Updated - What the ICT industry wants: The Internet Society of Australia (ISOC-AU)

Vice president of the Internet Society of Australia (ISOCAU), Narelle Clark, outlines the election priorities the society believes should be at the top of the list for technologically inclined candidates.

1. Clearer focus on the NBN or its alternatives: The fundamental tenet of the Internet Society is that 'The Internet is for Everyone' and, whilst many Australians do have good Internet services, it is certainly not the case today that the Internet is accessible to everyone in Australia. There are still many places where Internet access is appalling or the services available substandard; this is the case for many rural and remote areas as well as areas within major suburban centres.

The present government's commitment to building a National Broadband Network (NBN) goes a long way towards meeting this objective, but so far there is a lack of performance standards for the NBN, and a lack of clarity on service pricing and the migration strategies for existing Internet Service Providers (ISPs), but the real missing link is the development framework for the myriad of new digital services.

The Coalition initiated the Australian Broadband Guarantee Scheme to ensure people in rural and remote Australia have access to at least the equivalent of an ADSL service at an affordable price – an initiative continued by this Government. However, it will axe the construction of the NBN, instead resurrecting some sort of Opel scheme to provide broadband services particularly in regional and rural Australia.

2. Online freedom, privacy and security: Over the last year or so, we have also seen increases in measures to combat online crime: a new computer emergency response centre, a new cyber crime centre, and the illconceived compulsory Internet filtering system. In addition, we have again seen the government float the idea that ISPs retain significant amounts of data in order to track the behaviour of all citizens online. As with filtering, the overall cost to ISPs, loss of privacy and utility for users, do not seem to have been considered, nor the case put that either of these systems will successfully avert correspondingly costly risks.

3. Better ICT industry development policy: With either party, any serious broadband infrastructure must be accompanied by a comprehensive ICT industry development policy that, amongst other things, addresses the serious deficiencies in training, low enrolments in technology programs within TAFE and university, and the overall lack of digital literacy across the Australian community. Australia also needs ancillary infrastructure programs such as government wide adoption of IPv6 (IPv4 addresses will exhaust within the next year), teleconferencing, and significantly greater online service delivery to name a few. In this way, the benefits of new broadband infrastructure will be maximised for all Internet users.

4. Real commitment to eGovernment: Modern elections are increasingly being fought on the Internet as much as in the offline world. Mailing lists, social networks, YouTube videos, blogs and rich multimedia web sites are being saturated with election material. There seems to be very few politicians without Twitter accounts – even reports of them sparring with their fake counterparts in 140 character bursts. It seems more than a little ironic, then, that online electoral registration and voting is still well outside the realm of the Australian democratic experience. On the face of it, the major difference between the parties is the Government’s commitment to the NBN.

Regardless of who wins, there is a distinct lack of detail being put forward and no clear commitment for broader industry engagement in policy development.

Read what the rest of the industry wants

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