back to article Australian Senate committee dumps on digital transformation

Australia's government is rubbish at computing, according to a new report from the Senate's Finance and Public Administration Committee. The 146-page report tabled yesterday highlights problems in policy, IT skills, implementation, consultancy and spending. Even after taking into account the composition of the committee - …

  1. GrumpyOldBloke

    > Without any central vision, the report said, technology becomes “solely a way to realise efficiencies and cut costs

    There is a central vision: Technology is a way to spy on people and extort money from the poor. Poor who may or may not have fallen foul of complexity and unreality engineered into government laws.

    Look at the enthusiasm with which the government embraces 5-eyes and its attendant evils. There is your vision.

  2. Denarius
    Facepalm

    Forward to the Past

    Partly. Last 30 years of Oz Fed Gov policy has been any excuse to slash and burn. I suspect the owners of the organisations who launder cash to the donor bodies who fund political parties may be able to explain why destroying public value to enrich the wealthy has such a hold on the bureaucracy and "advisors" to government. But I digress.

    This committee report seems to suggest re-instituting what the "old" Public Service had. Old as in pre Howards Way. Career paths for specialist roles such as effective honest purchasing, asset management, office space management and IT. These were destroyed by Howard and successor governments who seem to be blindly following the high rank PHBs who apparently believe only high level PHBing was in any way "special" and deserving of perks, bonuses and obscene salaries.

    Side Note. Over the decades I heard constant prattle from on high about efficiency and accountability. I am still astounded that the cost of the infestation of consultants, contractors, advisors and their ilk is not itemised in loving detail to demonstrate why highly paid blow ins are so much more effective than career public servants who are appropriately trained, assessed and paid.

    Lest some shill for the corrupt moan, (what, on ElReg ?) I state that having worked in public and private sectors in purchasing and IT among other bouts of boredom, that the private sector was _always_ more rule ridden, inefficient and corrupt. The bigger the company, the worse it was, especially in purchasing roles. IMNSHO, auditors who are not beholden to their own multinational should be the next TV heroes. The Commonwealth Audit office should have its funding tripled and strike fear into Ministers, public service executives. Then we start on Defence and spook funding.

  3. bigtreeman

    my.gov.au

    And they're forcing as many as possible to use my.gov.au.

    The new Australia Card.

    Secure Connection Failed

    The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.

    The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified.

    Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem.

  4. avior

    Robo Debt

    Let's not forget the flawed Centrelink "robo-debt" saga here.. needlessly creating further hardship.

    "The agency’s Online Compliance Intervention (OCI) program – known as ‘robo-debt’ – came under renewed scrutiny earlier this month when the Commonwealth Ombudsman agreed to open a new investigation into the initiative."

    Centrelink automation failing vulnerable people: report

    https://www.cio.com.au/article/642921/centrelink-automation-failing-vulnerable-people-report/

    Centrelink's 'deeply flawed' robo-debt to face new investigation

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jun/13/centrelinks-deeply-flawed-robo-debt-to-face-new-investigation

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon