IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

In a new report, titled A Rising Tide of Expectations, consumers were found to be ready and waiting for the government to deliver an individual e-health record – what they see as a basic Australian right.

In March this year, CSC (a company with an interest in delivering e-Health solutions to government) commissioned an independent, national Newspoll phone survey of 1208 Australian consumers to understand how important they believe it is to have an individual e-health record. The report found that 91 percent of participants want to see their healthcare data in one place.

The construction industry, in its practice and processes, and the buildings created account for as much as 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions, 50% of energy consumption and 40% of raw material consumption. These figures from the World Economic Forum made a clear case for building and construction to be on the agenda at the recent COP26.

According to #BuildingTowardCOP26 Consortium, which includes the World Green Building Council and Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction in its members, out of the 186 countries to have submitted Nationally Determined Contributions to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, only 53 countries mention building energy efficiency, and just 38 specifically call out building energy codes. Most countries do not include full building decarbonisation targets, and building materials are among the topics that are under-addressed.

After spending $700 000 Australian dollars investigating the industrial potential of blockchain, Australia’s Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) has determined that current versions of the tech are “interesting” but in no way better than other systems, ZDNet reports.

DTA Chief Digital Officer Peter Alexander reportedly told Senate Estimates on Tuesday: “Blockchain is an interesting technology that would well worth being observed but without standardisation and a lot of work to come — for every use of blockchain you would consider today, there is a better technology — alternate databases, secure connections, standardised API engagement.”

Users will be able to create an account and personalise the site so they can easily access information or services from different government agencies. The portal will also be able to pre-populate forms with details from their profile, and allow users to complete the forms offline.

Peak Australian IT lobby group the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) has set out its priorities for the upcoming September 2012 election, stating that parties of all political persuasions should be focusing on addressing the skills shortage and use of IT in Australia.

As regional communities around Australia begin their journeys towards creating a smart and innovative environment for residents to live, work and play in, it’s important that they stop to consider exactly what being a “smart community” means in the regional context.

The most expansive and inclusive thing we can do for the community is build a digital foundation. However, there is a monumental challenge that lies in the implementation of the traditional layers of connectivity infrastructure.

Since 2010, Australia has been developing the PCEHR system as a national, all-in-one health information exchange. Intended to hold up-to-date, interoperable clinical summaries in the HL7 format, the PCEHR uses a unique individual healthcare identifier to tag patient records across a network of connected systems. Officials hoped to have 500,000 patients using the system by the end of June 2013, but as of October, the system has fallen short by 100,000 opt-in sign ups, and only a few hundred providers have actually uploaded and shared fewer than 5000 documents in the country of 22 million residents.

Mr Dutton announced the review at the weekend that will be headed by UnitingCare Health Queensland chief Richard Royle and supported by Australian Medical Association president Steve Hambleton and Australia Post chief information officer Andrew Walduck.

With $467 million already spent on the personally controlled e-health record system, Dr Kruys says the project should be scrapped before it burns more cash.

"It's a big mistake they've made. They just keep throwing money at these projects and it's so painful to see. Some of my patients can't even afford medication," says Dr Kruys, who has blogged and spoken about the PCEHR's pitfalls.

A key clinical adviser to the government who quit in frustration last month has described the system as "shambolic".

And the medical software industry says the body running the system, the National E-Health Transition Authority, lacks the skills to do the job and warns patient safety could be at risk.

The Abbott government will spend more than $1 billion to replace the 1980s-era Centrelink computer to prepare the way for sweeping reform of the welfare system.

Human Services Minister Marise Payne told The Australian a new payments system would provide the government with long-term flexibility to implement welfare changes, better detect and prevent fraud and make dealing with Centrelink easier for more than seven million Australians.

The system barely functions a year after it was launched and this week former AMA president Dr Mukesh Haikerwal and Dr Nathan Pinksier and two other advisers quit in frustration.

Although 690,000 Australians have signed up for an e-health record the Department of Health has admitted only 5427 patient records have been provided by doctors.

One year since the PCEHR was unveiled subscriber numbers have been steadily increasing and hit 397,745 as at June 30.

Roberts, a Melbourne-based marketing executive, says she has no qualms sharing her medical information with doctors and backs the idea of an e-health record system.

It comes as the government moves to expand the offshore biometrics program beyond 20 countries as part of a plan to establish a global network of visa application centres and biometric collection centres.

Work has begun on expanding Canberra’s free public Wi-Fi network, more than three years after it was recommended by a peak social service body. ACT Council of Social Service (ACTCOSS) CEO Dr Emma Campbell welcomed the expansion of the network to cover every Canberra town centre, 16 group centres and a number of popular community locations and businesses, but said the rollout was long overdue.

The Coalition came into office in September and the following month established the National Commission of Audit to assess the role and scope of government, and run a ruler over taxpayer-funded initiatives. Released as a precursor to the May federal budget, the audit commission’s report called for the adoption of a mandatory, cloud-first policy among a list of 86 recommendations.

Shadow communications minister Malcolm Turnbull and shadow finance minister Andrew Robb joined forces in Melbourne to launch the policy for e-government and the digital economy, which they described was part of an "aggressive reform agenda."

The government's Policy for E-Government and the Digital Economy, released in August while in opposition by Malcolm Turnbull, now the Communications Minister, stipulates that agencies will use shared or cloud services where minimum efficient scale hurdles are not met, with a default expectation that private or public cloud solutions will be used whenever efficient scale is not achieved at an agency level.

The Australian Computer Society said its latest annual statistics for the sector showed that demand for jobs in communications and technology would hit 12,300 by early next year.

However, the number of domestic students completing ICT courses is still struggling to recover from a decline that began in 2009.