The Hindu Business Line : An exciting job at hand

Australia's first woman minister for IT, Marsha Thompson believes women can change the face of politics. Indo-Australian partnerships in IT would have the charm of "a mixed Indo-Australian cricket team".

She was recently in India to "strengthen the partnership" between the country's IT sector and that of the State of Victoria, Australia, as its Minister for ICT (Information, Communication and Technology) and Small Industries. Meet Marsha Thompson who is gung ho on her State's "small but high-spend IT population" and says that if India and Australia can effectively leverage their capabilities in IT, it will be like having a "mixed Indo-Australian cricket team".

She grew up in Melbourne, graduated from the La Trobe University in history and politics, and began her career with economic forecasting; "I already had sociology skills and they trained me on economics and I first joined a private company." Later she ended up working as an advisor, first for a Member of Parliament and then for State and Federal ministers. This was between 1990 and 1996. While she was working for a Senator, "a vacancy came up and I had an awful lot of people say to me you should run for it and I did!"

Contesting on a ticket from the Labour Party, she won her very first election in 1999 and was made a minister, getting the portfolio of small business and consumer affairs. In 2002, when she got the additional portfolio of IT, she became the first woman in Australia to get IT.

A fiery politician, Marsha recently hit the headlines for firing the Australian government for not providing enough broadband capacity for Victoria. She is naturally a votary for more womanpower in politics and says that though 40 per cent of Labour parliamentarians are women, "in the Australian Parliament we have a comparatively low number of women. I feel that if you want to represent all sections of society and meet their needs, you must have more women."

When asked how women politicians are special, she says, "It's not that we're special, it's just that women think differently and in a multicultural society like ours it's important to reflect all shades of opinion. Also, I do believe women bring a different perspective to their work. Because we tend to be the major caregivers, we tend to have a different perspective on what is important and that needs to be reflected in government policies. I think women can change the face of politics." Though she is very happy with her portfolio and says this is an "exciting time" to be a minister for IT, she regrets that in Australia very few women are making it in IT. This is partly because women do not take technology-related subjects in college and "also because this is a hard industry that requires a great deal of commitment and long hours to get you to the very top." And, with Australia's time zone being out of sync with the rest of the developed world, in a global industry like IT women find it all the more difficult to cope.

She gives the example of Rhonda O'Donnell, the President of Novell for Asia Pacific, "a fabulous woman, who often comments about how hard I work and I told her, `you have to often get up at 3 a.m. to talk to somebody in the US'. Such hours are difficult to keep for women."

Her own day begins at 6 a.m. and "ends around midnight. IT in Australia is still a man's world and that is sad because a country with only 20 million people can't afford to lose anyone's capability. It's not like in India where you have over a billion people and you can select from the top. We have to make the best of every single person and make sure they reach their full potential." To meet this challenge, she adds, the college education system should be made available "for everyone and not just a few, and careers structured to ensure we make opportunities available and use the tiniest of capacity for the country's development."

As she is in India seeking increasing partnerships with Indian IT companies, and the Victorian government is outsourcing some of its operations out of Chennai, the obvious question is on the heartburn in Australia on outsourcing from India.

"We don't talk about outsourcing... as an advanced user of technology, we want to provide to our community the best that IT has to offer and so our contracts are given from that perspective. I think half the reason why Satyam, Infosys or TCS and other Indian IT companies... . the list keeps growing... are interested in Australia is because they know we are high users and innovative users of IT and we continue to look at new ways of doing business using technology."

And Indian IT companies working in Victoria do provide jobs to Victorians, she says. If an Infosys has a workforce of 700 in our region, "I'd be surprised if 600 of them weren't Victorians. We are talking about significant employment for Victorians. Satyam will be increasing its employment and is committed to employing Victorians. We are talking to TCS too; we are getting jobs for Victorians and giving them access to global projects," she says.

On the new trend of foreigners opting to work in India for IT majors, Marsha says Australians would love the idea. "Australians are natural travellers and love the experience of working overseas. In Chennai, I met several Australians working in the IT industry. That way there is a lot of similarity between Indians and Australians; compared to the Americans we like to build relationships, understand the market we enter, as well as the culture and respect it too. This gets you respect from people you intend to do business with and brings success." Her respect for other people's culture extends to their religion too. "As a person of Jewish background, I respect and value learning about other religions. I think there's a lot to be learnt, and you'll have real tolerance only when you understand other people's history and where they come from." As a young woman she had a fascination for all things Chinese and studied Chinese philosophy and religion during her University days. She is happy that hers is an "incredibly multicultural country that actually welcomes people's differences more than most nations."

She enjoys Indian food, which is available in plenty in restaurants in Australia, but her only complaint is that they "make it too mild!"

To relax this former ballet teacher — who is "passionate about ballet even today" — exercises regularly, doing palatees, "which is almost yoga in that it has a lot to do with breathing, balancing and stretching. Actually I had my first yoga lesson in Mumbai."

On her dream for Australia, she says, "I think there is something we can share with the world; we have a small population and are very lucky to have a great infrastructure and education system, and a wonderful balance between not taking ourselves too seriously... laughing at ourselves and not being arrogant about who we are or our fantastic economic growth. These are the best qualities of Australia. We've made a mark in the sporting world, the arts world and everybody knows our actors, Mel Gibson, Sarah Winters, Nicole Kidman. We need to replicate that in business too and reach our full potential."

So does she nurture an ambition to become the first woman prime minister of Australia?

"Oh no," says the startled woman, adding, "it's hard enough being the IT minister. I have enough challenges in this job." But it does take a lot of her time and she hopes that one day she'll have a "real life" where she'll be able to "read for fun or watch movies."

Response can be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in

Picture by Shaju John

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