ACS Week in Review: 5 October 2012

Reports out this week

• The Victorian State Government draft state ICT strategy (open for public consultation)

ACS in the news

• ACS survey shows high ICT employment discrimination, ARN
• Study reveals 10% pay gap between men and women in IT, Computerworld 
• One third of IT workers face discrimination: Survey, ITNews
• How old, man or woman, what salary?: Discrimination confronts ICT job seekers, ITWire 

ICT in the Media

Digital Economy – iiNet says Roxon’s plan is too complex

Patents & Copyright – Japan targets illegal downloads with piracy penalties

Security – URL vulnerability puts Australia Post service offline

ICT jobs market and skills – RIB brings software job boost

Digital Economy

• Technology Minister Gordon Rich-Phillips has welcomed a decision by China-based IT services and outsourcing company, VanceInfo Technologies, to create 60 new jobs in Victoria. Mr Rich-Phillips said over the next two years the company was seeking to hire 60 new project managers, business analysts, developers and architects in mobile, online and cloud computing. "The company's decision to expand its Australian and New Zealand headquarters in Melbourne means it will have 200 employees in Victoria by 2014.
• While Australia Post has moved to reassure customers that their financial details were not compromised due to a security glitch with its online service Click and Send, a security expert said the incident could affect consumer confidence in the merchant. 

Skills & Training

• Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, and Labor Senator for Queensland, Joe Ludwig, today welcomed the official opening of the NBN National Contact Centre on the Gold Coast, which will create up to 130 jobs. 
• The University of Melbourne has become the first Australian university to join the prestigious online course provider Coursera, which offers free subjects to anyone, anywhere with a computer and Internet access. The University will begin putting single subjects online early next year and expects to have about 10 subjects available through Coursera by the end of 2013. It is one part of a suite of initiatives in the area of e-learning and online teaching and learning that the University is pursuing.  
• Minister for Technology Gordon Rich-Phillips today visited Shanghai University to formally launch a project that will adapt and transfer Victorian developed expertise in precision farming and irrigation to China.
• The Gillard Government’s savage education cuts to the computers in schools programme have been exposed today, according to the Shadow Minister for Education, Christopher Pyne. "The Daily Telegraph has revealed the jewel in the crown of Julia Gillard’s so-called education revolution has been cut by Labor in the 2012 Budget, with funding for maintenance and upgrades slashed," Mr Pyne said. "The piles of broken computers also highlights that the dodgy accounting used by the Government to claim they have delivered one million computers was fraudulent from the start," he said.

Cyber Security

• Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Justice Jason Clare today welcomed the signing of an agreement between the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service and the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to increase trade data sharing. http://www.ministerhomeaffairs.gov.au/Mediareleases/Pages/2012/Third%20Quarter/20-September-Australia-and-the-United-States-to-increase-trade-data-sharing.aspx
• The Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s push to access the personal data of all Australian web users shows exactly why the government’s proposed mandatory data retention regime should not go ahead, said Simon Breheny, Director of the Rule of Law Project at free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs. In evidence given to the National Security Inquiry in Sydney today, ASIC stated that the content of online communications was needed to investigate insider trading and Ponzi schemes. 
• The inquiry into Potential Reforms to National Security Legislation today received a clarifying letter on data retention from the Attorney-General, the Hon Nicola Roxon as well as an unclassified submission from ASIO. Chair of the Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, Mr Anthony Byrne, said the committee was pleased to receive information that could be publicly released in relation to data retention in particular and the broad range of potential National Security reforms in general. 

Telecommunications

• MACQUARIE Telecom has been awarded a five-year, multimillion dollar contract to supply cyber security services to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and 11 other federal agencies.
• Telstra has said that terrorists and criminal syndicates don't choose Telstra as their telecommunications provider because the company works closely with law-enforcement agencies. 
• The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, together with the Member for Scullin, Harry Jenkins, have kicked off National Broadband Network (NBN) fibre services in South Morang, Victoria, with a virtual online AFL training session for local Auskick kids. "It was great to take part in the NBN-enabled ‘AFL virtual coaching session’, which clearly demonstrated one of the many ways that sport will benefit from high-speed broadband," Senator Conroy said.

Government announcements

• NBN fibre roll out ramping up in Launceston
The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, and the Federal Member for Bass, Geoff Lyons MP, today inspected construction on the National Broadband Network in Launceston, where the NBN roll out is ramping up. 
• NBN a big boost to small business in Tasmania The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, and Labor Senator for Tasmania Catryna Bilyk, have today visited Wafu Works in Kingston Beach, Tasmania, to highlight the importance of the National Broadband Network for small business.
• Only six months left before Adelaide switches to Digital TV The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, today announced that it is only six months before people across Adelaide switchover to digital television. 
• Three NBN satellite ground stations for Western Australia to create up to 90 jobs The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, and Western Australian Senators Louise Pratt and Glenn Sterle, today announced that Western Australia will be home to three National Broadband Network (NBN) satellite ground stations that will provide fast, reliable and affordable broadband to rural and remote Australia. 

Opposition announcements

• Labor’s three year decline in manufacturing Labor’s record on manufacturing has crashed to a spectacular low today, with the release of the latest Australian Industry Group (AiG) survey pointing to a full three years of contractions under the Gillard and Rudd governments.