ALP shies away from IT policy debate - News - Communications

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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ALP shies away from IT policy debate

By Jeanne-Vida Douglas, ZDNet Australia
November 01, 2001
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/ALP-shies-away-from-IT-policy-debate/0,130061791,120261602,00.htm

While John Howard may have been left camera shy after the first and only televised debate, this time it's the Labor Party's turn, declining to take part in a public forum on IT policies, despite initially agreeing enthusiastically to participate in ZDNet Australia's online IT debate .

Early last week the IT representatives for the Labor, Liberal, One Nation, Green and Democrat parties all agreed to answer a list of questions regarding their respective IT agendas. All, except for the ALP were capable of responding to the queries on or near the deadline.

The questions were based on questions sent ZDNet Australia readers, and covered areas from the sale of Telstra and access to broadband, to education and government procurement.

However, rather than respond to specific questions, the ALP responded by directing all queries to its campaign Web site, despite originally agreeing to be an active participant in the online debate.

Choked with bureaucracy

ALP contacts said the questions had in fact been answered, but were held up when they were sent to Campaign HQ in Melbourne. In truly autocratic style, ZDNet Australia was warned not to enquire about the progress of the questions or they would simply take longer to answer.

Nonetheless all the other parties managed to respond, and rather than delay the debate any longer their answers are currently available online the Great (online) Debate. If the ALP decide to send through their responses sometime in the future, ZDNet Australia will be more than happy to make them publicly available.