Education and Skills Dominate Election Concerns for ICT Professionals

Friday 9 November 2001 - Education and the development of a skills base that will enable Australia to play a significant role in the global information economy have been identified as the key issues for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) professionals in the lead-up to the Federal Election.

A recent competition by the Australian Computer Society (ACS) asked its Members to identify what they believed were the three top policy initiatives a new Federal Government should implement to move Australia forward into the information age.

Entries went into the draw to win one of five trips to the South East Asian Regional Computer Confederation (SEARCC) Conference to be held in New Zealand from November 26-29, 2001.

ACS President John Ridge said he was impressed by the large number of well thought out suggestions the society received.

"We didn't expect such a breadth or range of views, but we had responses from all over Australia," he said. "Clearly ICT is an issue of great concern to our Members."

Nearly half of the respondents highlighted education and skills development as critical to Australia's future, while one third of entries also called for urgent action on national, affordable ICT infrastructure with bandwidth capacity, including provision of Internet access for regional, remote and cultural communities.

"ACS Members recognise the potential of the Internet to impact on society by enabling access to information and knowledge," said Mr Ridge.

"We congratulate our competition winners: Catherine Deacon, Lindsay Doig, Tony Harding, Ken Price and Anita Svehlak on their participation, interest and thoughtful policy initiatives. We will be providing their input to the next Government as part of our on-going lobbying in support of the ICT industry," he said.

The winners suggested initiatives such as off-shore business parks and highlighted the importance of the Asian marketplace to Australia's export success as well as reinforcing the knowledge economy and e-commerce as being critical to business.

They also suggested specialist industries such as software and usability testing and best practice security management as examples of areas where Australia could apply its expertise to become a world leader.

"The ACS will build many of these suggestions into future policy recommendations and looks forward to working with whichever party wins Government this weekend to further develop and apply them," said Mr Ridge

This media release is available on the ACS Web site at http://www.acs.org.au/news/091101.htm

ENDS

The Australian Computer Society is the recognised association for information technology (IT) professionals, attracting a large and active membership from all levels of the IT industry and providing a wide range of services to its 16,000+ members. A member of the Australian Council of Professions, the ACS is the public voice of the IT profession and the guardian of professional ethics and standards in the IT industry, with a commitment to the wider community to ensure the beneficial use of IT.See the ACS Home Page for more information.

John Ridge, ACS President, Tel: (02) 9223 9499 or (0407) 913 992, Email: jridge@mra.com.au

Dennis Furini, ACS CEO, Tel: (02) 9299 3666 or (0418) 963 980, Email: Dennis.Furini@acs.org.au

Caroline New, Caroline New PR, Tel: (02) 9980 8060 or (0411) 889 456, Email: cnew@acslink.net.au