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Contact: John VickersChair, Software QueenslandMobile: 0416127221Email:chair@softwareqld.com.auwww.softwareqld.com.au

Media Statement

For Release April 20 2011

Software Queensland expresses disappointment with Queensland ICT Prominencereflected in both Labor Ministerial and LNP Shadow Minister Appointments.

Software Queensland would like to express its disappointment with the recognition andprominence given to the Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) industry by recent

Ministerial and Shadow ministerial appointments in the State Labor Governments reshuffle andthe LNP Shadow Front bench announcement.

To put this in perspective, the ICT industry in Queensland employs more than 70 000 people,numbers close to 5 000 businesses and generates more than $25B in revenues as well asBillions of dollars in exports. It is right up there in terms of economic and social impact, especiallywith the looming NBN rollout.

After a fine start to recognising the huge potential ICT engenders in creating jobs and newbusinesses back in 2005, there has been a steady erosion of profile and a queue of ICTMinisterial and shadow ICT Ministerial appointments. Almost all of the candidates showed little orno experience or full appreciation of ICT, nor of its benefits and massive potential to significantlytransform Australia and in particular, Queenslands future. Almost universally ICT had been

regarded by bureaucrats and politicians as the automation and speeding up of processes, ratherthan being the single most transformational technology in history.

Ministers have compared ICT to whatever in their background and experience made themcomfortable ICT has been likened to Construction, or Electricity, Plumbing or Health recordsand payroll management - which contain minor elements of truth, but are nave, simplistic, ill-informed perspectives. A similar mind set would have regarded early railways, motor cars andairlines as mere improvements in transport efficiency instead of becoming transformationaltechnologies which completely changed the world and Australia.

In our opinion Minister Simon Finn- who has a Social Science educational background, -indicated where his interests lie in his maiden speech in Parliament.(in which not much wasthere for ICT), and with his other huge portfolios of Government Services and Building Industry,

ICT seems set to be the orphan, with funding priorities going to flood reconstruction. In factthere appears to be nothing in his background which qualifies the Minister for oversight of thismajor transformational sector.On the opposition side, Ross Bates (LNP shadow minister for Government Services, BuildingIndustry and ICT) is a successful and decorated nurse by profession, who has naturally focusedon her main interest in Health, Nursing and Hospitals. Not the slightest mention of ICT is to befound in her credentials.

Both appointments reflect a sad lack of understanding and appreciation of the transformationalaspects of ICT, and the ICT portfolio has been tacked on to a list of diverse, unrelated and

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seemingly random portfolios as an afterthought. What confidence is to be gleaned from this?Where is the strategic thinking behind this 21

stCentury capability?

To make matters worse, the Government /ICT Industry liaison body, the Joint ICT Work Group,which has not met for 6 months to address issues of growing significance in this fastest changing,pervasive and dynamic industry, has remained silent on the matter,- just as they remained silenton the issue of the Health Payroll debacle. There is a growing concern that by failing to take theinitiative, get on the front foot, and take issues up to the government in a more assertive manner,this forum has become increasingly compliant. Yet all is not well in Government ICT across theboard if the truth be told if Victoria is an examplehttp://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/ombudsman-to-probe-billions-of-dollars-thrown-at-it-projects-20110417-1djt1.html.

Australias long term future does not lie in digging ore out of the ground, or trying to manufacturehigh volume, low price items, or even high value items like white goods and cars in directcompetition with China, Korea, Japan, and other similar countries with an abundance of cheap,skilled labour - but in making huge creative strides in beneficiation, modernisation, andproductivity. and ICT is front and centre in all these initiatives, said Software Queensland ChairJohn Vickers. We fail to see that this matter is being taken seriously. Anna Blighs previousspeech to 800 plus ICT Industry executives was a disgrace, mostly lauding a boutique computer

gaming industry, which fails to generate significant employment opportunities per annum in anyState. Her speech drained industry confidence in her appreciation of what the ICT industry canachieve for the State. Recent NBN briefings by Government too, have failed to motivatebusinesses, nor inform them as to what the true business benefits of high speed broad band are other than more and faster. The NBN is far more than hard hats and green luminous vestsfeeding blue pipes into drains. Yet that is the pervasive image one has of the Minister in themedia. Now we have a pair of relative newcomers with little or no experience in the ICT industry,and no credentials in that regard, to represent what is one of the largest and most importantindustry sectors in the State.

Our message is that the ICT Industry is once again not being taken seriously, and we are oncemore being marginalised and treated as an afterthought. In acknowledging that ICT brings aboutinnovation, creativity and productivity gains; in taking the Smart State and Q2 State strategies into

account; and in consideration of key NBN and Government services online initiatives - the ICTIndustry in Queensland must be encouraged to develop, prosper, and be introduced into themainstream mix of State strategies. What will the consequences on the above strategies andinitiatives of an ICT industry in Queensland be, if talent and ICT businesses focus southwardsand elsewhere in the world as opportunities dry up in Queensland and the ICT industry feels thatit is inadequately represented in the political arena? It will very effectively succeed in killing off apotential golden goose. Beattie appreciated this, but somehow it has been lost in translation.

For more information contact as follows:

John VickersChair, Software QueenslandMobile: 0416127221

Email: chair@softwareqld.com.au

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/ombudsman-to-probe-billions-of-dollars-thrown-at-it-projects-20110417-1djt1.htmlhttp://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/ombudsman-to-probe-billions-of-dollars-thrown-at-it-projects-20110417-1djt1.htmlhttp://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/ombudsman-to-probe-billions-of-dollars-thrown-at-it-projects-20110417-1djt1.htmlmailto:chair@softwareqld.com.aumailto:chair@softwareqld.com.aumailto:chair@softwareqld.com.auhttp://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/ombudsman-to-probe-billions-of-dollars-thrown-at-it-projects-20110417-1djt1.htmlhttp://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/ombudsman-to-probe-billions-of-dollars-thrown-at-it-projects-20110417-1djt1.html