Industry backs IT forum

FORMER WA Labor deputy premier and Dow Digital director Mal Bryce has been appointed to chair the WA Government’s new Information and Communications Industry Development Forum.

Forum members met for the first time on Monday, after the forum’s establishment was announced at the weekend by State Development Minister Clive Brown.

Mr Brown said the forum would allow the WA technology industry to more easily express its views to the Government.

It will advise the Minister on technology and its application, investment and exports in relation to the development of the local industry.

As well as Mr Bryce, the other members of the forum are Software Engineering Australia (WA) chief executive officer Stuart Hope, Peter Morris of the Whitehorse Strategic Group, Lorraine Pedofsky, Alex Allan, Rich Krasnoff, Gee Lightfoot, and Cheryl Robertson.

Mr Hope said it was originally planned the forum would meet at least four times a year.

However, its meeting will be much more frequent until its work program has been implemented.

Mr Hope and Mr Morris had previously written a paper lamenting that WA’s IT industry had, in the past, missed opportunities to develop more fully.

But Mr Hope said he was becoming happier with the Government’s awareness of how important WA technology companies were.

“I don’t think IT has been given the focus it should have been given, because while it’s quite a small industry in its own right, it has a horizontal impact across all industries,” Mr Hope said.

“Unless you get a lot of that infrastructure right and try to get this industry working as a coherent, single industry, you miss a lot of the synergies, the understandings and expertise that get built through the networks.”

Mr Hope said he believed the forum would develop concrete proposals and programs that could be practically applied to suit the WA market and, in his opinion, the forum should focus on producing commercial outcomes.

Local IT companies have approved of the forum’s creation, its members and the Government’s efforts to improve communication between itself and the industry.

While Mr Bryce’s appointment could be regarded as partly politically motivated, given his role in the former Burke Government, he is regarded as a good choice as the forum’s chairman.

One executive lauded the appointment.

“I think Mal has got a lot to offer, and in a number of ways he has overseen a lot of change and has forced a lot of change, and he has the ability to wrap his head around things that others can’t. He can understand a lot of the future trends where other people only see chaos,” he said.

“There will always be people who would look at something like that being a political appointment, but in reality it may well be that he was the best man for the job.”

Another CEO said there were many areas in which the forum could make a positive contribution.

These included looking at issues such as whether or not government ought to be engaged in research and development activities through the Department of Industry & Technology, and if there was export potential in making government intellectual property more freely available to industry.