An analysis by representatives of Australia's two largest IT industry groups shows that neither political party in the federal election has come up with a comprehensive policy around technology.
The 2007 federal election, in the eyes of many pundits, is the first in which technology has proved a crucial issue for both parties.
The ALP in particular has gone to great efforts to highlight the links between national technology investment and national wellbeing, and has attempted to appeal to the younger voter using the Web as a key tool.
But according to key IT industry groups the Australian Computer Society (ACS) and the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA), neither of the two major parties has come up with a comprehensive policy that covers the three areas of most pressing need from a technology industry standpoint.
Australia needs national broadband infrastructure, a solution to the "digital divide", and to encourage investment in ICT innovation.
ZDNet Australia looks at each of these issues in the lead up to the poll.
Broadband: National Infrastructure
At the start of the campaign, Labor communications spokesperson Stephen Conroy said that just as building national infrastructure once meant building railroads, today it's about building out broadband networks.
Both parties have used the building of a national network as a key policy.
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The government already recognised the need for this infrastructure in its last term, announcing two initiatives to build out faster networks in both metropolitan and regional Australia.
The government promises that if re-elected it will provide high-speed broadband to 99 percent of the Australian population at affordable prices -- between AU$35 and AU$60 a month. The remaining one percent will be given up to AU$2750 as a contribution towards the purchase of satellite Internet services.
High on the government's agenda is the building out of infrastructure for regional and rural Australia. Telecommunications needs in regional and rural Australia were once served by the government, but these areas have become less economical to serve under a privatised Telstra.
To meet these needs, the Government released a tender for a new regional network, won by the Optus/Elders joint venture OPEL in June. The government and OPEL will invest around AU$1 billion each to rollout a wireless network based on the controversial but highly promising WiMax standard.
Still unresolved, however, is the second part of the government's network strategy -- a metropolitan network that is widely expected to be fibre-based. Applications for the build-out of this network are to be considered by a broadband committee that conveniently won't make a final decision until after the election.
The ALP, in response to the government's measures, has promised that if elected it will build a AU$4.7 billion national fibre-to-the-node network in partnership with the private sector, funded by the Future Fund and the remaining share in Telstra.
Both of the parties' strategies have predominantly been discussed in relation to lingering issues over the market power of Telstra.
But both Professor Reg Coutts, director of the ACS's telecommunications board, and Sheryle Moon, CEO of the AIIA, have called on both parties to quit politicising the broadband issue and solve Australia's infrastructure woes in a bi-partisan way.
"It would be wonderful if both sides recognised that broadband investment is key infrastructure, a nation-building exercise, and that it should be a bi-partisan issue," Coutts said.
Moon blasted both parties for "squabbling over the details of the technology, when what we really need is for both parties to sit down with industry stakeholders and work out a plan of action to move forward now."
The AIIA CEO called on both parties to "end their posturing on broadband and deliver some concrete information".
Coutts said evaluating the broadband infrastructure policies of either party is difficult, as neither is complete.
Best approach in my opinion is to remove all government intervention. They slow the uptake of technology and stifle innovation on everything they touch.