Brisbaner

I see the internet economy as being beneficial to anyone connected to the Internet, not just Australians. Currently, in order to extract some kind of profit from the Internet, you need to have something people want, and then charge something for it (be it a direct access cost, or space on your page for advertisements). For example, Google has something a lot of people want: a way to find things quickly and usually accurately. It generates revenue via advertising. If Australia wants a slice of this pie (I'm guessing it does), then we need to put in place infrastructure that makes Australia the "place to go" when you want to set up a massive server farm, or to host websites, or the like. I also see a major flaw in Australia's legislation with regards to this; since our country's online content laws are, in theory, some of the strictest in the world under an elected government. Unfortunately, I see our internet support structures as lagging well behind those in the United States, and when combined with our relatively strict online content laws, this makes our country unfavorable to server farms and corporations hosting large file storage or network services. Alternatively, we need to possess a digital good or service (such as computer games, digitally distributed movies and e-books, and the like) which people want, which can then be distributed from other countries' server farms. This is all the more reason to introduce the same tax breaks the movie industry gets to the digital game industry, encouraging computer game developers to set up studios in Australia. PS: I feel obliged to attempt: "First!".