[LINK] Dr Mel Slater - CEO NICTA Presentation

[Geoffrey Ramadan]

I thought you all might be interested in a presentation Dr Mel Slater 
gave recently at a luncheon hosted by AEEMA. on "Building ICT 
Australia's Future"
http://www.aeema.asn.au/ArticleDocuments/41/Dr%20Mel%20Slater%20Address%20-%20April%202005.pdf

Dr Mel Slater is CEO of NICTA - National ICT Australia 
(http://nicta.com.au/)
His bio can be found at:
http://nicta.com.au/director/aboutnicta/our_organisation/management/mel_slater.cfm

Being an American working in Australia for the last 2 years, Dr Slater 
presents his perspective on Australia's ICT industry.

One of his interesting points he makes is:

" SMEs and their industry bodies need to encourage government to provide a
mechanism for consistent revenue support through:
· Ongoing business from government and just as important
· Ongoing business from large companies"

He also mentions that unlike other countries, Australia does not rate 
ICT in its top 10 priorities.

Was thinking how would the Australian Government change this. One simple 
solution could be to NOT sell Telstra, but infact, take an active role 
in its strategic direction.

Just like Defense, which is a vehicle to enforce the Australian 
Government foreign policy, Telstra could be use to enforce its policy on 
ICT and industry development.

I had always thought that Telstra was much too a strategic for Australia 
to be privatise. Governments are in the infrastructure business, and 
there can be no more important infrastructure than telecommunications.

It is quite clear to me that the direction that Telstra goes as a 
privatised entity, is in direct contradiction to Australian strategic needs.

Geoffrey Ramadan
Unique Micro Design
www.umd.com.au