Born Sophie Panopoulos in 1968, the current Shadow Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research is the member for Indi in Victoria.
Mirabella’s electorate was one in which the Liberal Party’s arguably misleading survey on key political issues - including the National Broadband Network (NBN) - was circulated.
However, for the most part Mirabella has remained quiet on the IT front during her tenure as opposition to Senator Carr. Though she won’t confirm where her allegiance lie on the portfolio front, should see retain the same portfolio on the frontbench, she would be responsible for several key issues to the IT industry, including research and development and CSIRO.
Computerworld Australia asked the Liberal member for Indi about her views on technology.
Can you please provide a brief history of your career, and what got you into politics?
My working life began in the family milk bar at the age of 12. I graduated from the University of Melbourne with Bachelor degrees in Law and Commerce and a Masters degree in Law and worked as a barrister at chambers in Melbourne and Wangaratta before being elected to Parliament as the Federal Member for Indi in 2001.
I decided to enter politics because I believe in giving a voice to the values and concerns of ordinary Australians who are often excluded from the decisions of government. Right from the time that I nominated for preselection in Indi, I have been passionate about the future of my electorate (and of rural Australia generally) and its people, and want to continue to working on their behalf to ensure the sustainability of non-metropolitan communities.
What experience, if any, have you had in IT and or communications?
I imagine my experience has been one common to most people of my generation in learning to adjust to a series of extraordinary changes in the IT and communications landscape in Australia. When I was in primary school, a computer was still seen as something of an object of mystery. But, like many thousands of Australians, my working life has been revolutionised by changes in IT and communications in the years since then.
As a parliamentarian, I have naturally found myself involved in detailed discussions and debates about IT and communications issues on a regular basis. These issues have been a constant for people of Indi, too, during the nine years that I have been the local member. Rural and regional Australians often feel great frustration at the way in which we lag behind our urban counterparts in experiencing the benefits of change. Unfortunately, technological developments don’t always spread as quickly from the major population centres to other areas as they should.
What is your view on the role of technology and telecommunications in the government and government services?
Both already play a crucial role, and it’s inevitable they will continue to be extremely important in the years ahead.
There has been much discussion over the last decade about the ways in which technology and telecommunications can assist governments to better perform their activities, especially in the field of service delivery. One of the other themes that has clearly emerged in recent years is their enormous potential for promoting increased participation in the democratic process, especially through Web 2.0 platforms. Blogs, online forums, Facebook and Twitter accounts and the like have all created scope for engagement in politics that’s far more direct and participative than we might have foreseen even a handful of years ago.
We live in an age where many people feel more empowered about having their voices heard – and, in many respects, it’s improvements in technology and telecommunications that are driving that trend.
What is your view on the role of technology and telecommunications in Australia’s future?
Technology and telecommunications are fundamentally important to Australia’s future.
One of the great privileges of working on the Innovation, Industry, Science and Research portfolio is that it focuses your mind very clearly on the benefits to Australia’s economy and wellbeing that can potentially be derived from making improvements in these areas. Continued innovation is a necessary precursor to economic growth, and developments in technology and telecommunications are, in turn, crucial in promoting innovation.
Making Australia an increasingly advanced country in a technological sense has been a goal that the Coalition has always strongly supported, and will continue to strongly support in the years ahead.
Is enough being done to ensure ICT in Australia is given the funding and recognition required to innovate and develop needed skills?
The ICT industry in Australia has punched above its weight in international terms, and performed extremely impressively over many years.
However, there’s no doubt in my mind that the industry would benefit from an improved relationship with government. I don’t believe that the Rudd-Gillard Government consults effectively enough with the industry or sees the obvious advantages of a closer working relationship. That means a number of opportunities are being missed.
In many respects, the Government doesn’t really seem to know what it’s doing in the area of ICT. This was symbolised by its decision on entering office to split responsibility for ICT policy between Ministers Tanner, Conroy and Carr. A paralysis in decision-making on a number of key issues (and a lack of appropriate recognition of ICT) has followed. Worse still, because of the Government’s record in running up high levels of deficit and debt, we now face some really difficult questions as a country about how we source the type of funding that will help us grow our areas of international competitive advantage and stimulate major future advances in ICT within Australia.
Would you assume the communications, innovation or finance portfolios if given the opportunity?
That question assumes, first of all, that I will be re-elected as the Member for Indi at the upcoming election – and I never take voters in the electorate for granted at all.
If I were to be re-elected, our Leader is given the authority to appoint frontbenchers, so it’s not for me to say or to have any expectations about what portfolios I might assume in the future. It has been an honour to be a Shadow Minister for each of my two portfolios (one of which has been Innovation) so far, and that’s the way I would continue to regard any appointment to the front bench in the future irrespective of the portfolio.