The government has
expanded the scope of a very public process to develop cyber security policy
into one for the development of long term policy for the digital economy as a
whole, but at the same time closed the door to public participation.
Remember Julia
Gillard’s Digital Economy Forum last October? It was held before an
invitation-only audience of, according to the PM’s press release, “more than 30
senior business representatives, entrepreneurs and industry bodies to discuss
how Australia can best maintain an edge in growing the digital economy into the
future.”
In her closing
remarks to that audience Gillard said: “We’ve been in the process of putting
together a Cyber White Paper…But having listened to the discussion today I
think we should broaden what we have been conceptualising as the Cyber White
Paper, which would get people thinking about the security space…so it is more a
digital White Paper and helps us capture some of the more profound and longer
term issues that have been brought to the table.”
Plans for the Cyber
White Paper - which would have been more accurately described as a Cyber
Security White Paper - were unveiled on 3 June 2011 in a joint press release
from attorney-general Robert McClelland, minister for defence, Stephen Smith
and communications minister, Stephen Conroy.
The press release
said the white paper would “provide a comprehensive blueprint to help
Australians connect to the Internet with confidence and would be “a
comprehensive review of how governments, businesses and individuals can work
together to realise the full benefits of cyberspace while at the same time
ensuring current and emerging risks can be managed.” The white paper was
scheduled to be released in the first half of 2012.
On the same date a
‘fact sheet’ on the white paper was published on the web site of the Department
of Prime Minister & Cabinet. It promised that “The development of the Cyber
White Paper will be informed heavily by the public consultation process
beginning in the second half of this year, which will commence with the release
of a discussion paper and website.”
A discussion paper
was duly released and submissions received. However following Gillard’s
expansion of the scope of the white paper the doors on public participation
were firmly closed. The web site set up for the white paper has been closed
down and none of the public submissions that were posted there are now
available - except for those that submitters have published on their own web
sites.
There is a tweet for
the digital white paper (@Digital_WP) and its home page on Twitter still lists
the non-existent web site (http://www.cyberwhitepaper.dpmc.gov.au)
There is no web site
for the new white paper; there has been no discussion paper publicly released
and no invitation for the public to make submissions. It seems that the main,
and perhaps the only, source of input to the expanded Digital Economy Agenda
will be the select group invited to the Digital Economy Forum. Gillard told the
audience at the Digital Economy Forum that the Government would be “calling on
individuals around the room to be making some direct contributions to that
process too.
OzHub, a coalition
of cloud computing service providers is pushing the goal of making Australia
the leading cloud-ready country in the region by 2020 and as part of this
initiative is making a submission to the Digital White Paper. When queried
about the process the organisation was unable to provide much information,
except to say: “they are still accepting submission from a few organisations.”
A blog posting last
week from ‘From Little Things’, a news service focused on high tech startups,
shed a little more light on the process: “A letter sent to participants by
Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy,
says one of the six areas likely to be covered by the white paper is the
promotion of ‘digital innovation and a conducive regulatory environment to
encourage innovation and investment in Australia’s digital economy’.” And, it
said: “Submissions for the White Paper will close on Friday 11 January. You can
provide your views by emailing SDD@pmc.gov.au.”
Another morsel of
information was revealed in Parliament in response to a question taken on
notice from Greens senator Scott Ludlum in a Budget Estimates Committee hearing
last October He asked for membership details of the last force working on the
paper.
The answer came back
on 4 January: “The Digital Economy White Paper will be written by an
inter-departmental taskforce, comprising staff from the Department of the Prime
Minister and Cabinet and the Department of Broadband, Communications and the
Digital Economy. This taskforce will also draw on relevant expertise from other
agencies, particularly: the Treasury; the Attorney-General's Department; the
Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations; the Department of
Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport; and the Department
Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education.”
When she announced
that the Cyber White Paper was morphing into the Digital White Paper, Gillard
said: “White Papers are of course powerful cross-government strategic documents
that then drive government actions and policies for a long period of time to
come,” and that broadening the scope of the cyber white paper “helps us capture
some of the more profound and longer term issues that have been brought to the
table.”
If the digital white
paper is as important as she claims, the wider community should have a chance
to participate and the process of its preparation should be more transparent.
No comments:
Post a Comment