Australia’s digitally incoherent politicians are threatening the ad and media industries

A striking thing about the botched first round of the federal government’s Regional and Small Publishers’ Innovation fund is a what a quaint idea Canberra has of innovation. Of the 29 successful applications, seven are for content management systems, four are for websites and two are for email services. Welcome to 1998. While it’s admirable that the federal government would help tardy publishers enter the 21st Century, the other striking thing is how inconsistent the nation’s leaders and public servants are in their attitudes towards the online world.