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It remains to be seen what sort of an impact the elevation of Malcolm Turnbull to prime minister will have on the Australian IT industry, however Ovum government technology principal analyst Al Blake believes it “will have significant consequences”.Blake states Turnbull understands technology and “appreciates what it can do to stimulate the economy and improve society”.
“He’s on record as regarding ‘digital literacy’ as important as reading and supporting open access to government data, and in his role as Minister for Communications, he espoused the benefits of using high-value government datasets to ‘assist government in making evidence-based policy decisions’,” Blake noted.
Blake additionally noted Turnbull earlier in the year created the Digital Transformation Office (DTO), observing that with Turnbull as prime minister “it’s hard to see how DTO can go anywhere apart from up, regardless of who takes over the reins at Communications”.
As for the NBN rollout, a different approach could now be taken, however a return to Labor’s original plan will not be on the cards.
“When the incoming Liberal government inherited the ‘Labor NBN’, after months of trashing it as a ‘massive white elephant’, it was a political imperative to promote a different approach – resulting the mixed-mode delivery model pushed for the last two years against the advice of many in the ICT industry,” Blake commented.
“Although he was following the party line there was always uncertainty as to how strongly Turnbull personally supported that approach and his elevation to the PM spot may allow for an NBN recalibration.
“Given the political realities, it would be impossible to go back to the original Labor plan – but we may see the proportion technologies slide further towards FTTP, which would mean world-call broadband performance for a greater percentage of Australians.”
