The Federal Government announced in last night's Budget it had allocated AU$500,000 per annum for three years to NetAlert, which was set up in December 1999 to educate the community on safe Internet use and offer consultation on Internet industry codes and standards prior to their registration by the Australian Broadcasting Authority.
This amount will be augmented by a further AU$250,000 per year which will be allocated from existing resources in the Communications, Information Technology and the Arts portfolio. However, Shadow Minister for Information Technology Senator Kate Lundy claimed this amount was inadequate for NetAlert to do its job.
"In March I joined with NetAlert's executive director, Alan Tayt to call on the Minister to fund NetAlert adequately," Lundy told ZDNet Australia . "Mr Tayt required between AU$7 to AU$10 million over the next three years, but the Minister has only responded with a token sum - a funding cut."
"NetAlert has been hamstrung by the Coalition since its inception, previously receiving an average of $1.5 million per year to educate the rapidly growing Internet user community in Australia. Now it will receive one third of this amount," said Lundy.
The government also allocated in the Budget an additional AU$3 million to continue research into a biometric identifier for the Australian passport. The move comes after pressure from the US last year for Australia to incorporate biometrics into its passports or lose 'visa waiver' status. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, said the inclusion of biometrics into passports would "reduce significantly the possibility of terrorists and other undesirables using a fraudulently obtained Australian passport to enter Australia".
He also added that departmental studies have shown that facial recognition biometrics is "effective in detecting people who have applied for a passport under a false identity", but despite continual reassurances from the security industry many Australians remain sceptical of the technology.
