IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

Labor and the coalition debated the respective merits of their ICT policies today, and a clear divergence has emerged between them.

The Labor government is committed to investing up to A$43 billion in a National Broadband Network (NBN), including a 100Mbps wholesale-only FTTH network to 93% of the population. Wireless and satellite will cover the last 7% of the population. Pilot FTTH sites have been activated, and further sites are under construction.

Die Open-Source-Befürworter haben in Australien einen Punkte-Sieg errungen. Das Parlament des Hauptstadt-Distriktes Canberra hat in der Nacht auf heute, Donnerstag, ein Linux-freundliches Gesetz beschlossen. Das Gesetz wurde von einer Mehrheit aus Demokraten, Unabhängigen und Grünen angenommen. Es folgt ähnlichen Bestimmungen, die bereits in Südaustralien und auf Bundesebene auf dem legislativen Weg sind. Auch der Bundesstaat Neusüdwales überlegt ähnliche Maßnahmen, berichtet AustralianIT.

According to MSIA president Jon Hughes the industry has lost confidence in the ability of the National eHealth Transition Authority (NEHTA) to deliver the program. “There is evidence of a lack of probity, ineffective governance and an inability to deliver targeted programs… The program risks falling into disuse from the very first day of live operation,” he said.

The City of Prospect is a small municipality in the state of South Australia with a population of only 20,000, but it has big ambitions that are being recognized internationally.

For the sixth time in eight years, Prospect was listed in the Top 21 Intelligent Communities in the world by the New York-based Intelligent Community Forum (ICF).

Designed by Conrad Gargett Riddel AMW, the $96 million facility houses the country’s first full electronic medical record (EMR) and digital patient management system, in addition to a digital drug dispensing facility and a capacity to monitor patients during surgeries.

The health records of Australians are set to go online by default, with the new system to be trialled first in northern Queensland and in the Blue Mountains.

The medical records of all Australians are set to go online after legislation to revamp the e-health system and get more people using it cleared Parliament.

The new My Health Record system is to be trialled first in north Queensland and the NSW Blue Mountains region, and will be rolled out nationally if it proves a success.

Cities around the world are transitioning toward smarter and more efficient living, marking the end of the third-generation (3G) network era as faster networks rise to the forefront.

The transition to a faster network is being accelerated by the planned shutdown of all 3G networks over the next 12 months by Australia’s major telecommunications providers, which include Telstra, Vodafone, and Optus.

Speaking at the annual Biometrics Institute Australia conference in Sydney last week, Dr Helen Cartledge said that RFID chips, including those located within banking cards and e-Passports issued by the government, are at risk from wireless skimming devices.

"e-Passport utilizes basic access control (BAC) to prevent personal information being extracted without actually handing over the document. Extended Access Control is used to protect other information such as fingerprint [data]. Credit cards, however, do not have the same type of safeguards and some of the information they contain may be vulnerable if attackers are nearby with a transceiver [reader] at the same frequency range as your e-tag or cards--they may get access to some of your information," Cartledge added.

"The RACGP is currently reviewing the different technologies and connection options to provide a choice from a range of vendor equipment as a means of ensuring interoperability between them," Dr Mike Civil, chair of the RACGP Telehealth Standards Taskforce, said in a statement.

The college is also working on the development of clinical telehealth standards for general practitioners, expected to be ready in October.

Most governments want to include their citizens in decision-making. This is especially true when it comes to issues which cause a great deal of disagreement. So how do you host a discussion that doesn’t degenerate into an argument between the loudest voices?

TMC controls all traffic operations in a large region which includes more than 18,000 kilometres of roads and more than 5,000 bridges and tunnels, as well as rail, ferry and bus lines.

As Australia grinds ever-closer to putting our health records online from (allegedly) 1 July, disturbing news is emerging. US hospitals are seeing more data breaches, and Australian medical experts warn that patient safety could be put at risk.

The super agency has eight large transformation programs underway that the rest of the Commonwealth hopes to re-use, but the Community and Public Sector Union would argue Services Australia staff are being left behind amid the bureaucracy.

Services Australia is currently undertaking eight major transformation programs, focusing on reusing capability that the agency's CEO of transformation projects Charles McHardie has touted will provide consistency, ease of use for staff, and cost savings.

Under its $7.8 billion national heathcare reform project, to be completed over a five year period, the Gillard Government has committed to improving hospitals and primary healthcare, providing more training for health professional including doctors and nurses, investment in prevention, increasing support for mental illness and aged care, and bringing the health system up to date.

As part of this health reform project, the government has established a Healthcare Identifier Bill 2010 to govern a timeline to have unique healthcare identifiers (HI) in operation within 10 years, a project spearheaded by Medicare. This will mean Australian has a unique health record held in a single national database that can be accessed by different healthcare professionals.

Thus far I've identified just over 70 policies - a small number considering Australia has over 550 councils, 100 state departments and 18 federal departments, plus all of the independent agencies and statutory bodies across the nation.

While many agencies have suffered cuts under the latest South Australian budget, many areas of ICT expenditure in the 2010-11 year will see a rise in funding.

Noting major variations in expenditure between the 2009-10 and 2010-11 budgets, the South Australian Department of Treasury and Finance said it in the budget that it would increase expenditure by $15 million on ICT initiatives including its shared services reform, a taxation revenue management system and an e-procurement project.

“The EzyReg iPhone application is the first of its type for an Australian government agency, providing real-time vehicle registrations and registration lookups from a purpose built mobile application,” said Michael O’Brien, South Australia’s Minister for Finance.

The app is equipped with a bar-code recognition capability that can be activated using the users’ on-phone camera. On being sent a renewal notice, users can scan the code provided on the notice to load their information and transact immediately using the app. They can also check their registration at any time.

The South Australian government is now polling the public for feedback on the first draft of its new ICT strategy with the release of the position paper "South Australia Connected — Ready for the Future".

The state government of South Australia will spend $17 million on a Web-based information system allowing nurses and midwives instant access to patient records.

Technology developed by Sydney-based Emerging Systems will be used to integrate patient records across the public hospital system to improve the speed, accuracy, and hence safety of health-care delivery.

The state late December and this week went to market for the Enterprise Patient Administration System (EPAS) component of what it described in tender documents as "Australia's first fully integrated statewide electronic health record system", dubbed careconnect.sa.