Australian Cyber Politics

It was Kevin Rudd's understanding of his e-lectorate and his recognition that if successful as a nation the basis for our economic wealth creation must be intellectual capital, which helped him win a landslide victory. Despite the fact that today we're still waiting for a sign that the promises will be kept, he did, at the time, have his finger on the nation's pulse. For the first time it felt it was finally dawning on our leaders that Australia was being left far behind in the quest to use the available information technologies to created a smart nation capable of dealing with whatever the future might throw at us.

Rudd's campaign targeted the next generation, promising - as witnessed by millions of Australians participating in social networking sites - a billion dollars to be spend modernising secondary schools with access to their own computer for every high school student (years 9 to 12) and to connect the nation's 9000 schools to super fast broadband. The Herald Sun quoted Rudd as saying: "Labor understands that in the 21st century information technology is not just a key subject to learn, it is now the key to learning all subjects." Rudd recognised creators of valuable intellectual property and those who manage knowledge based businesses are needed in his super smart electronic democracy.

The pros of a democracy are that it's citizens are usually well informed and cyber savvy. As citizens are moving virtually all of their other activities to the Internet, it is logical to conclude that voting and political participation will move on line as well. Although Rudd's experiments with cyber politics might never become historically noteworthy - another polly looking to pork barrel swinging electorates - he does show an understanding for the need for his government to create a new, nationwide, high-speed system of interactive public dialogue with on-line Australia. This is attested by his Internet site - Kevin '07 - which includes his blog and links to his YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and Amazon sites.

The cons of an electronic democracy solving the old and intractable issues ingrained within society can be seen in international examples. The cyber governance model of Singapore's government has led to accusations of it curbing the Internet presence of opposition parties and exploitation for political discussion and even propaganda. For Australia it has so far meant broken promises and unless the excuses for not moving forward are seen as just that we'll never become the intellectual capital of the free world and Rudd will never be the new cyber Pericles. Any political party attempting electronic governance must be held accountable for promises made as electronic voting should not solely be used as a tool to measure the shifting currents of popular opinion, as the Rudd government seems to have done.

The lack of real and effective on-line access, whether being able to access - the promised - super fast broadband or being able to meaningfully participate in governance, will be detrimental to any government presenting itself as an accountable leader of an electronic democracy. Just as no politician wants to be held to election promises, no electronic cyber government wants to be held accountable for anti social trends amongst it's citizens (such as an increase in on-line gaming) without having any real means to control it. A electronic government not as informed or cyber savvy as it's citizens faces increased cynicism and distrust from a public that demands more and has the means to hold it's leaders accountable.