Category: Public Sector

May 9, 2025

NSW Health cools on high-risk innovation investment

NSW Health will move to diversify and re-balance its portfolio of research and innovation investments under a more risk-averse approach that creates “lasting impact and value”. The new approach could see it withdraw or reduce investment in some areas, as the central agency seeks to offset “high-risk, high reward” ventures against lower risk ones. That’s…

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May 6, 2025

NSW pauses talks with SAP amid shared services strategy refresh

The NSW government has temporarily paused negotiations with SAP for a renewed software sourcing agreement as it develops a new strategy for shared services technology. The pause on talks, which had been underway since at least last year, comes as the government extends its existing standing offer with the German tech giant for the third…

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April 15, 2025

Australia’s critical minerals reserve ‘support, not intervention’

A critical minerals reserve proposed for Australia in the wake of sweeping US tariffs on global exports is “not intervention, it’s support”, Resources minister Madeleine King has declared. “… The reason we need support is because of the thin supply chains and the very opaque international market,” Ms King said addressing questions about the strategic…

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April 10, 2025

Canberra’s AI transparency laggards fall in line

Federal government agencies that missed a key AI transparency deadline earlier this year have now largely fallen into line, with just two mandatory declarations still outstanding across the public service. Agencies reached near full compliance with the requirement to produce an AI transparency statement over the past month following a concerted push by the government’s…

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April 10, 2025

Victoria’s consulting spend back at 2018 levels

Spending on external consultants in the Victorian government has returned to 2018 levels, with new data released by the state’s auditor-general showing a sharp drop off in work last year. The big four consulting giants – Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC – have been particularly hard hit, with government outlays plummeting two-thirds since the height…

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April 10, 2025

Victoria’s consulting spend back at 2018 levels

Spending on external consultants in the Victorian government has returned to 2018 levels, with new data released by the state’s auditor-general showing a sharp drop off in work last year. The big four consulting giants – Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC – have been particularly hard hit, with government outlays plummeting two-thirds since the height…

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April 8, 2025

Whole-of-govt tech mega-deals review gets underway

The federal government has opened the consultation process for an independent review of its seven technology mega-deals, collectively worth more than a billion dollars each year. The review of the single-sourcing arrangements with tech giants like IBM, Microsoft and SAP was first flagged in November and got underway ahead of the federal Budget last month….

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April 7, 2025

‘Urgent’ NSW electoral IT system fixes prompt stop-gap funding bid

The NSW Electoral Commission is pressing the state government to allow it to recycle unspent funding on “urgent” fixes to legacy systems, as it awaits money for a more costly overhaul. After a $323 million funding bid was turned down last year, the commission has also warned that “broader improvements” to its existing systems will…

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April 3, 2025

$18m ‘error’ in Accenture’s aged care contract as costs ballooned

Accenture’s contract to build an aged care platform was overstated by almost $18 million and only corrected six months after the work was completed, in one of the biggest known errors in tender reporting. The $139 million contract has spiraled through a series of variations and extensions since being struck two years ago at just…

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April 1, 2025

Mass migration: Half of Canberra’s SAP systems nearing ‘cliff’

Almost two dozen instances of SAP across the federal government rely on twenty-year-old software that is set to lose mainstream support in 2027, setting up a mass migration and costly extended support to protect critical services. The federal agencies using the enterprise resource planning (ERP) product, known as SAP ECC 6.0, include Defence, Services Australia…

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April 1, 2025

Innovation dropped from WA public service

Innovation and science have been excised from the Western Australia public service, with the government dropping the words from the title of a key department as part of a planned restructure. In a move designed to boost economic resilience, Premier Roger Cook on Monday revealed sweeping changes to the state’s public sector, including its lead…

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March 27, 2025

Government’s in-house consultants race to self sufficiency

The federal government’s in-house consulting unit’s new funding is only for one year and the total amount of that funding will remain undisclosed, officials revealed Thursday after Budget papers obscured details on the support. It gives the unit just one more confirmed year to establish a sustainable cost recovery model, having relied on $10.9 million…

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March 27, 2025

Agencies found to be using Kaspersky despite adverse advice

Australian government officials were banned from using Kaspersky after at least one agency was found to be using the antivirus software seven years after an informal ban came into effect. A “potential procurement” of the software was also uncovered during a routine sweep of third-party vendors last year, officials from the Department of Home Affairs…

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March 25, 2025

Budget 2025: Dude, where’s my digital economy?

For anyone with a passing interest in the digital economy or its associated data infrastructure, Jim Chalmers’ fourth federal Budget will be remembered as a flatliner, dead on arrival. Even taking into account the strange timing of this Budget, delivered just ahead of a election, it was an odd affair, most notable for what was…

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March 25, 2025

$450m Budget lift for business registers, digital health

The Albanese government has thrown more than $200 million behind the latest attempt to upgrade the country’s antiquated business registers, as legacy tech risk climbs across the Commonwealth. A “second tranche” of stabilisation and uplift efforts will get underway from July following a $207 million investment in work being led by the Australian Securities and…

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March 24, 2025

Govt’s contractor savings mask tech insourcing challenge

As the Albanese government books another $720 million saving on external labour, the analysis that triggered the cull is getting a refresh amid warnings of mounting tech work and creaking legacy systems. Finance and Services minister Katy Gallagher on Monday said the government will find more savings on consultants, contractors and labour hire in Tuesday’s…

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March 20, 2025

Finance called on to clamp down on contracting scandals

The Finance department must start taking action to lift contract management capability across the public service, an inquiry has found after examining a string of contracting failures and scandals. Troubled projects like My Health Record and Defence’s vetting tech reflect a “shared weakness” in Canberra the audit committee said after its closer look at the…

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March 19, 2025

Encrypted messaging in govt exposes FOI, security risks

Encrypted messaging apps are in widespread use by bureaucrats with little guidance on information governance, according to a first of its kind report that has raised doubts about legal obligations and disappearing records. A survey of agencies confirmed that the apps are now a regular part of federal government work and officials heavily favour Signal,…

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March 17, 2025

Federal auditor eyes a review of $22.7bn Future Made plan

The national auditor is contemplating a review of the federal government’s $22.7 billion Future Made in Australia plan, more than half of which is earmarked for critical minerals and hydrogen tax incentives. The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) revealed the potential audit of the government’s centrepiece economic policy in its 2025-26 draft work program, released…

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March 13, 2025

BoM tech overhaul ‘rebadged’ as costs pass $900m

A new report has confirmed the Bureau of Meteorology’s mammoth tech upgrade is ongoing and will take at least a year and $36 million more than when the project was declared complete by the bureau last June. The additional funding, revealed this week, is on top of the $886 million already spent on the heavily…

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March 12, 2025

DTA’s ‘early warning system’ flashes for nine govt IT projects

As many as nine major digital projects in Canberra are off track and will require significant changes if they are to meet their targets, a new report by the Digital Transformation Agency has revealed. Among the most high-profile projects deemed least likely to successfully land is a $174.7 million platform to help older Australian’s access…

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March 12, 2025

NDIA goes to ground on its ongoing Salesforce blowout

Costs for Salesforce software and services at the National Disability Insurance Agency have reached $143 million and may rise again within weeks despite serious concerns about the management of the original procurements. The NDIA appears to be weighing a potential return to market in what would be a major disruption to the software project, and…

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March 6, 2025

ServicesAus tightens procurement practices in wake of scandals

The equivalent of 754 Services Australia staff have completed procurement and contract management training in the wake of a scandal involving the agency that was referred to the corruption watchdog. Chief executive David Hazlehurst detailed the training and a crunch on the use of limited tenders in his assurances to Parliament’s audit committee last week….

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March 5, 2025

‘True blue’ tech suppliers to be recognised in procurement push

The federal government has for the first time defined an ‘Australian business’ for procurement purposes as part of a multi-year project to extract more benefits from its $80 billion annual spend. About 20 per cent of the federal procurement spend goes to the technology sector, and Australian suppliers and advocates on Wednesday welcomed the new…

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March 4, 2025

Call for ‘continuous’ parliamentary oversight of AI in govt

Parliament’s powerful audit committee has called for a whole-of-government approach to managing the use of artificial intelligence across the public service and has sought the creation of a new committee to provide continuous oversight of the technology. In its final report published on Tuesday, the Labor-chaired committee warned that while government had been a long-time…

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March 3, 2025

Retained economic benefit and the rise of Australian tech

The idea that it could take more than two years to come up with a definition for what constitutes an Australian company would be considered laughable by right-minded Australians. How hard can it be? But that is how long it has taken the Australian government to agree on its own understanding of what an Australian…

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March 3, 2025

Dozens of agencies miss major AI transparency deadline

Almost forty per cent of federal government agencies duty-bound to produce an AI transparency statement have missed the February filing deadline, in a blow to Canberra’s efforts to build public trust in its use of the technology. The nearly 100 agencies compelled under the mandatory transparency standard faced a Friday deadline to publish their statements,…

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March 2, 2025

Centrelink decision-making based on AI still a ‘long way off’

Services Australia has begun testing machine learning technology to help clear its backlog of Centrelink debts deemed “no debt” and improve the customer experience, but says it is still a “long, long way off” rolling out the tool. Officials from the welfare services agency revealed details of the early-stage trial conducted late last year at…

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February 26, 2025

Privacy watchdog axes 30pc of staff

Australia’s privacy watchdog has lost more than 30 per cent of its workforce in less than six months thanks to a budget cut that has triggered morale issues among the remaining staff left to pick up the pieces. The Office of the Australian Information Commission (OAIC) began its “organisation redesign” in the back half of…

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February 25, 2025

Parliament’s expense software upgrade limps on to 2026

Parliament’s SAP-based expense management software has delivered only partial benefits, despite seven years and $74 million of investment, and will need until 2026 to deliver many basic functions. Finance officials on Monday night said a benefits realisation review ordered in the wake of an audit office inquiry has been completed. The review found the benefits…

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