LUNDY: Labor has yet to announce our policies. The concept of creating critical mass in research through centres of excellence is a sound one and I have said many times that the ability of NICTA to establish strong relationships across the public and private sectors, commercialise its research and engage with SMEs all represent important measures of its success for Labor. It will be interesting, as always, to explore NICTA's progress at the next round of Senate estimates.
I note that the Minister mentions NICTA and not the BITS Incubators, another element of their Backing Australia's Ability. The incubators run out of funds in June and have been hanging out for an announcement from the Government to determine their future. They are all still waiting.
LUNDY: Why did you announce at an IIA function that the Government would not agree to the US demand for an ISP "takedown notice" regime in relation to copyright and then agree to it as part of the Free Trade Agreement with the US?
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WILLIAMS: My comments at the IIA function were as follows:
WILLIAMS: Will Labor commit to maintaining venture capital reforms for maintaining influx of investment capital into Australian innovative start-ups?
LUNDY: Labor has yet to announce our policies. It is worth having a look at recent history on this matter however. I have observed the slowness of the Howard Government to adapt to the needs of an innovation economy and remind the Minister that it was a Labor policy initiative that originally led to pressure on the Howard Government to reform capital gains tax to make Australia competitive for overseas investment funds. However, the Howard Government messed it up first time round and the changes only led to one AU$10 million investment during the tail-end of the boom.
Since then, the second round of legislative amendment, the VC Limited Partnerships, was also supported in Parliament by Labor. However, given the state of the market and the fact that so many funds are yet to close, the impact of this change is unlikely to be able to be measured for a number of years. In other words, the Howard Government moved too slowly to be able to derive an economic benefit when the market was in a state to provide it.
"Contrary to speculation, the agreement does not require Australia to implement a system where copyright owners can issue subpoenas to ISPs for subscriber details without court approval. The FTA's provisions will also allow Australia sufficient flexibility to introduce a notice and takedown system that incorporates procedural fairness. The interests of the Internet industry were considered during the negotiations of the Free Trade Agreement and will continue to be taken into account in developing legislation to implement the agreement."
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