committee has extended the deadline for submissions beyond August 16 2002.
Media contact: Jason Ives on (02) 6277 3334 or 0411 237 683
