Kick-starting the digital economy.
A significant new step has been taken towards modernising the Australian economy, and indeed our society.
The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy, has launched the government’s report on the digital economy – the result of a community and business consultative process that was launched late last year.
The very fact of the Minister’s title is clear evidence of the link between these three sectors. There is no point in developing a digital economy if no infrastructure exists to run it; and there is no use building the NBN if it is not going to support these broader economic and social developments.
A parallel development of these two elements makes it easier to overcome the chicken-and-egg problem of what is needed first.
In presenting the report the Minister left no doubt that the NBN and the digital economy are proceeding hand-in-hand – and that, while the government can set the vision and create a platform for this to happen, it is up to businesses to actually build that digital economy – that is not a task for government.
I fully support this, and I am pleased to see businesses taking advantage of the development of the digital economy. Most, if not all, major organisations are becoming involved.
The reality is that only so much can be achieved on the present level of infrastructure, and while many businesses would want to take their digital economy activities further the truth is they cannot do this at the moment – not because of a lack of willingness on their part but because of that lack of infrastructure.
Business support is also evident, through the endorsement that most industry groups have given to the government’s vision and broad strategy, both in relation to the NBN and the digital economy. They are also asking for further details, but this is something for all of us (government, business, community) to work out. As I have said, I would be absolutely opposed to the government writing the business plans for this. The government is clearly in favour of a collaborative approach and it is clearly listening to what others have to say. Many of those who are participating in these debates will recognise elements that have been discussed in working groups and forums prior to the official launch.
Perhaps what is missing is a clearer commitment from the government. By directing the critical sectors of healthcare and education to utilise the NBN, and by so doing to use the digital economy to solve some of their long-standing problems, significant cost savings and service improvements can be made by these sectors. By doing this the government would encourage business confidence, to investors in particular, demonstrating to them that the NBN is indeed more than just Internet.
On the positive side, initiatives like the smart grid demonstration project, smart infrastructure and some of the smaller regional healthcare and education initiatives are very promising indeed. But I fear that some of them will simply end up on the long list of pilots that have been taking place over the last 15 years. Some serious policy decisions within these sectors are required to develop a vision of mass deployment, rather than the current ‘death by pilots’ state of affairs.
So we need a stronger, larger scale, commitment from the government around these developments.
There is no doubt in my mind that the government, and very importantly Prime Minister Rudd, understands and supports them, and this gives me great confidence that we can expect more of these trans-sector announcements in the near future. A strategic team at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet is heavily involved in trans-sector issues.
As we have stressed in the BuddeComm trans-sector reports, the impetus for this needs to come from the top. The people who can make these changes happen are the Prime Minister, in Australia, and, as we are also in discussion on this with other governments, the President in the USA, the Minister President in the Netherlands and the Prime Minister of New Zealand. It is my conviction that as soon as commitments are given by the leaders of a country national NBN investment becomes a much more acceptable proposition.
If we compare Australia with our trading partners it is quite amazing to see the leadership position that has been taken here. For example, the $7.2 billion US stimulus broadband package is clearly heading in the wrong direction. Why? Because there is no master plan and no blueprint. It will go the same way as similar initiatives that we have seen in Australia over the last decade, where most of that uncoordinated money goes into the pockets of consultants and the production of some great websites, while perhaps as little as a quarter of it is actually deployed for the reason the money was allocated.
Following my discussion with the Minister in the Netherlands he indicated that he wanted the Dutch broadband policy reviewed; this review is expected to be ready in September.
It will be interesting to see what the Dutch vision will be on all of this. I have just finished my analysis on this market – see: Netherlands – Analysis latest telecoms developments – mid-2009
The good thing here is that we all can learn from each other and compare notes on the lessons learned. We are all in this together and we will have to get organised – at this stage nobody has a well-defined end plan, and we can’t produce one overnight. It will be a step-by-step process, and no doubt we will sometimes have to retrace our steps and start again. The regional backbone and the first steps in Tassie are also good signs.
We do know what ingredients are needed. I have mentioned a few of them above and we are working on these. Bit by bit the puzzle is being put together and the launch of the Digital Economy Plan was yet another of the important puzzle pieces that have started to fall into place.
Paul Budde
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