Gillard thinks IT funding expendable, raids Gershon savings

Stan Beer
Thursday, 05 August 2010 15:17

Opinion and Analysis

First Abbott wants to scrap the NBN, now Prime Minister Gillard wants to balance the books by pilfering nearly half a billion dollars from the Gershon IT fund. Does anyone in either the Federal Government or Opposition have a clue about or even a glimpse of a vision for Australia's ICT future?

Today's report in The Australian that the PM intends to raid the Gershon Fund to the tune of $447 million in order to meet budgetary commitments to fund non-IT projects beggars belief.

As a brief reminder to all concerned, this Government spent heaps just two years ago to import British government efficiency expert Sir Peter Gershon in order to review the operations of its $16 billion annual ICT expenditure.

A year later, Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner and others proudly released the report, crowing that the Gershon Review had identified $1 billion in savings. Those savings would go into a fund to fund local IT industry development.

Now, two weeks out from an election, the embattled Gillard Government, cowed into submission in a failed attempt to extract exra funds from the mining industry to fill its budget black hole, has decided to pick the pockets of the less cohesive and more vulnerable local IT industry.

It seems that Government's idea of savings looks very much like robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Perhaps the Government could trim the amount of money it intends to steal from its IT funding coffers by scrapping its promised fast train feasibility study. As Gershon and the NBN have demonstrated, the Government appears to be very good on delivering consulting fees.

Hence, voters are faced with the stark choice between a Coalition that promises to save money by scrapping the National Broadband Network and the ALP, which promises the earth but can't be trusted to deliver on its promises concerning ICT industry development. Either option doesn't give voters cause for confidence.