Page 3346 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 18 September 2013
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consumers. We should be supporting NICTA and backing our best minds to create new opportunities for Australian industry, not just buying old technology from overseas.
The federal Liberals, in their desperation to find “cuts, cuts, cuts”, might dismiss the $42 million for NICTA as going to lab-coated pointy heads in ivory towers. This is completely wrong. NICTA states that it focuses on wealth creation opportunities that draw on and exploit its areas of research excellence. These take the form of funded industry partnerships, start-up companies or research outcomes which have major social impacts. NICTA’s four business teams drive commercial outcomes in these recognised domains for ICT, broadband and the digital economy, health, infrastructure, transport and logistics, security and environment.
NICTA seems entirely switched on to the markets, business and the opportunities to grow our economy. This is in contrast to the scientific dark ages the coalition seems to want to usher in. The Liberals might not be greatly concerned about what a Labor politician says about them. But what are the Liberals saying about cuts to NICTA and the Liberals’ priorities when it comes to science? Firstly, we know that Mr Smyth believes NICTA is doing a good job. He said so in the Assembly.
Here is what a re-elected federal Liberal MP with a PhD in materials science and physics and who was a research scientist at the CSIRO before entering parliament had to say about the incoming Liberal government’s attitude to science. Dr Jensen, the member for the Western Australian seat of Tangney, told the ABC, “I mean, we’ve got a minister for sport for God’s sake, but we don’t have a minister for Science.”
Now, the new Prime Minister said, “Happy the country which is more interested in sport than in politics.” This is somewhat ironic given he has spent the last three years ramming politics down our throats. Like Dr Jensen, he has also spent that time ignoring climate science. Happy we may be following sport but it only pays the bills for a few.
We need the vision of and investment in science and ICT through NICTA to build and maintain our economic future. I am proud that the ACT government is backing innovation in ICT throughout the services we deliver and in the ACT community. In this centenary year our government is asking Canberrans to imagine our digital future through the digital Canberra initiative. The ACT government will work in partnership with businesses and the community to build on our expertise and opportunities in the digital economy. We can become a world-leading digital city. Already 10 per cent of our workforce are in the vibrant local ICT sector.
Just a few of the local NICTA projects supporting this vitality are NICTA’s ehealth living laboratory, currently being built at the University of Canberra, which will have exciting benefits for the people of Canberra. The lab is developing technology and business processes to enable healthcare providers to deliver more and better accessible services, open new opportunities for businesses and promote future models of health care through mobile technologies.
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