People who don’t follow Australian and/or LinuxChix blog aggregators may have missed Pia Waugh’s announcement yesterday of her new job as an advisor to federal senator Kate Lundy.

I’ve always been impressed with Senator Lundy, who held the record for being the youngest woman from the Labor Party to be elected to parliament, and who seemed to be technically clueful in her previous shadow technology roles. Why she was dropped from the front bench in the new government, and how we ended up with the ploddingly inept Stephen Conroy and his farcical Internet blacklist is something of a mystery to me, but then again, I’m just a simple computer programmer.

Pia is an exceptionally capable person, and also one of those rare truly genuine types. I cannot imagine a more appropriate person for the job. ICT policy in Australia has been a disaster for at least a decade now, and the fact that a senator has been able to recognize and hire someone like Pia as an advisor is cause for real optimism.

Pia will also be breaking ground in Australian politics by maintaining a public presence via her blog and twitter accounts.

Congratulations, Pia!