What we are missing, sadly, is an industry blueprint or a master plan for the Australian technology and software sector that articulates how the industry might look in five, 10 or 20 years. We need to look at our universities and their enrolment programs, we need to look at government policy on skilled migration (and this needs a bipartisan approach), and we need to look at investment.

Put simply, we need to create and attract the best.

Australian Computer Society figures predict graduate completion rates will be just more than half of all 2012 enrolments. Data shows that national starts in ICT university courses in 2010 were half of what they were less than a decade earlier, and the projected completion rate for domestic students was 4547, down from 9093 in 2003.

The gap has already resulted in a dearth of staff to work in a vital industry.

Too many undergraduates are transferring to engineering because of the high profile the mining and resources sector receives, and the perceived riches to be had. This could prove to be disastrously short-sighted.