Subjects: Information Technology;Adelaide
E&OE...........
Thank you very much Mr Alder, to Richard Alston my federal minister for Information and Technology, State Ministers, particularly our honoured guests from overseas, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the Australian Government and on behalf of all of the Australian people I particularly welcome to the lovely city of Adelaide our guests for this conference, this congress, which is a remarkable tribute to the capacity of this city with its special attributes, most of which have been mentioned, but two more I';ll add in a moment. It';s a great contribution to the city of Adelaide that it should have been chosen for this congress.
It is an IT centre in Australia and it is very much a cultural centre of our nation. It pioneered the promotion of culture and the arts to many parts of the Australian community. Adelaide of course is also the capital of the state which now produces one of the fastest growing exports from Australia which doesn';t immediately have a lot to do with information technology, and that of course is the wine industry. It';s an interesting change in circumstance to recognise that Australia';s largest export now to the United Kingdom is wine. We are second only to France as an exporter to that country and pressing them very hard. And of course the great bulk of those exports come from the state of South Australia. And also I might add, reflecting my own prejudices, Adelaide is home to arguably the most beautiful major cricket field in the world, certainly in Australia.
So can I say welcome to Australia, welcome to Adelaide, we';re pleased to have you amongst us in these early years of the 21st century. You';ll be welcomed by an Australian nation and by an Australian people very confident and very positive about our place in the world and the contribution that we can make to it. A nation that identifies itself very strongly with the great liberal democratic tradition. A nation that has aligned itself unambiguously with the leadership of the United States in the fight against terrorism. A nation uniquely placed in the Asian-Pacific region and being steadily enriched by new settlers from that region who are contributing greatly to the diversification of our skills base, and not least in the area of information technology, but also a nation that has very deep roots with Europe and North America. You';ll find a modern, thriving, innovative nation, you';ll find a nation with a strong and growing economy. A nation which over the last 20 years has undertaken major changes and reforms to her economy which have enabled Australians to withstand the buffeting and the shocks of major economic downturns and most particularly the Asian economic downturn of 1997. You';ll find a nation whose growth prospects in the year 2002 are better than most. And you';ll find a nation whose levels of government debt are extremely low by world standards.
But you';ll also find a nation which is very adaptive and very innovative when it comes to information technology. A nation that through all of its history has very pragmatically embraced and adapted new technology. And one of the little known features of the Australian character to many foreigners has been the way in which we have been devourers, almost instant devourers of new technology, whether it be in the area more recently of information technology or in earlier years other inventions.
In the area of information and communication technology usage it';s already been said that 67 per cent of Australian households have a PC. That 52 per cent of Australian households are online and 72 per cent of Australians over the age of 16 have access to the Internet. These put us at the very top of Internet and IT usage around the world. There';s been an enormous transformation in the balance of activity in the Australian economy reflecting the use of information technology over the last 10 years. Ten years ago the mining, agricultural and manufacturing industries of Australia accounted for 74 per cent of the stock market value of Australian companies. Now 10 years later finance and services comprise two-thirds of that stock market value, with one-third in those three industries. That is not to denigrate the role of those industries because it remains the case that in terms of technological sophistication and general efficiency the Australian mining and agricultural industries are at the top flight of world performance. Indeed it is a regular complaint of the efficient farmers of Australia that the predatory trading and subsidy practices of the European Union and of other countries do great and enduring damage to the competitive position of Australian rural exports.
And I make those comments and I draw those comparisons to illustrate the way in which the Australian economy has adapted and transformed. We have preserved the best of our traditional industries and they are still massive and important wealth producers and employers and adders of value to the Australian economy. But we have embraced new industries, and more particularly we have embraced new technology and applied it to all industries and in the process we give the lie to this rather dated proposition that in some way there is a set of old industries and a set of new industries. There are in reality either efficient industries or inefficient industries. And both varieties can be found in all industry sectors and the key to efficiency so often is the ready adaptation of information technology to a particular business endeavour. And one of the features of the development of the Australian economy over the last few years has been the way in which we have seen productivity levels rise. The key to rising incomes and rising employment and low inflation is to have increases in productivity. And the contribution that the use of information technology has made to increases in competitiveness and increases in productivity has been quite remarkable. It';s an illustration of the use to which we are putting information technology, can I simply say to our overseas visitors that you would have under our electronic travel authority system, you would have automatically obtained your visa without any further effort when your travel ticket was purchased by your travel agent. And this is an Australian innovation which is a demonstration of the way in which information technology can be put to effective use.
There is of course nothing complacent about our approach to information technology and its uses in Australia. We do not pretend that there aren';t weaknesses in the matrix of capacity that we have in this country. And that';s one of the reasons why at the beginning of last year I launched a $3 billion programme entitled Backing Australia';s Ability which was designed amongst other things to put more investment into research, not only but particularly in the area of information and communications technology. And one of the elements of that programme will be the establishment of a world class centre of excellence in ICT as part of that Backing Australia';s Ability programme.
I';m very conscious that one of the great policy issues for governments all around the world in the area of information and communications technology is broadband and the harnessing of broadband and the reaping of the dividends of social advance and advantage from it is very important. We';ll be announcing, and Senator Alston will be giving more detail of this, we';ll be announcing at this congress a joint Government/Industry group to be chaired by Senator Alston which will ensure that the social benefits of broadband developments are captured and used for the benefit of the entire Australian community. And we';ll also be announcing ladies and gentlemen the establishment of a high level ICT industry strategy group to be chaired by Senator Alston, and the purpose of that will be to develop a framework for the future of the ICT industry in Australia.
I';m also very happy to report to this congress the reaching of a number of milestones and one in particular that we set ourselves back in 1997 when I outlined in a major statement to the Australian people some of our industry objectives. And one of the things I promised was that we would put all Commonwealth Government services online. And I';m pleased to announce today that that goal has been achieved in full over the last four years. We now have 1,665 individual Commonwealth services and agencies which are fully online. And I doubt that in terms of national government services it is possible to draw a more favourable example or find a more favourable example around the world.
But I think it is important, and I know that this congress will focus on this issue, to remember that in debates about information technology just as in the endless debates about globalisation, that the end goal of human and intellectual endeavour in area such as this is the improvement of the overall lot of mankind.
This congress brings together people from all around the world. It brings together people who are the leading ledge of, the intellectual leading edge of our civilisation. It';s an opportunity therefore to restate the value system that ought to underpin our activity. It';s an opportunity to relate the advances in areas of information technology to the relief of human misery. I';m very proud of the fact amongst the many things that my country has been able to do over the years is the fact that in areas of medical science and medical research we have been able to punch well above our weight. And the contribution that information technology is making to that effort is absolutely enormous. I';m also particularly proud of the fact that one of our recent initiatives with the strong support of the Federal Government is our involvement in partnership with the World Bank in what is called the virtual Colombo plan in which we are investing $200 million to work with the World Bank in bringing, through information technology, the benefits of teaching and learning to the developing world. In the post World War II years the Colombo Plan was one of the most practical ways in which Australia connected with the developing nations of the Asian-Pacific region. And it remains an enormous source of inspiration and pride to me as Prime Minister of Australia whenever I visit countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia and Singapore and Thailand I constantly run into people who remind me of the contribution to their lives made through the Colombo Plan of a university or technical education in Australia.
Now that all occurred before the burgeoning of information technology in our world. And it';s fitting therefore that in a virtual Colombo Plan we should be part of a project which is deigned to bring through information technology the benefits of learning and understanding to developing parts of the world.
So the end goal of our endeavours has always to be the relief of human suffering, the bridging of the divides between the rich and the poor. There are many ways in which that can be done, development assistance, importantly more open trading systems, indeed the rich nations of the world can do more to help the undeveloped nations of the world by demolishing trade barriers than they can by virtually anything else. And the contribution that the spread in an affordable way of information technology and all that it brings to the developing world is an important part of our endeavours.
I am delighted ladies and gentleman that you have chosen to come to Australia. I';m delighted that you have chosen to come to this great convention city of Adelaide. It';s an optimally sized city for a congress of this nature. It has everything that is needed but in a number of respects it perhaps lacks, desirably, some of the pressures of a larger metropolis. I couldn';t think of a better location in Australia in which to have this congress. On behalf of my fellow Australians I welcome all of you to our nation. We always welcome friends and visitors, we are an open hearted generous people who are very proud of our cultural diversity, very proud of our egalitarian values and always ready to extend the hand of welcome and friendship to those who come to our shores. I wish your congress well and I declare it open.
[ends]