IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Addressing more than 300 government leaders and technology experts, the Minister opened the fourth annual FutureGov Summit Australia 2013 in Canberra on 2 December. Emphasising the key challenges and policy directions for digital engagement in the Australian Government, the Minister set the stage for two days of intensive discussions around the latest ICT developments impacting government service delivery in Australia.

The Australian Passport Office (APO) seeks to expand its use of biometric technology, according a request for tender published today.

The APO has use facial recognition in the passport production process since 2005, but wants to enhance that capability and potentially use other kinds of biometrics, the APO said in the tender request.

Australian passports may incorporate voice-recognition and eye-scanning technology as the government looks to expand biometric identification.

Australian passports have included facial recognition technology since 2005, but the government is now investigating "other biometric technologies", according to a request for tender made public on Monday.

The Parliamentary Committee tasked with investigating the feasibility of digitising Australian ballots has unanimously found that a high-tech solution is still too risky, complicated and expensive to make it a reality in the near term.

Draft laws to underpin the operation of the Gillard government's $500 million personally controlled e-health record system also provide another loophole allowing authorities to decide a data breach was "not deliberate".

"Under this legislation, no government and no employee can be sued or prosecuted for any harm or damage arising from a breach," APF Health chairwoman Juanita Fernando said.

"The Australian Privacy Foundation asks how the system, which cannot uniquely identify individuals and simply permits document transmission and viewing, will be used for patient care benefit at all," the APF says in its submission to the Senate inquiry into the PCEHR legislation and related matters.

IN THE CONTEXT OF E-GOVERNMENT conferences and demonstrations of new technology by government agencies, two prominent Australian Senators have endorsed Open Source solutions, report news.com.au and theage.com.au.

In some sectors in Australia, the governance of major ICT projects is currently in crisis. For example, in June last year, Queensland’s first whole of government comprehensive ICT Audit found that ninety percent of the Queensland Government’s ICT systems were outdated and will require replacement within five years at a total cost of $7.4 billion, as Queensland continues to grapple with the catastrophic outcome of years of “chronic underfunding” into its dilapidated ICT infrastructure.

Initiated in 2003 by the former Labor government, HealthSMART was Victoria’s whole-of-health information and communication technology (ICT) strategy to modernise and replace ICT systems throughout the Victorian public healthcare sector. The A$360 million (US$351 million) project aimed to provide healthcare agencies with the tools required to meet the growing healthcare demands expected in the future. However the programme suffered delays, operating issues and unexpected rises in costs.

The electronic payment system called ‘Opal’ was extended to an additional 70 stations last week.

“This marks a significant milestone for commuters across Sydney, as Opal provides cheaper fares, modernises the way people use public transport and puts an end to the Monday morning queue for a ticket,” Berejiklian said.

The Victorian State Government’s ICT reforms agenda will see the scrapping of a controversial e-Services Panel, to be replaced by an e-Services Register.

This new register, to be fully operational in 2013, will be mandated for use by all government departments and agencies.

This initiative, spearheaded by NSW Health, is supported by a raft of technology investments over 10 years – taking the state into the forefront of healthcare reforms.

The state government’s spending agenda was outlined at an inaugural FutureGov Forum NSW (21st June) by the Minister for Health, Jillian Skinner.

New South Wales’ just-unveiled (ICT) reforms program will make better use of the state’s US$2.05 billion (AUD$2 billion) technology budget—while rolling out mobile apps, real-time access to open data, and a private government cloud tapping into virtualised and shared services.

NSW’s new 10-year ICT strategy, unveiled by State Minister for Finance and Services, Greg Pearce, revitalises the state’s technology and telecommunications activities, at the same time, improving access to public transport, health, education and emergency services.

With the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) allowing online tax return filing from July this year, the ATO has become part of the commonwealth myGov portal.

Working through the Australian e-Health Research Centre (AEHRC), researchers at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) say the software they have developed will help to address an issue vexing health systems worldwide – the need for quality, accurate information in electronic health records.

Working through the Australian e-Health Research Centre (AEHRC), CSIRO researchers have developed software that will be used to standardise the clinical descriptions of patient symptoms, treatments and outcomes used in electronic health records around the world.

The regime will require them to store for two years customer internet and phone "metadata" for law-enforcement and intelligence agency access.

On Christmas Eve, telco industry body the Communications Alliance sent its members – including Telstra, Optus and Vodafone – an email requesting they fill out a survey with a deadline of January 9 on how much it will cost them to implement the scheme, giving them only nine business days to respond.

The intention is to make the services more convenient for elderly people and families, said Department of Human Services General Manager Hank Jongen.

The University of Queensland’s Health-e-Regions telehealth project aims to save patients from the stress, costs and inconvenience of travelling significant distances to see a specialist in a major city.

The move will further strengthen border security and identity checking processes, the Australian immigration Minister Chris Bowen said.

“Biometric data is widely used in the international community as an effective tool to manage visa and immigration processes, improve identity management and combat fraud,” Mr Bowen said.