Lundy's sunny vision puts Coonan under a cloud

Stan Beer
Wednesday, 22 September 2004 15:03

IT Industry - Development

The Beer Files had a decent little discussion with the Shadow ICT Minister, Senator Kate Lundy, last week and we discovered a couple of interesting things.

Firstly, unlike her political opponent, ICT Minister Senator Helen Coonan, Senator Lundy is very knowledgeable and passionate about the ICT industry. Secondly, Labor is likely to announce the reinstatement of R&D tax incentives, that were slashed under the first Howard Government in 1996. However, Senator Lundy would not comment on this because that would steal the thunder of Industry Minister, Kim Carr, but our sources are pretty strong on this one.

If there was a weakness in Senator Lundy's presentation and our discussion, it was the fact that she would not get into the financial aspects of her policy vision. For instance, we asked the Senator if she had a target to reduce the $14.4 billion ICT deficit to a certain level within say the next three years. Her reply was: "No there isn't and the reason that people don't identify a target is because there are so many variables and it's so difficult." Well, no-one was suggesting that it would be easy Senator but, as they say in the self help industry, if you don't know where you want to be, how are you going to get there?

Anyway, we know that the Opposition, as demonstrated by a superb policy presentation by Senator Lundy to a room full of journalists at a conference in the Hunter valley last week, at least has a vision for the Australian ICT industry. We saw an interesting contrast revealed between the policies espoused by the Federal Government and the Labor Opposition with regard to that perennial global under achiever, the Australian ICT industry. On the surface at least, it would appear to be a clear cut choice between a do-nothing, we stand on our record, Government, and a visionary, we'll make sweeping changes Opposition.

The Government's ICT policy is, in two words, simply unacceptable. It lacks vision; it lacks direction; and it lacks a Minister who knows much about the ICT industry.

ICT Minister, Senator Helen Coonan's policy speech was basically an uninspiring mix of negative attacks on the Opposition's proposed ICT initiatives, a defence of the Government's existing policies, and some token scraps designed to show that the Government is taking positive action to stem the tide sweeping what's left of our ICT industry out to sea. When stripped of its less than fancy wrapping, the best package the Government can offer the local ICT industry is an undertaking not to cut funding for the inadequate programs currently in place.

Senator Coonan, whose speech was conducted to the accompaniment of thunderclaps, as if she had invoked the wrath of the gods, revealed on several occasions significant gaps in her knowledge of the ICT industry. For instance, her pronunciation of the name of Australia's largest publicly listed ICT services company, Volante, evoked images of plates of finger food. When answering a question from (Next commentator) Graeme Philipson on the reason for the slow rollout of broadband in Australia, the Minister made the preposterous suggestion that it was because Australians were slow to adopt new technologies.

In contrast, Senator Lundy treated the room to a history lesson about what had happened to Australia's ICT industry over the past eight years under successive Howard Governments. Ignoring the fact that Australia still suffered from huge ICT deficits under the previous Labor Governments, according to Senator Lundy, Australia's ICT equipment exports were growing until 1996, when Howard's coalition of the unwilling came to power and everything turned to doggy do. The Howard Government slashed funding for higher education and for R&D. As a result, said Senator Lundy, while other economies were investing in ICT during the tech boom between 1996 and 1999, Australia's tech industry was left to stagnate. All too true and, of course, this was exacerbated by the whole of Government ICT outsourcing policy of the time, which put 1000 SMEs out of business. Should we mention that we can also blame the previous Keating Government for initiating that purchasing strategy?