Speech by The Hon Lindsay Tanner MP
Minister for Finance and Deregulation
CeBIT Australia, Sydney
21 May 2008
Good morning and welcome to the e-Government Forum at CeBIT Australia 2008, the largest information and communications technology event focused on government issues in this country.
How to use information technology to govern more effectively and efficiently is a particular concern of mine in my role as Minister for Finance and Deregulation. My portfolio includes the Australian Government Information Management Office – AGIMO – the agency responsible for managing the federal government’s information technology requirements.
I also come to this debate with a longstanding personal interest in the connection between new technologies and democratic renewal. This interest has spurred some small-scale ICT innovation of my own – you mightn’t know that I was among the first Australian politicians to use YouTube and Facebook to interact with my constituents.
Now, of course, a significant number of Australian politicians are interacting with electors online. What’s clear is that the relatively basic types of engagement we are currently seeing in Australia are just the tip of a very large Web 2.0 iceberg. I’ll talk more about the Rudd Government’s plans for this area a little later.
I’d like to begin this morning by taking you through the Government’s agenda for improving the procurement and use of Information and Communications Technology across the Commonwealth.
Our agenda in this area is timely. As the results of the recent Australians' Use of and Satisfaction with e-Government Services survey has shown, Australians are increasingly relying on the Internet to access government services. In 2007, 24 per cent – almost a quarter – of those over the age of 18 who contacted the Government had done all or most of their interactions over the internet - up from 14 percent in 2004–2005.
It is vital that we continue to develop and improve the ways in which government delivers services, while ensuring we provide the nation with the best possible value from its investment in information technology. We need to look at how we use and manage information and communications technology within Government. How we purchase IT solutions, how we make sure we are using these solutions effectively and how we measure that effectiveness are matters we all need to work on together.
To help determine those answers I have initiated an independent review of the Australian Government's use and management of information and communications technology. Sir Peter Gershon, former Chief Executive of the UK Office of Government Commerce, will lead the Review and report back to me in September this year. Many of you will be aware of Sir Peter’s background as an international expert on government efficiency. Sir Peter’s long association with the ICT industry will add great value to the Review. The Review is exploring ways to better coordinate the use and management of IT across the entire government while allowing for individual agencies to retain autonomy and flexibility.
The Australian Government is one of the largest consumers of information technology products and services in this country. We believe that by consolidating our collective bargaining power we can improve the net result in terms of the value we get for the taxpayer dollar. The waste that comes with excessive decentralisation is clear. When individual agencies make IT purchases without reference to other areas of government, the unintended result can be an accidental duplication of equipment and systems, with different management and reporting practices. Prices for labour and materials can also be bid up as agencies compete against each other to complete projects.
At the same time I am not seeking to "centralise" procurement through this Review. Excessive centralisation is just as bad as excessive decentralisation. We know that ‘Whole of government’ or coordinated arrangements are not suitable for all situations. We do not intend to implement a ‘one-size-fits-all’ strategy for information technology purchases across all agencies. This has been tried and has failed. What we do intend to do is implement a procurement strategy that gives us the necessary capabilities to make informed, high quality purchasing decisions across various levels of government. An important component of this is building the capabilities to deal with the myriad risks posed to government from major ICT upgrades.
Because of the decentralised procurement model that has been employed across government to date there are significant gaps in the Commonwealth’s corporate memory when it comes to significant ICT purchases. On the one hand, we have an incomplete picture of the risks posed both to service delivery and the bottom line by continued reliance on legacy ICT systems across the many silos of government. On the other hand, we have inherited from the previous government a poor track record in managing the risks surrounding major ICT upgrades. The substantial cost blowouts of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship’s ‘Systems for People’ ICT reforms are an important reminder of the consequences when the implementation of major IT upgrades is not wholly successful.
We need the right information to be able to determine the cost-benefit ratio of continuing with our current approach to ICT upgrades.
We’ll be happy to reform our procurement arrangements to achieve this. It may be that something like a central unit charged with planning and monitoring ICT systems upgrades across government could provide the sort of capabilities we need. All these are important questions which will be considered by the Review.
Our purchasing decisions also need to be driven by effectiveness and efficiency considerations, including the need for whole of life cycle support for quality service delivery. In fact, as well as value for money, quality service delivery is a touchstone of the Gershon Review. The proliferation of wasteful individual contract arrangements has meant that there has been significant functional duplication and lack of systems coordination across agencies. By examining current, and recommending new, ways for agencies to collaborate and improve service delivery the Rudd Government hopes to improve some of the inefficient practices of the past.
The Review will also build on work being undertaken by AGIMO, examining ways for agencies to share assets and processes to save money and deliver better services. The Review is really the first step in a much larger project – to change the culture of agencies still conditioned to look inward and not recognise the advantages of working together. We need to change this mindset. We have to demonstrate to agencies that collaboration and cooperation underpin the effective application of ICT service delivery. There has already been significant investment in developing services within agencies that can be successfully employed elsewhere in government. We’ve already developed frameworks and IT architecture to improve the capability of agencies to confidently retain, manage, transfer and exchange information.
My department is active in addressing these issues. For example, AGIMO has worked under the auspices of the United Nations to develop a modelling methodology to support cross-agency work. The impact of this work has been broader than government. Innovative Australian ICT firms have taken advantage of AGIMO’s standards work and incorporated it in their own product offerings. Through strategic engagement in the international standards-setting agenda the government has influenced outcomes with flow on effects for the private sector. This is just one example of the success that can be achieved through greater interoperability.
The most important outcome we can achieve through greater interoperability between agencies is to deliver more integrated government services to citizens.
Last month’s 2020 Summit highlighted a growing desire for more immediate and practical access to government services, driven by new technology. This is supported by the findings of the Australians' Use of and Satisfaction with e-Government Services survey, which shows that we are yet to bridge the gap between how citizens want to interact with their government, and how they actually do.
We are committed to streamlining and enhancing citizens’ engagement with government services online. We are focused in particular on the redevelopment of the Government’s one stop shop for government services, Australia.gov.au. The 2020 Summit called for a single online access point to more effectively deliver government services. Over the next twelve months Australia.gov.au will begin to evolve into this very product.
Innovation, collaboration and reuse will be the features of Australia.gov.au when it is relaunched in the first quarter of 2009. It will join up government departments and personalise service offerings at a user level. A single sign-on capability will enable citizens to link their existing government online accounts with their Australia.gov.au account and allow them to move between government websites and transactions without needing to constantly reconfirm their identity. This new platform will be opt-in, and users will have complete control over the amount of personal information they share.
The Rudd Government is also keen to explore the ways technology can be used to establish more immediate and collaborative relationships between government and citizen. As you would all be aware, the rate of growth in recent times of collaborative platforms with potential application for government has been staggering. It is clear that in the long term the kind of output unlocked by Web 2.0 platforms will have a dramatic impact on policymaking processes and the institutions of government.
Making real gains in this area is not about theoretical or technological development. We have many examples of successful online projects built on collaborative principles. It is plain that wikis, blogs and social networks can be powerful tools for aggregating policy debate and deliberation. The challenge in this area is this: how do we adapt the static and process driven world of the bureaucracy to the more dynamic and innovative world of the collaborative web? This is a huge challenge in terms of cultural change, which can’t be solved through technical solutions alone.
The prospect of greater online engagement also raises difficult questions around the openness, confidentiality, accountability and responsiveness of government policymaking. Unlike the previous government, we understand that developments in open standards and collaborative policy design are things to encourage. We don’t fear the power and wisdom of the crowd. We are as excited as many in the industry are about the possibilities new technology creates for democratic renewal. This is a moment where, as Barack Obama has recently said, we are engaged in ‘midwifing a new kind of politics’.
Our immediate task is to begin to change the outlook of government so that the immense opportunities of online engagement are properly weighed against the risks. This will not be a quick or easy thing to do. Cultural change of this sort always happens incrementally. But this year we will make a start. In the coming months we will open up an area of policy review to online consultation and engagement through a trial government consultation blog. This blog will give the online citizenry a chance to interact with the bureaucracy and make contributions to an area of government policy review.
I am working through the numerous issues inevitably associated with such a trial. Who runs it, how it is resourced, and how the Government is represented are all challenging questions. Yet the prize is huge. We can change the way people relate to governments. The dividends in responsiveness, policy quality and accountability could be enormous. We will also be keeping careful watch on e-government developments in other jurisdictions, noting best practice where it occurs.
Finally this morning, I just want to say a few words about the e-Award for Excellence in e-Government. The e-Award recognises the most outstanding initiatives in e-government that have been implemented in the past two years, based on the positive impact they have had on the lives of Australian citizens, the community and business while improving the efficiency and effectiveness of government administration and service delivery. I wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate all the finalists for this year's e-Award, which will be presented this evening.
This really is an important forum. I hope you all make the most of the opportunities you have today to learn about, debate and plan for the future of e-government in Australia.
Thank you, and enjoy the remainder of the conference.
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| Minister Tanner - Nardia Dazkiw -0418 144 690 | www.financeminister.gov.au |
