IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Just a day on from issuing a statement that it was still looking for a whole-of-government CIO, the Queensland government has announced that it has appointed Professor Peter Grant to the role.

According to the government, Grant began in the role today and was appointed following an extensive merit selection process following the creation of the role by Premier Anna Bligh in July.

There have been insufficient IT links between agencies within the portfolio. For example, while Queensland Police Service is committed to WEBEOC as part of an Australia wide connectivity of police organisations, local governments are committed to GUARDIAN, which is consistent with many other local governments around the country. The Department of Community Safety has advanced a model of an event management system using Microsoft SharePoint technology; however this is recognised by all as interim, and insufficient.

The Queensland Government will be moving to a new round of information law reforms in the form of an "open data" initiative modelled on the NYC OpenData framework.

As part of these open data reforms, the Premier has appointed an Assistant Minister to the Premier on e-government, and announced the establishment of a website to be the accessible portal for the release of State Government information releases, and, an Open Data Reform Group to lead cultural change across the sector.

Queensland’s ICT reforms were highlighted earlier by the Minister for Technology Mr Ian Walker.

Addressing Queensland’s Government ICT executives and the ICT industry, Minister Walker underlined his intention to meet with every member of Queensland’s ICT industry and agencies. These consultations will drive ICT reforms in Queensland.

Those job losses will come from CITEC, which employs 500 staff, and the Shared Services area, which employs 1200 staff.

Queensland Information Technology Minister Ian Walker rejected suggestions the entire $7 billion IT component of the state government would be outsourced.

The Queensland government has not spared IT from cuts as part of its debt-reduction budget, with the government committing to overhaul shared services.

The newly installed Queensland Liberal National government, led by Premier Campbell Newman, yesterday delivered its first budget, aimed at stabilising debt levels of AU$81.7 billion by finding AU$7.8 billion in savings for the next financial year.

Under the government’s just-released ICT reforms agenda, an “e-government” initiative is being rolled, out, including a new web site offering a portal into announcements and policy updates.

Ray Stevens, Queensland’s Member for Mermaid, takes up the role of Assistant Minister to Premier Newman, managing a newly-created “e-government” portfolio. This latest appointment opens up avenues for informed discussion and debate between government, industry and community stakeholders.

The Queensland Government is planning to combine and outsource a number of government payroll systems into one single system, two years after a disastrous payroll experience with its health department.

Information Minister Ros Bates' department will be the first to receive the unified payroll treatment. Her department, which includes Arts Queensland, CITEC and Queensland Shared Services, has eight separate systems, which will be rolled into one and outsourced.

The online portal, Queensland Government Data, currently gives the public free access to 73 datasets under categories such as government, public safety, education, transportation and health.

The Queensland Government has named the Member for Mermaid Beach, Ray Stevens, as Assistant Minister to Premier Campbell Newman on e-government, as part of its aim to make data more accessible to the public.

The Queensland Government has opened up its whole-of-government ICT services panel to applications from suppliers.

The state government’s Chief Procurement Office (QGCPO) will ask the industry to apply for a seat on the panel in three categories. Applications for the first category opened late Friday, with two more tranches to open in the next eight months.

The move is likely to benefit small to medium IT business, who will increase their chances at gaining lucrative government contracts.

But it renews concerns about more job cuts, with unions previously warning up to 2000 government IT jobs could be axed.

Opposition health spokesman Mark McArdle has obtained 3120 pages of emails, strategies, plans and minutes generated about the eMR tender between June 2009 and April this year under state Right To Information laws.

Another 942 pages were not released due to being either "cabinet or commercial in confidence".

Mr Walker, a keynote speaker at the industry’s flagship FutureGov Forum Queensland, says this new ICT action plan lays the foundations for a rigorous public sector, working in tandem with the industry.

The just-released Queensland Government ICT Strategy 2013-2017 offers a comprehensive roadmap to reforms over the next five years.

In early June, the state’s long-awaited comprehensive audit of its ICT systems and processes found that ninety percent of the Queensland Government’s ICT systems were outdated and would 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.

The Queensland government has realised that it is simply unable to continue managing its own outdated IT systems, and needs to stop providing almost all of its services in-house if it is to keep up with the times.

These are the key messages from the Queensland Government ICT Audit 2012, which it released on Friday in two (PDF) parts (PDF). In its findings, the report noted that the "1990s 'build, own, and maintain' approach to IT is still largely dominant and unsustainable", and that this model is forcing the government to miss the global shift toward cloud services.

Queensland Rail, which split from the privatised freight arm QR National last year, is streamlining data centre management, network and end-user computing services.

The latest data centre consolidation involves moving Queensland Rail’s ICT infrastructure from three data centres, currently shared with QR National, into new facilities in Brisbane by June 30 this year.

Mr Walker, a keynote speaker at the industry’s flagship FutureGov Forum Queensland being held Tuesday 17th September in Brisbane, is driving reforms that offer a clearer roadmap to accessing technologies-of-choice, while improving accountability and governance.

The Queensland Government plans to establish a new central procurement office for state departments and agencies in an attempt to rectify previous challenges with shared services arrangements.

According to Queensland Government chief information officer Peter Grant, previous shared services systems had failed to achieve stated outcomes including saving money, reducing operational redundancy and allowing agencies to focus on their core responsibilities.