Often just the spectre of privacy is enough to create enough political uncertainty to derail legitimate and necessary reform activities.
Australia stands ready to seize the full opportunities of ICT. For business this is to open up productivity and customer service improvements, efficiency gains and innovation that technology can offer.
For Government - ICT is a key tool in reducing red tape and improving the relationship with its citizens.
As this forum is about Australia being a regulatory pace-setter - I believe in the pursuit of services delivered with the end user in mind or ‘citizen-centric service delivery', we have to move past the current boundaries and structures of government.
We need to actively investigate the real and perceived regulatory issues that stand in the way of us reaching this goal.
I'd like to touch on one potential regulatory impediment - privacy.
Now, in my experience, while privacy is a legitimate concern, it is often a concern that takes on a life of its own - leading to a debate that rapidly loses touch with reality.
When technology is involved in the debate, I'm often amazed at some of the doomsday scenarios regarding potential invasions of privacy.
The Australian Law Reform Commission released a report on reforms to the Privacy Act last month that included a number of recommendations aimed at making the legal framework more responsive to technological change.
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