Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Communication policy
ICT skills; better protection of consumer rights; and regular reviews of legal
frameworks and broadband infrastructure. 5
Characteristics of the policy space: what do we know
Because communication is so central to all aspects of social and economic life, it is
not easy to fix boundaries around the policy space it occupies. The rhetoric of rapid,
revolutionary change that so often accompanies discussion and debate is not always
matchedbytheprosperityofthelargestAustralianenterprisesortheindustryas
a whole. Networked digital services create rich sources of data about consumer
behaviour but increasingly sophisticated and personalised patterns of use complicate
the task of making sense of it. New policy issues arise but old themes endure.
In recent years, expenditure on communications devices and services has grown
steadily and data downloaded over fixed and mobile networks has soared. Australia’s
communications industry, however, has not been buoyant. According to the
Australian Bureau of Statistics, ‘gross fixed capital formation’ by Australia’s ‘information
media and telecommunication’ enterprises doubled from 2007/08 to 2016/
17, driven by public investment in the NBN and private investment especially in
mobile networks, cloud storage facilities and backhaul networks. Yet total employment
in 2016/17, at 171,000 people, was unchanged from 10 years earlier, and
profits (measured by ‘earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and abnormal items’,
EBITDA) were just 5 per cent higher. Across the whole economy over the same
period,employmentgrewby15percentandprofitsby54percent.Thatmeans
the proportion of the workforce employed in ‘information media and telecommunication’
fell from 1.8 per cent to 1.6 per cent, and the sector’s share of profits
declined from 6.3 per cent to 4.3 per cent, while its share of investment grew from
5.4 per cent to 8.5 per cent. 6
The composition of the industry has also changed, with important implications
for the issues and actors of policy. Traditional telecommunications, broadcasting
and publishing have grown slowly or declined; internet or cloud-based services
including streaming video-on-demand have grown sharply. Landline telephony has
fallen steadily while fixed and mobile broadband has grown. 7 The challenge of
profiting from the apparent boom in communications is reflected in the share price
of Australia’s largest telco, Telstra: down from over $4 in November 2008 to less
than $3 a decade later, after rising above $6 in early 2015. 8 The 2018 takeover of
5 OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation 2017, 6–10.
6 Author analysis of data in ABS 2018. This publication provides annual estimates of the
performance of Australian industries by combining data from the ABS’s annual Economic
Activity Survey (EAS) and Business Activity Statement(BAS)dataprovided to the Australian
Taxation Office.
7 ACMA 2017.
8 Australian Stock Exchange 2018.
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