Description

The National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE) provides policy advice to assist the Government to develop a regulatory framework for the information economy. This encourages industry self-regulation, accords with Australia’s national interests, increases the confidence of business and consumers in online transactions, and protects the security and legality of transactions.

To maximise Australian access to opportunities in global markets, it undertakes the international promotion of policy positions beneficial to Australia’s communications and information technology industries, and to the liberalisation of the international market in communications and information services.

Intellectual property issues related to the evolving information economy are addressed with the objective of achieving an appropriate balance between ownership and access and addressing the many issues which arise from opportunities provided by the Internet for creating, exploiting and accessing copyright material.

• NOIE made major contributions to the development, coordination and oversight of broad policy relating to taxation, private sector privacy legislation, problem gambling in Australia, use of e-commerce in key industry sectors and Consumer Protection Guidelines.

• A complaints mechanism for illegal and offensive online content was put in place through amendments to the Broadcasting Services Act 1992, to give additional powers to the ABA. A co-regulatory code of practice was developed by the Internet Industry Association and a community advisory body for online content, NetAlert, was established.

• The .au Domain Administration, or auDA, was established in April 1999 to assume authority for the .au Internet domain. NOIE oversaw the progress of auDA in achieving the policy objectives set by the Government.

• Australia has participated in international domain names administration through the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Issues discussed by the GAC include the addition of new generic top-level domains, intellectual property issues including ‘cybersquatting’, and notably principles for the delegation and administration of country code top-level domains.

• Twenty-two grants totalling more than $1.685 million were made under the Information Technology Online (ITOL) program, facilitating e-commerce take-up in key sectors, including small business.

• The National Electronic Authentication Council (NEAC) was established in 1999–2000 to enhance confidence in electronic authentication of e-commerce transactions. NEAC commissioned and published a series of consultancies on issues such as legal liability in relation to authentication, systems integration and authentication standards. An online capability directory was also launched.

• Continued implementation of the World Trade Organisation agreement on basic telecommunications-assisted growth of competition in international markets and significant reductions in prices of international telecommunications.

• The coordination of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) approaches supported significant progress on harmonised regulatory arrangements for electronic authentication, paperless trading, and interoperability of electronic commerce applications Internet-based information services.
• Cooperative activities to support the development of open, transparent and competitive regulatory regimes in the region, introduced competition policy principles relevant to structural convergence in the communications sector.

• Draft management guidelines for intellectual property associated with Government information technology contracts were produced and circulated across Government and industry.

• Proposed treaties on databases and broadcasting were monitored.

The Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts has expressed satisfaction with the timeliness and quality of advice and draft legislation provided on issues relating to the information economy.

Consultation took place with the community (through the NOIE website www.noie.gov.au , and participation in community functions, particularly in regional areas); with consumer groups (on specific issues, and through forums such as the e-commerce assurance roundtable); with small business (through the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry); and with general business interests (through industry associations and individual firms on specific issues).

The E-commerce Beyond 2000 report has received around 6 800 downloads per month since its release in February 2000.

The Online Council met in November 1999 and June 2000 and considered issues related to affordable access to regional telecommunications; business tax reforms; digital broadcasting and datacasting; IT&T careers and skills shortages; guidelines for the administration of the gov.au domain; common minimum website standards; and progressing national approaches to the legal and regulatory framework governing the Internet.

Three full AIEAC meetings were held during the year, with the last two adopting a new theme-based approach. This alternative meeting format provides for in-depth discussion of important strategic issues. The Minister and his staff have been pleased with the quality of the discussion at the latest meetings, and AIEAC members input into the development of policy by NOIE.

A subcommittee of AIEAC conducted the National Bandwidth Inquiry that was released in April 2000.

Australia chaired a task group on this issue, which prepared draft principles for greater fairness in international Internet charging arrangements. Principles based on this drafting were adopted by APEC Ministers at TELMIN4, held in Cancun, Mexico, 23–26 May 2000.

The CEO of NOIE, as Chair, made a major contribution to setting the agenda for GAC and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and to Australia leading coalition of governments on cybersquatting.

In April 2000, international support was gained to have a draft recommendation on international Internet connection that reaffirms the fair trading principle of ‘user pays’ referred by the ITU Study Group 3 to the ITU World Telecommunication Standardisation Assembly for approval.

The ITU, in response to a proposal made by Australia at the Plenipotentiary Conference in 1998, has commenced a review of the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) that set out general principles on the provision and operation of international telecommunication services.

The Department provided policy advice to facilitate Government copyright reforms on a range of further issues, which are reported under Output 2.1.

NOIE provided a report to Government in December 1999 on the action plans developed for the ten priority areas identified in A Strategic Framework for the Information Economy. Four additional action plans are being prepared.

The report E-commerce Beyond 2000 was released as a world-leading research study on the economic impacts of e-commerce.

Advice was provided on:

• illegal and offensive online content;
• interactive gambling;
• domestic domain name policy;
• international domain name policy;
• electronic authentication;
• online privacy;
• security and law enforcement aspects of the information economy; and
• e-commerce take up and usage.

• The number of Australian adults accessing the Internet has risen to six million. The number of adults accessing the Internet from home, at 3.35 million, is slightly higher than those accessing the Internet from work (roughly 2.93 million).
• In February 2000, half of Australian households had a computer, increasing from 45 per cent in February 1999.
• Large businesses are leading the way with 95 per cent connected to the Internet in mid 1999. Medium-sized enterprises are close behind at 89 per cent, while 60 per cent of small businesses were connected to the Internet as of early 2000.
• Computer use among small businesses stands at 84 per cent, while 100 per cent of medium-size companies and large businesses were using computers as at February 2000.

The report of the National Bandwidth Inquiry was publicly released in April 2000. The year-long Inquiry investigated current and future bandwidth capacity requirements for the period to 2004, including pricing issues.

auDA has been established by industry and user interests as a self-regulatory body for the .au space. It has established a policy process for competition and name allocation. Amendments to the Telecommunications Act 1997 have been prepared to clarify the powers of the ACA with regard to domain names. Internationally, Australia continues to actively participate in ICANN, which has established successful dispute resolution procedures to deal with cybersquatting complaints.

Agreement has been reached with the industry’s IT&T Skills Task force on joint Government/industry funding for an IT Skills Exchange to gather improved market intelligence, raise awareness of IT&T career opportunities and facilitate matching supply and demand for skilled staff. A website, www.ignite.net.au, has been established by the IT&T Skills Taskforce and Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments (through the Online Council) to provide information on IT&T careers.

The Current State of Play released on the NOIE website in April 2000 showed that Australia has a high ranking for its participation in the information economy.

NOIE successfully negotiated the inclusion of key indicators relating to Australian e-commerce uptake in OECD benchmarking frameworks.

Online Australia built on Australia’s information economy strengths by raising national awareness of the economy-wide benefits of the information revolution. The initiative comprised a national program of events and activities aimed at engaging different sectors of the Australian community in online developments. Major themes included: regional and rural development; small and medium business; government online; health and education online; employment skills; culture and communities and e-commerce. Over the year, Online Australia partnered with every State and Territory Government and over 150 industry, community and government organisations in either supporting or coordinating more than 100 different awareness-raising activities.

Ongoing advice was provided to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on WTO matters concerning global market conditions for Australia’s telecommunications and electronic commerce industries—leading Australia’s involvement in the APEC Telecommunications Working Group and Electronic Commerce Steering Group with close industry participation in projects and meetings.

The CEO of NOIE led high level representation on trade and Internet policy issues to the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, Egypt, Chile and the European Commission.

The Department made a submission to the Productivity Commission’s inquiry into international telecommunications market regulation (http://www.noie.gov.au/publications/NOIE/international/DCITA_ProdComm_SUBFINAL.DOC). The Commission’s report endorsed the Government’s international activities in telecommunications market reform and found that Australia’s efforts to reform the international telecommunications market are well targeted to deliver benefits to the country’s business and consumers.

During 1999–2000, joint statements on electronic commerce were released with the following countries: Canada, Japan, the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Korea. These statements have helped delineate common policy positions and approaches to issues arising from the worldwide introduction of e-commerce.