ISOC-AU Federal Election 2001

Getting online

Party Policies

Australian Democrats yet to receive
Australian Labor Party yet to receive
Liberal and National Parties received
The Greens received

Getting online

Support Australians to get online through a First Time Online program that provides targeted financial incentives to households and small businesses for first time purchase of equipment, connections and training for participation in the Internet.

Staying online

Support policies that will provide reliable symmetric Internet connections throughout Australia, particularly through improved lines and connections and establishing a definition of quality settings for connections.

Email

E-mail can provide a third communications channel of national significance, comparable to that of postal mail and the telephone. For instance, considerable policy work on the concept of 'email for all' has been carried out by the Centre for International Research on Communication and Information Technology - CIRCIT. See recommendations of CIRCIT's Research Report No. 28 - E-mail for All.

The report recomemdations were:

  1. There is a need to understand and quantify current levels of access: by individuals to e-mail within organisations; access within institutions; domestic access; current non-users who don't want to use the technology or who can't afford it; and other likely user groups - the elderly; people with disabilities; the young; regional Australians.


  2. The entry and operation cost for non-users, in terms of the combined impact of access device and network service, needs to be significantly lower than at present to encourage mass-market connectivity. A business model to subsidise or support a basic or standard service should be developed by the National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE).


  3. Alternative means of access require outstandingly user-friendly interface design and service functionality; the requirements for useability and functionality should be initially scoped by first defining a 'standard' model of an e-mail service or access device against which future designs can be benchmarked.


  4. There is a need for comprehensive searchable e-mail directories, subject to trust, privacy and management considerations.


  5. The legal framework for e-mail needs to be as comprehensive as those for postal mail and telephony.


Return to Federal Election 2001 key points.

(c) Internet Society of Australia 2001
This material has been produced by the Internet Society of Australia and its members. The material may be used by any other organisation for genuine policy development and development of the Internet provided that the source is fully acknowledged and a copy of the quoting material is forwarded to the Internet Society of Australia free of charge. Acknowledgement as part of in-confidence policy development will be accepted in certain circumstances provided there is full acknowledgement and notification to ISOC-AU would be appreciated.