Moreover, he said innovation needs to be encouraged. "We have put in place an innovative procurement pilot which provides 20 local companies with ICT products and services with the opportunity to sell to government," Della Bosca said. "ICT is strong in NSW as both an industry sector and as an enabler of the economy."

Greens NSW upper house candidate, John Kaye, identified education and training, equity of access to high speed Internet connections and the use of open standards with open source alternatives as the three top priorities for the forthcoming state election.

In fact it was the Greens that livened up a relatively flat debate when party representatives pushed the government to adopt more open source technology over proprietary software.

The debate was hosted by the dean of the Macquarie Graduate School of Management, professor Roy Green.

He said the ICT industry accounts for 85 percent of national productivity growth in manufacturing and 75 percent in services.