Digital Economy Strategy

1. As a videographer, my business www.unity.productions, and a filmmakers; digital technology is at the heart of everything I do in my professional life. My business depends on it. Especially working from a rural area.

2. In 10-20 years time I would like to see Australia leaf frog the infrastructure we have today to fibre to premises, in combination with fast fixed wireless broadband for rural areas, and accessible satellite in extremely remote areas. This is crucial to my business as transferring videos for client review & approval across the country, and hopefully the world in the future, fast , accessible and reliable Internet is at the corner stone of transferring such large video files. Also as filmmaker with project intending to deliver online, I would like my films to be accessible by as many people as possible in the highest quality possible.

3. I believe a collaborative policy is more useful for the industry than pumping in tons and tons of money. While competition is good for most city customers, it is not beneficial to rural clients. One size does not fit all, unfortunately, and almost half of Australians live outside of the major cities. We need a collaborative effort to make Internet fast and accessible to all Australians no matter where they live. This can be achieved much better if companies are working together, not against each other. Ofcourse there needs to be balance between competition and collaboration, but I believe in the right environment and spirit there can be a balance and achieve great things. Government can be that mediator, and/or glue to achieve this level of collaboration. Our geographic, cultural and economical reality is different to other developed countries, so we need a unique and Australian specific strategy which I believe at the heart of it is collaboration between Industry, consumers and government.

4. In my field virtual reality is the next trend, from education, health to simulations and entertainment. The opportunity for Australia is enormous, both in terms of social benefits and economical growth. We can already see some of the benefits in real-time doctor consultations with patients using 3-d representation of scans. Education will benefit the most, with access to virtual reality material not even imagined 10 year ago. Entertainment such as games are new opportunities which the Industry can harness and innovate being the leaders in the world. The talents are there. There are also other benefits to say airline industries where pilots can update their skills on simulations of new planes, or upgrades, from anywhere in Australia. This would be invaluable to Airline Industry to expand their training and make it more efficient and diversify. These are just the tip of the ice burg.

5. Cloud storage is going to be more and more in demand, which'll even increase the pressure on physical Infrastructure. Therefore we need more efficient way of storage, file transfer protocols and data compression. These are crucial foundations for businesses, and organisations, to grow online and make maximise opportunities that are created.

6. CSIRO. It has been my observation that this wonderful organisation is not utilised as much as it can be. They have great scientists and projects that have provided us with opportunities at the forefront of technologies. Pushing the boundaries. Collaboration between CSIRO and the Industries will underpins huge number of opportunities to large for me to even contemplate, I believe this industry needs to grow, with better ties to Industries, not shrink. Investment in such organisations will benefit us much into the future as well as grow Industries and opportunities for the shorter term.

14. Lack of understanding and fear of unknown.
15. Education from trusted sources. Also support when they get into trouble would go a long way to reduce their fears, this can simply be a generic business support from industry.
16. I'm at the forefront of technology with my business.
17. Support for the filmmaking industry, not necessarily funding but better tax breaks or investor tax rebate. More regional support from existing Arts bodies
18. Shopify, or similar e-commerce platform. This is a great opportunity to get online with minimal investment and be up and running quickly. Good test of market as well.
19. Leading Health & education industries. Fast followers streaming services such as "Netflix" and apple music.