Exclusion of non-profit and charity groups from digital plan causes row

The recently released national roadmap for the future of the digital economy in Australia will be a dead-end for charity and non-profit groups, according to charity organisation Connecting Up Australia.

The chief executive of the Adelaide-based group, Doug Jacquier said that this latest document was “a slap in the face for the non-profit sector, which employed over 600,000 Australians.”

Mr Jacquier said “We can only assume that Senator Stephen Conroy (Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy Minister) and the Government don’t regard Australia’s 700,000 non-profits, of whom 35,000 are employers, as worthy of any consideration. We have a larger GDP contribution than the technology sector and we made a fairly strong submission for inclusion.”

The effective representation at both the decision-making and advisory forums with regards to digital subjects and the significant contribution made to the Australian economy by non-profit group had to be recognised according to a submission from the CUA, which is more commonly know for its DonorTec technology donation program.

The provision of support for the upgrading of the digital capacity of the non-profit sector, which included the non-profits receiving endorsements of suppliers to technology services, were also requested.

Mr Jacques also added “We see digital capacity programs for government, for business, for education and seemingly every other interest group and no doubt all very worthy. We see $43 billion to build a national broadband network. But we don’t see a single cent for a sector that accounts for over 3 per cent of Australia’s GDP… it’s simply a dead end.”

In order to provide an outline of the main areas that industry, the community and the government most concentrate on to promote success in the digital economy for Australia Mr Conroy recently launched a paper called Australia’s Digital Economy: Future Directions.

Source – www.news.com.au