A Collingwood supporter, with an MBA thesis on the role of cross subsidies in the telecommunications sector, Senator Richard Kenneth Robert Alston has had a mixed record in his IT portfolio.
Although he likes to be seen making calls from public phones in remote parts of Australia, the ongoing debate regarding the privatisation of Telstra continues to be a contentious issue. And while he claims credit for improving Internet access in regional areas, many would argue that the service is so slow it remains impossible to use in many areas.
On another front, although much of the smoke from the Federal Government's outsourcing debacle has cleared, the minister's response to questions on local IT procurement are carefully worded, and avoid conflict with the Liberal Party's staunch "free trade" stance.
- Would you support further privatisation of Telstra? How will you promote the rollout and uptake of broadband services in Australia?
- What steps will you take to improve telecommunications access in rural and regional Australia? Since people in low-income urban areas have been identified by recent studies as those most at risk of becoming a technologically illiterate underclass, what steps will you take to improve their access to technology?
- What will you do to support and promote the uptake of distance education? How will you encourage the everyday use of IT in primary and secondary education?
- The Coalition will invest $34 million over the next five years for the large scale, collaborative development of a national pool of online curriculum resources. Together with the Coalition's
Teachers for the 21st Century programme, this measure will enable schools to develop the skills and teaching materials their students and teachers need in the information age. - The Coalition will provide funding to support
- education.au to host a major Global Summit of Online Education and Training Networks early next year. The Global Summit will bring together leaders, specialists and policy makers from Australia and overseas to explore future directions in the development and management of online learning, education and training networks.
- The Coalition will expand the highly successful Computers for Schools project, which is providing used computers for schools.
- Do you support the Australian Broadcasting Authority's regulation of Internet content? Is the cost of the scheme justified given its effect thus far?
- What steps will you take to combat the so-called IT brain drain, and to encourage young educated Australians to remain in Australia?
- Doubling the number of Early Career Researchers to 110 in 2002;
- Doubling the number of Australian Postdoctoral Fellowships to 110 in 2002;
- Increasing the salary of 580 Fellowship recipients by between 15percent and 40 percent.
- Do you believe employees' rights are upheld by recently enacted privacy legislation? Will you support a limitation on electronic surveillance in the workplace?
- What will you do to curb the blow out in Australia's ITC trade deficit, which has grown to $17.73 billion -- triple what it was in 1990-91?
- the US runs the largest ICT trade deficit in the world;
- for the first time, Australia in 2000-1 runs a trade surplus in high-value ICT services, such as software royalties, computer and information services;
- ABS statistics reveal that high-value niche sectors such as specialist ICT equipment manufacturing, specialist electronic equipment manufacturing and customised software services are expanding exports and employment.
- Reducing barriers and costs to global expansion - (progressing a free-trade agenda, reducing with-holding tax on overseas revenue, improving the expatriate taxation regime, and reforming the tax treatment of offshore venture capital);
- Supporting our research base - and ensuring that barriers to the commercialisation of intellectual property are removed;
- Creating a positive innovative business environment - (sound economic management to keep interest rates low, lowering corporate tax, and the suite of R&D support measures);
- providing access to skills (through ongoing support of the training and education sectors, immigration reforms, and establishing the IT Skills Hub to ensure that the skills supply matches industry needs);
- providing access to capital (through halving the capital gains tax, reforming the tax treatment of offshore venture capital, creating a $78m pre-seed fund, and establishing the $220m Innovation Investment Fund program);
- assisting export-focussed companies through Export Market Development Grants (which has assisted over 1300 ICT companies with over $80m of leveraged support over the last 5 years), and the facilities and tours of Austrade, and through Invest Australia promoting Australia globally as an investment destination.
- Will you use government procurement to bolster Australian IT companies?
- How do you propose to stimulate ITC R&D in Australia? How will you encourage the availability of post-secondary IT training and education?
- Provide an additional 28,000 fully-funded places over the next five years, with a concentration on areas of identified skills shortage, especially in science, mathematics and information and communications technology.
- Establish a no-interest HECS-style loan system to support students undertaking fee-paying post-graduate courses. These course can be expected to be very responsive to student demand.
- Create 100,000 extra places in TAFE and at least 20,000 additional apprenticeships by lifting funding to TAFE by some $600 million over the next three years through matching Commonwealth and State growth funding
- Provide marginal funding for above target load - this has been a key factor in the expansion of places by 35,000 over the last five years reflecting universities' own decisions;
- How will you approach datacasting legislation given the Government's failed spectrum auction in May 2001?
The Coalition's priority is to ensure more services for rural and regional Australia through its $163 million dollar response to the Telecommunications Service Inquiry. The Coalition will not proceed with any further sale of Telstra until it is fully satisfied that arrangements are in place to deliver adequate services to all Australians. At present the Coalition is not satisfied that this is the case.
The Coalition believes the most appropriate and efficient means of supporting the rollout and uptake of broadband services is through an open, competitive and technology neutral telecommunications regime.
A variety of broadband applications, including DSL, cable and satellite are already being rolled out across Australia. Fixed wireless options are also being trialed and will be available commercially in the near future.
Supporting this approach, the Coalition is also investing in various 'testbeds' that can be used to pilot high-speed broadband and digital content applications. Examples of such assistance include the Advanced Networks Program, the Launceston Broadband Project and the National Communications Fund.
The Coalition also understands that the development of compelling digital content and applications will be a key driver in promoting the take up of broadband technologies by consumers and businesses in Australia. Accordingly, the Government recently committed an additional $2.1 million to the funding of innovative broadband content and has undertaken to develop a comprehensive Digital Content Strategy.
The Coalition is committed to ensuring that all Australians have equitable access to telecommunications services, irrespective of their location. In particular, the Coalition is committed to ensuring that Australians in rural and remote areas are able to share in the benefits of the information economy.
Since 1996, Coalition policies have been the catalyst for a large improvement in the provision, and level of uptake, of digital telecommunications services in regional and remote Australia. Between May 1998 and May 2000, the number of adults with Internet access in regional and rural Australia increased by 225 percent - consequently, internet access levels for adults and households in rural and regional Australia have reached similar levels to metropolitan areas. Further, the number of farms connected to the internet increased by 216percent between March 1998 and June 2000.
The Coalition believes that the most appropriate and efficient means of supporting the provision of affordable telecommunications services to rural and regional Australia is through promoting an open and competitive and telecommunications market. This approach is also supported by the OECD.
In areas where relying solely on competition would not be effective, the Coalition has introduced targeted assistance programs. The Coalition Government has committed over $1 billion to improve communications services, primarily in rural and remote Australia, through programs such as Networking the Nation and the Telstra Social Bonus. These programs are achieving major progress in bridging the gap - in telecommunications services, access and costs - between urban and non-urban Australia, including improved mobile phone coverage, improved Internet access, and projects aimed at creating regional telecommunications companies that are more receptive to the needs of local communities.
Other initiatives include provision of untimed local call access to the Internet ($36m), improved telecommunications services on remote and isolated islands ($20m), to support the building of additional rural networks ($70m), helping local governments provide online access to information and services ($45m), and introduction of a Special Digital Data Service providing an equivalent 64 kilobits per second satellite downlink service to the 4 percent of the population in remote areas of Australia that cannot access ISDN.
In May 2001 the Coalition announced its $163 million response to the Telecommunications Services Inquiry, its next step in improving telecommunications infrastructure and services in regional and rural Australia. The initiatives include, $88.2 million to improve mobile phone coverage in rural and regional areas, the $50 million for the Internet Assistance Package, a joint venture with Telstra to ensure better quality and faster access to dial-up Internet services, and the $52.2 million National Communications Fund, a grants program that aims to improve delivery of education and health services in regional and remote Australia through digital telecommunications initiatives.
The Coalition's commitment to the diffusion of online technologies has enabled Australia to attain one of the highest internet penetration rates in the world. The ABS projects that by November 2001, over 50percent of Australian households will have internet access.
The Coalition's NetSpots directory of internet access locations has identified that there are about 2,400 public internet access facilities operating in libraries, schools, and cafes throughout Australia.
However, the Coalition considers that 'digital divide' initiatives will be most effective if they address the key barriers to internet take-up which have been identified as: lack of basic IT skills; low awareness of the benefits of being online; and a lack of compelling content. The Coalition will continue to work and implement programs, such as the many already funded through Networking the Nation, that address these barriers in a meaningful and beneficial way.
Australia is well placed to capitalize on its expertise in distance education and its access to new technologies and move rapidly to become a widely recognised provider of on-line education globally.
The Howard government has facilitated this development, particularly in the higher education sector with substantial funding provided through programmes such as the Australian Universities Teaching Committee, the Higher Education Innovations Programme, the Science Lectureship Initiative and the Capital Development Pool. This is quite apart from the considerable investment of individual universities in on-line courses and services.
Most Australian universities offer some form of distance or flexible education involving e-learning, with those universities at the leading edge offering fully online courses, leading to awards ranging from certificates to masters degrees in disciplines as diverse as nursing and accounting.
Australia's leading universities in the field of distance education and e-learning boast very high numbers of external students, with three of Australia's universities having approximately 65-75 percent of their students studying off-campus (many of these students are studying part time).
In 2000, 14 percent (95,300) of all students studying at Australian universities, both domestic and overseas students, were in "external" education which includes all units of study involving arrangements whereby lesson materials, assignments etc. are delivered to the student, and any associated attendance at the institution is of an incidental, special or voluntary nature.
The external category therefore includes most students undertaking e-learning as well as distance education by paper-based and mixed mode study. While Australian students studying externally increased in number by over 50percent from 1991-2000, overseas students studying either in Australia or in their own country by external mode increased by almost seven times to a total of just over 10,000 in 2000.
The Coalition believes the Federal government has a role in ensuring all children, wherever they live, have access to world-class curriculum material. The development of Australian online curriculum resources will play a crucial role in delivering education opportunities to young students.
Establishing consumer confidence in the online environment is a critical element in Australia's transformation to an information economy. Government has a key role in creating a safe and secure environment online and setting the legal framework.
While recognising that there are some inherent technical and jurisdictional difficulties in regulating conduct and content on the Internet, particularly offshore, the Coalition believes that there is strong community support for taking appropriate action against the propagation of material that may constitute a criminal offence or is highly offensive by community standards.
The Coalition has based its Internet regulatory regimes on the principle that third party Internet infrastructure providers such as Internet service providers and content hosts should not be liable for content for which they are not directly responsible, and of which they have no knowledge. The Coalition has not, and will not, impose any mandatory technological blocking or filtering devices on the Internet industry, and will not require ISPs to monitor content.
The Coalition takes very seriously its responsibility to address community concerns about the publication of illegal and highly offensive material online.
In 1999 the Coalition established a regulatory framework which gives Australians an avenue to take action over illegal and highly offensive content online without impacting unreasonably on the Internet industry. The scheme applies existing standards set by the Office of Film and Literature Classification for film and video products, and is complaints driven.
Recognising the importance of user education in any regulatory scheme, the Coalition also established NetAlert, a community advisory body with funding of $4.95 million, to inform and educate Australian families on how to enjoy a safe Internet experience.
The regime does not place onerous or unjustifiable burdens on industry or inhibit the development of the online economy and has proven very effective in certain areas. Already more than 100 take down notices have been issued against Australian based content providers.
Around 75 percent of the illegal and highly offensive material removed under the online content regime has involved the depiction of a child or minor in an offensive way, including paedophile activity. Given the serious nature of these complaints it seems incredible to suggest that the government should not take all reasonable steps to restrict access to this material within the bounds of jurisdictional and technical limitations.
The nature and extent of the so-called brain drain around the world is still quite problematic, particularly in the wake of the April 2000 'tech wreck'. Australia is one of the very few countries to have conducted a systematic analysis of market gaps via IT Skills Hub, a joint venture between government and industry.
The Coalition is very committed to attracting and retaining the best talent in this country, which is becoming an increasingly attractive international IT working environment.
The Coalition has begun implementing the Innovation Action Plan, released in January 2001, which contains a series of measures designed to combat the so-called 'brain drain'.
Australia is part of a global competition to attract the best and brightest innovators in all fields, and IT is a key field of competition for the best talent.
The Coalition has begun implementing the Innovation Action Plan to combat the so-called IT brain drain.
For example, the Coalition has announced the first annual round of 25 Federation Fellowships already attracting back six Australian researchers currently holding prestigious research posts in the USA, Europe and Asia, and retaining in Australia a further 8 of our best researchers.
The Australian Research Council funding, which will be doubled over 5 years under Backing Australia's Ability, announced the following initiatives to come on line in 2002:
The skilled immigration system, already world-competitive in terms of processing times and conditions, has been finetuned under Backing Australia's Ability. The changes include applying 2,500 places in the Skill Stream contingency reserve to Australian-trained ICT workers, and allowing them to apply for visas without returning to their country of origin; recognising all ICT occupations as "key" positions for long-term temporary entry; and requiring immigration decision-makers to give immediate processing priority to ICT professionals.
As a result of the priority given to IT in the skilled immigration program, a recent report from Monash University revealed that between 1995-6 and 1999-2000, Australia enjoyed a net 'brain gain' in computer professional fields.
In addition, the Coalition has decided to amend citizenship legislation to allow Australians who acquire another citizenship to retain their Australian citizenship. This is relevant for highly skilled expatriates who may have to assume another citizenship to pursue overseas careers, but who wish to return to Australia.
The Coalition is committed to implementing a taxation regime which is conducive to attracting both skills and investment, and has already announced a series of amendments to facilitate the entry of venture capital and has legislated to half the capital gains tax rate and lower the corporate tax rate.
The Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000 includes an exemption for the collection, use or disclosure of information contained in employee records in the context of the employment relationship. The Act provides that an employer is exempt from the operation of the legislation if the employer's action is something that is directly related to a current or former relationship between the employer and employee and an employee record held by the employer relating to the individual.
This exemption does not give employers the ability to do whatever they like with employee records. The employer must be dealing with the records in the context of a current or former employment relationship. The important point here is that there is absolutely no scope for an employer to sell or otherwise take commercial advantage of personal information that he or she holds.
The exemption applies to acts or practices directly related to an employee record and a current or former employment relationship. This dual requirement is designed to ensure that employers do not take commercial advantage of the exemption. For example, it will stop an employer selling personal information from employee records to direct marketers. Also, the exemption only applies to employee records held by the employer and does not continue if the employee records are disclosed by the employer to another organisation. For example, if records containing personal information of an employee are disclosed to the employer's insurer for the purposes of workers compensation then those records do not retain their exempt status in the hands of the insurance company.
The regulation of employee records is an area that intersects with a number of State and Territory laws on areas such as workplace relations; minimum employment conditions; workers' compensation; and occupational health and safety. The Coalition's position in relation to the privacy regulation of employee records is that the regulation of employee records is a matter that is best dealt with in the workplace relations context.
However, the Coalition initiated a review of existing Commonwealth, State and Territory laws to consider the extent of privacy protection for employee records and whether there is a need for further regulation. The review, which is being carried out by officers of the Attorney-General's Department and the Department of Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business, will involve consultation with State and Territory Governments, the Privacy Commissioner and other key stakeholders. The review will be completed in time to assist the Privacy Commissioner when he conducts a more general review of the legislation two years after it commences operation. The Coalition will consider the outcome of that review when it is completed.
The Privacy Commissioner has also developed guidelines on Workplace Email, Web Browsing and Privacy (30/3/2000). Information and communications technology in the workplace raises questions about the supervision of its use. This technology includes email and access to the Internet. The computers and internal network involved are controlled by the organisation and management has the responsibility for issuing instructions as to their proper use. The purpose of the guidelines is to recommend steps that organisations can take to ensure that their staff understand the organisation's position on this issue through the development of clear policies.
It would be a mistake to assume Australia should maintain a trade surplus in every industry silo. This is particularly the case for ICT where numerous international reports have time and again reiterated that Australia has been a major beneficiary from the use of ICT across a wide range of traditional sectors, such as insurance, finance, banking, retail and mining.
In this context it should be noted that:
The Coalition believes that the domestic ICT industry is likely to be best served by focussing on areas of high value-added activity rather than high-volume low-margin hardware commodity activity.
The Coalition is focussed on increasing the quantity and value of Australian ICT exports by generating and growing smart companies, with products and services based around locally generated intellectual property, and creating a business environment attuned to high-growth, export-focussed, IP-driven companies.
The Coalition is committed to improving the business environment for smart export-focussed companies by:
While the production of high volume, low-margin ICT hardware has fallen since 1990-1, exports and production of niche ICT manufacturing, based on locally generated IP and expertise, are increasing.
The Coalition has created millions of dollars worth of IT outsourcing opportunities by implementing its IT Outsourcing Initiative, and is committed to strongly encouraging the outsourcing of government ICT goods and service provision to create future opportunities for the private sector.
Australian industry development has, from the beginning, been a key objective of the Initiative. All tendering companies for clustered contracts were required to outline how their bid for the contract would assist the Australian ICT industry, and these industry development outcomes were assessed as part of the tender.
Two out of the original five cluster contracts were won in competitive tendering by Australian companies, who are now poised for overseas expansion.
Recent adjustment to the initiative, following the Humphry Review, has resulted in smaller contracts, creating more opportunities for Australian SMEs, and following consultation with Australian SMEs, the Coalition Government conducted a review of inhibitors to SMEs fully participating in the Government market, and is currently carrying out the recommendations of the review.
The Coalition is focussed on removing barriers to Australian companies participating in the Government market, such as low visibility, uncommercial risk provisions in Government contracts, and risk-averse buying patterns.
The Coalition will not breach its international trade obligations by implementing a specific preferential buying program based on nationality - this would limit market access for exporting Australian ICT companies and would be contrary to Australia's WTO obligations.
The Coalition Government, through its $2.9 billion Innovation Action Plan Backing Australia's Ability, is taking a leadership role in stimulating ICT R&D in Australia. The Plan gives ICT a special focus, both by including ICT specific programs, and also by increasing the focus of new and existing programs on ICT.
The most significant single initiative is the $129.5m world class ICT Centre of Excellence, which is currently in a tender process. The Centre will provide the critical mass needed to strengthen Australia's ability to generate breakthrough technological advances to spur our local ICT industries, creating jobs and wealth.
The doubling of funding for the Australian Research Council's competitive grants program ($736m over 5 years) will have a special focus in areas in which Australia wants to build a competitive advantage, such as ICT and biotechnology.
Australia's Major National Research Facilities has already injected an additional $155 million into research infrastructure, including grants of over $14 million for The Bandwidth Foundry at the Photonics CRC and a state-of-the-art semiconductor test facility at Edith Cowan University in Perth.
The Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs) program will have a funding boost of 80 percent ($227 million over 5 years), thereby providing significant opportunities for more ICT CRCs such as the highly successful Photonics CRC.
The R&D tax concession has been extended to provide a cash-out option to pre-profit SMEs, which will be of benefit to young but growing ICT companies.
The R&D Start program will receive an additional $535 million over 5 years to extend the successful R&D START program. This grants program has provided the catalyst for many ICT SMEs to undertake the R&D needed to ensure their longer term viability and growth.
Backing Australia's Ability also includes a $246 million increase in University Research Infrastructure funding and a $337 million increase in Project Specific Infrastructure funding.
The Coalition is committed to increasing the availability of post-secondary ICT training, to provide opportunities for Australians, and to ensure that industry skills needs are met.
In particular, the IT Skills Hub is about matching the supply and demand for IT skills, to help the Australian industry continue to grow, and to ensure that education providers are attuned to industry needs. The IT Skills Hub was established with $5 million financial assistance from the Commonwealth National Office for the Information Economy and the Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs, matched by cash and in-kind contributions from industry.
The Coalition plans to:
Provide opportunities for undergraduate fee-paying places which are determined by the universities themselves in response to demand. These will be worth some $141 million to the sector over the next three years.
It should first be noted that all sides of politics support the current moratorium which means no new free-to-air licences before 31 December 2006. It should also be noted that digital television is slow in getting off the ground all around the world. In fact, Australia is at the forefront of its introduction, with only the UK as a benchmark.
The Government's datacasting legislation relates only to the use of spectrum for free-to-air terrestrial television, and is designed to ensure that those offering datacasting services cannot become de facto broadcasters by the back door.
In contrast, in the UK, the digital television market is essentially a contest between two pay TV entities, one satellite and the other terrestrial. Even after three years, interactive offerings are still in their infancy and the most accessible channels are those offering traditional fare, namely films, sport, email, games and gambling.
There are no regulatory impediments to the uptake of satellite, cable or terrestrial digital television, and FTA terrestrial networks are able to offer both enhancements and datacasting services.
The only issue, therefore, is the use to which the two 2 spare 7 megahertz spectrum blocks should be put. Given the low level of interest in new entrants providing information and e-education services, current legislation does not impede the take-up of digital television, particularly as the national broadcasters are able to multichannel.
In the initial stages of digital television, the Coalition has given priority to minimising the effects of any interference that digital broadcasts might cause to existing services. An Interference Management Strategy has been devised with the free-to-air and subscription broadcasting sectors, and the Coalition has committed to contributing up to $10 million to that Strategy on behalf of the ABC and SBS.
The Coalition is also working closely with broadcasters and television equipment manufacturers in developing common equipment standards that will provide consumers with certainty in their digital purchase choices, and which maximise the opportunity for interactivity in the future.
From 1 January 2003, free-to-air broadcasters must provide a minimum of 20 hours High Definition (HDTV) programming per week.
The Coalition recognises that broadcasters need flexibility to provide specialised programming without diminishing their commitment to HDTV. As happens with the Australian content quota, the Coalition will consider legislative amendments to enable broadcasters to meet their 20 hour per week HDTV requirement on an annualised basis (i.e. 1040 hours per year) including advertisement time.
The digital television framework also provides for the introduction of datacasting services, which must differ from broadcasting so as to preserve the pre-2007 moratorium that will enable free-to-air television networks to make the expensive transition to digital.
The Coalition will commence a review of the current datacasting rules in early 2002 to ensure that they provide maximum opportunity for new and innovative services, whilst not breaching the pre-2007 moratorium on additional free-to-air television licences.
Greens policies underrated.
I think the Greens' policies are very fair, and provide good solutions to providing fair telephone and internet access to all Australians.
Their policies also address the errors made by Richard Alston on censorship and digital broadcasting.
I was disappointed that the Greens weren't listed in your poll.
The Greens have full policy information at
<URL:http://www.greens.org.au/>.