Scott Morrison: Digital to extract us from crisis

Scott Morrison lays out his digital blueprint at The Australian E-commerce Summit.

Scott Morrison says ‘our challenge is to keep the foot on the digital accelerator, as we emerge on the other side of this pandemic’. Picture: Gary Ramage

Scott Morrison has set a challenge to make Australia one of the world’s leading digital economies within a decade by using the COVID-19 crisis as a “springboard” to revolutionise key industries.

In a speech to the The Australian E-commerce Summit on Wednesday the Prime Minister will lay out his government’s digital blueprint to help lift the country out of recession.

“Our challenge is to keep the foot on the digital accelerator, as we emerge on the other side of this pandemic,” Mr Morrison will say.

“Whilst we can marvel at the innovation and the digital acceleration, the bigger picture is that our economy has taken a massive hit.”

“So we have two stories happening simultaneously in Australia — an economy that is experiencing the worst set of economic circumstances since the Great Depression, and ferocious adaptation that businesses have engaged in to keep these circumstances at bay.”

The Prime Minister’s comments came as a study found digital transactions helped more than 60 per cent of businesses keep operating during the crisis by limiting revenue losses to 7 per cent — even though in-store revenues fell by 21 per cent.

The study by Deloitte, commissioned by Australia Post, found revenue losses for small businesses would have been 30 per cent rather than 17 per cent were it not for e-commerce revenues.

Australia Post chief executive Christine Holgate, delivering one of the key speeches at the summit on Wednesday, said the Deloitte research highlighted the unprecedented demand Australia Post had experienced, delivering four out of five items across the country.

“Australians are embracing home delivery in record numbers and this analysis shows that over the next 12 months home delivery is expected to remain 25 per cent higher than pre-COVID levels,’’ she said.

“That is a significant challenge for us as the engine room of Australian e-commerce, but one we are prepared for.”

The Prime Minister will tell the summit that 2020 has been “a thunder clap to so much of what we assumed to be normal”.

“While some parts of the economy, by virtue of the pandemic restrictions, were frozen in place, others had to accelerate at warp speed,’’ he will say.

Mr Morrison will say in the first three weeks of this pandemic, a quarter of Australian business changed the way they deliver. About 40 per cent of small and medium businesses bought or installed the software for remote working, while another 22 per cent said they were headed in that direction.

He will tell the summit a McKinsey study “found that we vaulted five years forward in consumer and business digital adoption in only around eight weeks”.

The Prime Minister will outline his government’s key digital policy planks, which include the JobMaker Digital Business Plan. “We’re basically upgrading the circuit boards of our economy,’’ he will say.

“Our plan brings together investments of some $4.5bn in the NBN, $1.67bn in cyber security, and almost $800m of investments in 5G, digital skills capability, RegTech, FinTech, open banking and the consumer data right.

“This is about using the gains we’ve just made this year as a springboard to becoming a leading digital economy by 2030.

“An economy where our leading industry sectors – like mining, agriculture, manufacturing and services, as well as small businesses – are at the global frontier of technological adoption enabling them to scale-up and grow.”

Australia Post has been at the frontline of the e-commerce boom triggered by the pandemic, with about 82 per cent of Australia’s e-commerce by value delivered by its network, and the mail carrier facilitating an additional $4.2bn in e-commerce at the height of the crisis.

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said Australia Post had provided many businesses with a critical connection to customers and communities across the nation.

“It underscores the reason why the government agreed to grant temporary regulatory relief to Australia Post at the start of the pandemic, allowing posties to be upskilled to help deliver the increasing volume of parcels.’’