A united broadband front

commentary In the year leading up to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's $43 billion National Broadband Network decision, a group of chief executives was quietly working away at winning over important members of federal cabinet to the merits of a digital economy.

The CEO forum created out of the Digital Economy Industry Working Group is now claiming to have won over at least four key ministers

In a strategic move that is claimed to be bearing fruit, CEOs from 10 companies in the media and telecoms sectors bypassed the bureaucrats and pitched directly to ministers the case for a coordinated approach to the deployment and use of technology.

The CEO forum created out of the Digital Economy Industry Working Group is now claiming to have won over at least four key ministers to the idea of a holistic approach to the use of broadband in health, education and the environment.

The CEOs were from a range of companies including Fairfax, Austar, Optus, iiNet, Internode and GoTalk. There are 140 companies in the working group, but only CEOs from companies offering services were chosen to be part of the CEO forum.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, who was a supporter of the working group while in opposition, has been instrumental in opening doors for the CEOs who have been trying to encourage other ministers to support a whole-of-government approach to the use of technology.

Paul Budde of BuddeComm says that at least three other cabinet ministers apart from Senator Conroy are now supporters of what he calls a "trans-sectoral" approach to using broadband to improve education and health care services.

He says the cabinet ministers who understand the vision of a digital economy now include Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Workplace Relations and Minister for Education, Julia Gillard; Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner and the Minister for Resources and Energy and Minister for Tourism, Martin Ferguson.

The working group wants to step up its efforts to convince other ministers of the benefits of the digital economy, particularly the Minister for Health and Aging, Nicola Roxon, the Minister for Climate Change and Water, Penny Wong, and the Minister for the Environment, Peter Garrett.

Budde, who was the driving force behind the formation of the Digital Economy Working Group, says that key members of the Federal Cabinet understand that the broadband network decision taken last week goes well beyond the ability to offer higher internet speeds.

He says the working group is now preparing a paper for Senator Conroy on the critical issues surrounding the construction and use of the National Broadband Network, including the need to ensure a whole-of-government approach to using it.

The paper will be delivered to the minister on 7 May.

Budde will also be sharing the paper with a friend and close advisor to US President Barack Obama.

He could not reveal the name of the Obama advisor, but he said the US administration had taken a keen interest in Australia's NBN decision, as well as the proposed whole-of-government approach to the digital economy.

All the papers that have already been published by the working group are available free at BuddeComm, including a document on the benefits of open networks that was shared with President Obama's advisory team before his election. The documents can be found here.

Following the NBN decision, Budde said it was clear that there were true believers who recognised the long-term economic benefits of a fibre network and those who did not.

He likened the non-believers to those who opposed the replacement of gas lighting with electricity just over 100 years ago.

This article by Business Spectator's Tony Boyd is reproduced on ZDNet.com.au courtesy of a reciprocal publishing agreement.