[AUUG-Talk]: Press: OSIA Hails Major Political Party Support for Open Source

[Arjen Lentz]

OSIA Hails Major Political Party Support for Open Source

(23 November, 2007)

OSIA, Australia's Open Source industry body, welcomes news that all of
the major political parties contesting the forthcoming federal election
are strong supporters of Open Source software.

Responding to survey results prepared recently by OSIA, the Australian
Labor Party, the Liberal-National Coalition, the Australian Democrats
and the Australian Greens have all voiced strong support for the
adoption of Free and Open Source Software for both boosting local ICT
development and ensuring open and interoperable standards.

The Liberal-National Coalition responded with "The Coalition is  
committed to
working closely with the Open Source industry into the future to ensure
that all the issues (raised in the survey) are appropriately addressed.
The Coalition Government is a strong supporter of Open Source software
development. We support enabling the Open Source community to compete in
an open and transparent manner with other solutions that are available."

The Australian Democrats responded with "Our policy is to open out the
software industry so that all companies can bid for government
contracts. We also introduced legislation in the Senate in 2003 and
which is still current that required all Government departments to
consider Open Source software during procurement processes. The
Democrats support an Australian IT infrastructure that is diversified,
strengthened and protected for future use, including free and open
source software when available and appropriate."

The Australian Labor Party responded with "A Rudd Labor Government
supports the lowering of barriers to entry in the market for software
within Australia, along with the recognition and use of open and
competitive data formats for the exchange of information between
Government Agencies and citizens and businesses. Labor believes that
Government ICT related tenders should not discriminate against solutions
with an Open Source component."

The Australian Greens responded with "The Greens national science and
technology policy platform states that the Australian Greens will
"encourage government use of open-source software, and require the use
of open and publicly documented file formats. The Greens would like to
see government departments adopt a tendering policy that favours open
source products over proprietary software, if the open source product is
able to provide the same solutions as the proprietary product."

"Research undertaken by OSIA directors Brendan Scott and Damian Hickey,
shows overwhelming and broad support amongst the major parties for Open
Source adoption on a level-playing field. OSIA welcomes this positive
stance," said fellow OSIA director Arjen Lentz. "Open Source software
delivers excellent value-for-money in government procurement and is an
essential building block for Australia's future ICT industry. We
therefore commend all the major parties for their support of Open Source
software and the Open Source software industry and the role they will
play in Australia's future."

A tabulated version of the parties' responses can be found here:

http://www.osia.net.au/content/download/696/3249/file/parties%20responses%20071119.pdf


- - -
About Open Source Industry Australia Limited. OSIA is the industry body
for Open Source within Australia. We exist to further the cause of Free
and Open Source software (FOSS) in Australia and to help our members to
improve their business success in this growing sector of the global
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) market.


-- 
Arjen Lentz, Owner @ Open Query (http://openquery.com.au/)
Based in Brisbane, Australia - ph. +61-7-3103 0809
Open Source Experts, MySQL Specialists

Director of OSIA (http://osia.net.au/) Open Source Industry Australia
Australia's industry body for OSS - be counted!