Page 3341 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 18 September 2013
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I am pleased that Canberra has a vibrant and thriving ICT sector and is home to a number of world-class research and innovation institutions such as NICTA, the CSIRO, our universities, a large number of multinational companies and many innovative SMEs. Canberra’s reputation as a world-leading knowledge and business innovation centre is gaining momentum. We are seeing a burgeoning entrepreneurial sector in the territory with the establishment of more ICT start-ups. Spaces such as the co-working space E29 in the ANU exchange precinct position this city to become a leading city for the development and application of digital technology.
The Chief Minister acknowledges and has led the critical role of ICT industry development in the city. Certainly through her leadership she is ensuring that this government plays its part in building on this very strong base. Through the government’s business development strategy and other government programs and policies we are supporting a wide range of digital initiatives, including but not limited to the digital Canberra action plan, CollabIT, the digital hub based at Gungahlin Library, the Digital Enterprise Centre, Innovation Connect, the digital Canberra challenge and, of course, our largest investment, NICTA, the national centre for research excellence in information and communications technology.
Recently, the government has engaged with the local community and local businesses to have their say on the evolution of Canberra into the world’s leading digital city so that we can work together to drive improvements in productivity, connectivity, innovation and services locally using the latest thinking around digital technology. The ideas generated will inform the digital Canberra action plan, which the government will release later this year.
The government also supports the ACT CollabIT program, which is delivered in Canberra by the Australian Information Industry Association. CollabIT is about stimulating collaboration and bringing organisations involved in the ICT sector together to pursue opportunities for mutual benefit. The synergies created by these collaborative ventures greatly benefit all involved and the CollabIT program continues to deliver real outcomes for local firms.
Just last month, I launched the ACT government’s digital Canberra challenge which aims to engage local innovators and SMEs in the development of new or improved digital government services to support a dynamic, healthy and prosperous digital city for the 21st century. As Mr Gentleman’s motion focuses particularly on NICTA, I am pleased to be able to restate the ACT government’s strong support for NICTA. We were a founding a member. This Labor government in 2002 became a founding member and in July last year we entered into a new four-year $12 million funding agreement.
The ACT Labor government joined with the New South Wales Labor government, the Victorian Labor government and the then coalition government federally in 2002 to establish NICTA. It was a coalition government that at that point in time appeared to have an interest in supporting NICTA, an interest that has now disappeared, Madam Deputy Speaker.
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