Just last week, AIIA’s national Board of Directors met in Canberra for our annual series of meetings with federal politicians and powerbrokers.

This year, one of the most fruitful meetings was with Senator Ian Campbell, Minister for Environment and Heritage, who met with James McAdam and Josh Millen from AIIA’s policy team, Paul Brandling, Chair of AIIA’s Environment Special Interest Group (SIG) and me to discuss AIIA’s
e-waste initiative.

The purpose of the meeting was to brief the minister on our environment program, and in particular to emphasise the two key principles of our plan: the development of a scheme that will initially deal with future waste, and the longer-term strategy to achieve our goal of zero-waste to landfill.

AIIA’s delegation stressed the importance of product stewardship principles, and of the importance of shared responsibility between manufacturers, government and consumers.

Computer recycling is an incredibly complex issue and we have needed to develop a scheme that quickly addresses the electronic waste currently being produced. AIIA member companies have accepted their responsibility, but we need government to help ensure we have a level playing field in addressing the issue of historic and orphan waste.

The Association hopes to work with government to develop legislation that recognises that 50 percent of historical waste is whiteboxes (in other words, made by small operators, and often unbranded). It is vitally important that we develop a scheme that protects Australia’s natural environment, and at the same time doesn’t damage the ICT business environment, where margins are already very low.

AIIA’s commitment to the e-waste issue is a clear demonstration of leadership; we’ve built a series of policy recommendations that have been firmly researched in conjunction with Planet Ark, and have the full support of industry. AIIA now looks forward to working closely with government to implement our scheme.

AIIA is pleased to have engaged Senator Campbell in a dialogue about how industry, government and other stakeholders can develop an equitable solution that deals with historic waste. Senator Campbell was very impressed with the ICT industry’s commitment to the development of a socially responsible program, and AIIA is encouraged by the amount of common ground we have with the government on this issue.

AIIA’s report – AIIA – E-Waste – Program Development Phase is the result of a two-year project by AIIA to identify ways to reduce the volume of PCs, printers and peripherals that end up in landfill. AIIA and many of our member companies have invested more than $250,000 in cash and resources – on top of existing environmental programs and commitments – in the project.

The report can be downloaded from the AIIA website.

John Price
Chairman
Australian Information Industry Association

ICT organisations remain controlled in their salary spending, contradicting claims that the ICT jobs market is in dire straits.

Each year, AIIA hosts the popular ICT Corporate Golf Day at the Terrey Hills Golf and Country Club.

Contributed by Tony Iams, VP and Senior Analyst, System Software Research
Ideas International Limited