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A new approach to ICT

Kim Carr, Information Age

19/02/2008 12:39:35

This challenge, thrown down by International Telecommunication Union a couple of years ago, highlights the ubiquity and transformative power of ICT - technologies now so deeply embedded in our society that it is hard to imagine a world in which they did not exist.

The new federal government led by Kevin Rudd will harness the power ICT to accelerate the development of a knowledge economy, to foster social engagement and cultural participation, and to give all Australians equitable access to the widest possible range of opportunities. Why ICT matters

The ICT breakthroughs of the last few decades have radically increased our capacity to collect, analyse, apply and distribute information. These technologies aren't just changing the way we communicate and handle data; they are revolutionising the way we do business, the way we do science, the way we learn, the way we care for each other and the way we play. They are changing the way we live our lives.

ICT is transforming existing industries and making them more efficient. It has made it possible to create flexible working relationships, networked organisations, virtual organisations, and new business models. In fact, it is forming the basis for whole new industries. It is empowering consumers and citizens by giving them more diverse sources of information and knowledge than ever before.

Moreover, this is just the beginning. The technologies we use today will be improved and elaborated. New uses and applications will be identified. The cutting-edge is a moving frontier.

ICT and productivity Government research shows that ICT innovation made a bigger contribution to Australia's productivity growth in the 1980s and 1990s than anyone thought. It suggests that ICT innovation has been responsible for between 45 and 75 per cent of productivity growth in manufacturing and between 35 and 65 per cent of productivity growth in services industries.

ICT professionals may not be surprised by these figures. After all, it is your work that underpins this productivity growth. The diffusion of ICT is creating high skilled and well paid jobs not only in manufacturing and services, but across the board - even in old industries such as mining and agriculture.

Mining, to take one example, has been revolutionised by computer-aided ore body evaluation, 3-D blast and mine design, mineral sampling software, seismic monitoring, geological sensing, systems to monitor the condition of equipment, and digital data collection and transfer. It has become a knowledge-based industry.

Reviewing the national innovation system Australia's long-term prosperity, security, social cohesion, cultural diversity and ability to innovate all depend on how effectively we harness the power of ICT. The technology is central to the Government's vision of Australia's future.

In January, I commissioned a comprehensive review of the national innovation system by an expert panel chaired by Dr Terry Cutler. The panel will identify gaps and weaknesses in the innovation system and develop proposals to address them. I have asked the panel to draw up a set of principles to guide public sector participation in innovation and develop national innovation priorities to complement our national research priorities.

The review will identify regulatory and other barriers to innovation and suggest ways to lower them. It will examine how well the R&D tax concession is working and how it can be improved. It will also consider how we can rationalise the huge number of federal and state innovation programs to reduce duplication and ensure that support is well-targeted and easy to access.

Panel member Prof Mary O'Kane has been charged with examining the Cooperative Research Centres program and recommending ways to get it back on track. The program was established by the Hawke Government in 1990 to foster collaboration between industry, universities and public sector research agencies, but in recent years it has lost its way. Our aim is to restore public benefit as the program's primary objective.

The innovation review panel will consult nationally and submit a green paper to the Government detailing its findings and recommendations by July 31, 2008. The green paper will be released for public comment and used as the basis for a white paper setting out the Government's policy priorities.

Given the importance of ICT to innovation, I am keen to see ICT professionals contributing to the review. All submissions will be considered with care - whether from individuals, businesses or associations.

Building a culture of innovation Australia has had more than its share of brilliant researchers, technicians and entrepreneurs. Our 11 Nobel prizes - 10 of them in the sciences - are testament to the kind of talent we can produce.

It is not enough, however, to rely on the genius of a few. To build a genuine culture of innovation, we need to tap the creativity of all Australians. Nor is it enough to focus narrowly on technological or business innovation, important though they are. We want the culture of innovation to extend into every area of life - our workplaces, our schools and universities, our social institutions, our community organisations, and - not least - our political system. We must all be willing to advance and embrace new ideas if we are to fully enjoy the social, material and personal rewards innovation can bring.

It is with this in mind that we have brought responsibility for innovation, industry, science and research into one portfolio. No industry can expect to thrive in the twenty-first century unless it is prepared to innovate; innovation policy and industry policy are one and the same thing. The title of the portfolio includes both science and research because we want to get away from the idea that scientific research is the only kind that matters.

We want to encourage inquiry and discovery in all disciplines - the humanities, the social sciences, the arts - because all disciplines have the potential to enrich people's lives.

Without pre-empting the national innovation review green paper, there are several things I want to achieve in this portfolio. One is to focus incentives for business R&D and accelerate the take up of new technology. Another is to promote international collaboration and foreign investment in Australian R&D.

I want to strengthen Australia's publicly funded innovation and research infrastructure and make it easier for industry to access the expertise in our universities and research agencies. And I want to use government procurement to support innovative Australian firms.

In an online poll conducted by the Australian Computer Society before the election, 49 per cent of respondents said broadband was the number one ICT issue facing Australia, while 31 per cent nominated skills and education. The Labor Government shares these priorities.

Skills for innovation Perhaps our most important objective is to expand the skills needed for innovation. We have embarked on an education revolution to ensure we have the highly skilled tradespeople, scientists, engineers, managers, teachers and professionals required by a creative country.

Investment in education at all levels is essential if Australia is to build the workforce of the future, maintain its prosperity and equip its citizens to fulfil their personal potential.

Elements of the education revolution include: • $450 million to provide early childhood learning or pre-school for all four-year-olds for 15 hours a week, 40 weeks a year, with a fully trained teacher • $2.5 billion over ten years to build trades training centres in each of Australia's secondary schools • a National Secondary School Computer Fund to give every Australian student in Years 9 to 12 access to their own school computer • an additional 450,000 skilled training places over the next four years - with 20,000 to start in April • halving HECS fees for new maths and science students and halving HECS repayments for up to five years when graduates take up work in a maths or science-related occupation, including teaching • and doubling the number of Commonwealth Scholarships for undergraduates and Australian Postgraduate Awards for PhD and Masters by Research students.

The breadth of these initiatives - from pre-school to PhD - indicates the scale of the revolution we aim to bring about. Infrastructure for innovation - broadband

Innovators need to access information and share knowledge - and they need to do it now. That's why communications technology is so important.

Australia's innovation potential - and its ICT potential in particular - is being held back by our poor broadband performance. The latest OECD figures confirm that Australian broadband users pay above average prices for below average speeds (October 2007).

The OECD estimates that Australia still only has about 23 broadband subscribers for every 100 inhabitants (June 2007). This puts us 12th on the list of 30 OECD countries and below the two countries with population densities comparable to ours: Canada (25 per 100) and Iceland (30 per 100).

To be fair, most broadband connections are used by more than one person, so per capita penetration rates are less meaningful than per business and per household rates. The Australian Bureau of Statistics says that a respectable 83 per cent of our businesses have broadband access (2005-06), although rates are lower for micro-businesses (79 per cent) and businesses located outside the capital cities (76 per cent).

The take-up rate for Australian households, however, is only 43 per cent (2006-07); our per household ranking is actually lower than our per capita ranking within the OECD.

The caveat here is that both the ABS and the OECD define broadband as 256kbps or better - an antiquated and highly flattering definition which few users would accept, and one at odds with the International Telecommunication Union's longstanding recommendation that only services which exceed the primary rates for ISDN (1544 or 2048kbps) should be called broadband.

To increase the quality and availability of broadband across Australia, the Government will invest up to $4.7 billion to establish the National Broadband Network in partnership with the private sector. This new fibre-to-the-node network will connect 98 per cent of Australians to Internet services at a minimum speed of 12mbps (12,288kbps).

It has been predicted that the network will stimulate up to $30bn in additional economic activity every year, which translates into more jobs and great prosperity. It will make our businesses - especially small businesses - much more competitive and give them access to new markets. It will enrich community life by increasing media diversity and giving Australian families new ways to access health, education and other services.

Just as innovation is the key to improving our standard of living and quality of life, so ICT is the key to lifting our innovation performance. The success of our efforts to create a deep and pervasive culture of innovation depends very much on you.

Senator Kim Carr is the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research.