IT Minister Senator Coonan released the report, entitled "The Australian software industry and vertical application markets: globally competitive, domestically undervalued - the first statistical analysis in Australia of specialist software firms."

The report estimates that in 2004-05 the Australian software industry employed 17,000 staff and earned A$2.7 billion (US$1.93 billion).

Specialist software development firms earned A$934 million, of which 89 percent, or A$831 million, was earned by Australian-grown firms.

"There are many globally successful Australian ICT firms and the report indicates that there are significant further growth opportunities for the Australian software industry in niche industries such as education, energy, government, health, ICT, manufacturing, minerals, and trade and commerce," Senator Coonan said.

"Australian-grown specialist developers are aggressively targeting the export market and, according to estimates, account for A$226 million of exports, or 27 percent of their revenue.