Ministers vetoing research grants are an “existential threat” to local universities, the Australian National University vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt has warned, as The Greens seek a Senate inquiry into the latest incident. In his 2022 State of the University address on Monday, Professor Schmidt called for a review of the Australian Research Council as part of…
The $2 billion the federal government will inject to align university research commercialisation with its hand-picked manufacturing priorities will be stretched across the next 11 years. A day after unveiling a $2 billion Research Commercialisation Action Plan, the government has released the overarching strategy on which the plan is based. The strategy has been in…
The experts who recommended funding for research projects that were later blocked by the acting Education minister late last year have condemned the intervention, warning it “undermines” the independent assessment process and weakens public trust. On Wednesday an open letter signed by 139 current and former members of the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) College of…
The University of New South Wales’ research director has slammed the latest vetoing of research funding, saying the minister responsible did not even understand the projects he blocked on national interest grounds and is sending a message to academics to avoid areas the government may find too “challenging”. The University of Melbourne’s deputy vice chancellor research…
Blocking humanities projects damages other research disciplines and is “inconsistent” with the federal government’s demand for academic freedom in Australian universities, according to one of the country’s most eminent researchers. Australian National University Professor Barry Pogson, an Australian Research Council (ARC) Laurette Fellow, was among the recipients of the latest round of Discovery Project grants….
University of Sydney vice-chancellor Mark Scott is “dismayed” at the acting education minister’s decision to block two of the institution’s research projects from receiving funding, despite the proposals being recommended by the independent research funding agency. The University of Sydney received more than $30 million from the Australian Research Council (ARC) to fund 67 research…
More than 60 eminent Australian professors have signed an open letter decrying acting education minister Stuart Robert’s veto of university research funding on “national interest” grounds. Published Tuesday, the open letter is signed by 63 Australian Research Council (ARC) Laureate Fellows – the most prestigious research fellowship in Australia – including a Nobel laureate. It…
In countries like Denmark and Germany, gifts are given on Christmas Eve, rather than Christmas morning. Likewise, on Christmas Eve 2021, 587 groups of researchers at universities around Australia received a festive gift from the Australian Research Council (ARC), in the form of news that their 2022 Discovery Projects were to be funded. More brutally,…
Australian universities are demanding an explanation from acting Education minister Stuart Robert about his decision to veto funding for six research projects late last year, as backlash to the politicisation of research funding grows. On Christmas Eve Mr Robert revealed he had blocked six humanities research projects from receiving funding from the independent Australian Research…
The acting education minister has vetoed six humanities research grants which had been recommended by the independent Australian Research Council for funding. The veto was revealed on Christmas eve in what was the longest delay to an announcement of grant recipients in 30 years. Of the six grants rejected by acting Education minister Stuart Robert,…
The Auditor General has been asked to investigate an unprecedented delay in the announcement of research grant recipients by the federal government, as thousands of researchers prepare for a nervous wait over the holiday period. Three major research grant programs set to fund work beginning as early as January are yet to be announced by…
The federal government still can’t appoint a full National Data Commissioner as a statutory role or get its data strategy off the ground due to a failure to get landmark data-sharing reforms through the Parliament this year. The Coalition did not bring its Data Availability and Transparency Act (DATA) for debate in Parliament this year…
Deloitte has landed a further $1 million for its work on the revamped myGov, with the new version of the government services platform entering its final stage of beta testing this month. A contract posted publicly this week reveals that Services Australia will pay Deloitte more than $750,000 over two months to 23 December for…
The Coalition is overhauling university research funding and governance to align it with its manufacturing priorities and commercialisation agenda, in a “new direction” the government says will drive Australia’s pandemic recovery from next year. The changes include a “stronger governance structure” for the Australian Research Council (ARC) through more input from businesses and research end…
The federal government has failed to introduce legislation to underpin its digital identity program this year as it had committed, and has called on private companies to express interest in participating in the scheme in the meantime. The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) has been leading the development of the Digital Identity Legislation for more than…
Here we go again. On December 3, Minister Stuart Robert unveiled the latest Government Digital Strategy (GDS) at a gathering of the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) in Canberra. This strategy has as its vision that by 2025, Australia will be one of the top three digital governments in the world. That’s right. A vision…
The minister responsible for government technology has declined to provide almost any detail on lucrative contracts awarded by his Digital Transformation Agency to global consultancies McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group, despite contract value jumping and increasing concerns about the opacity and quality of outsourced advice. The work, now costing more than $2 million but with…
Cryptography and security experts have welcomed the federal government’s new international digital Covid-19 vaccine certificate, saying it should be used across the country instead of other, less privacy protecting offerings. A swathe of government ministers announced on Monday morning the introduction of the international COVID-19 proof of vaccination digital certificate, which will allow Australians to…
The world’s biggest cloud company Amazon Web Services has been certified under the federal government’s data sovereignty scheme despite its links to a controversial Chinese-owned data centre and the US giant declining to disclose its current level of compliance, or what undertakings its certification is based on. US company Amazon Web Services (AWS) joined local…
The federal government has finally unveiled exposure legislation expanding its digital identity program to state governments and the private sector, with a whirlwind consultation period commencing before it is soon introduced to Parliament. The legislation will introduce two voluntary schemes to accredit companies and governments as service providers or relying partners in the digital identity…
The federal government will soon release the final legislation expanding its digital identity program to the private sector as it looks to bring a number of large companies on board. Exposure draft legislation for the digital identity program will be released soon, with the bill to be introduced to Parliament during the Spring sittings. The…
Irish multinational Accenture has been selected to digitise Australia’s incoming passenger declaration forms, which will collect COVID-19 vaccination status. The Department of Home Affairs went to market late last year for a private provider to deliver it a so-called “permissions capability”, which was intended to initially handle visa processing and passenger declaration cards and eventually…
State and territory COVID-19 check-in apps will be granted access to federal government data showing whether citizens have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, with the functionality expected to go live this month.
Once states begin to open up after lockdowns, it’s expected some types of venues will require patrons to provide proof of vaccination in addition to checking in via a QR code, on top of requiring ID if they’re an establishment like a nightclub.
With this in mind, federal and state governments have been discussing whether there is a way to integrate data from the Australian Immunisation Register into state-based check-in apps to make it easier for citizens to check in without having to open separate apps.
Minister Robert’s office referred InnovationAus to comments he made at a doorstop interview on Tuesday last week in Canberra, in which he said he had been working with state and territory colleagues “for many, many weeks” on sharing the data.
“The intent of working with them is to allow an ease for Australians, so when they use that state-based app, not only can they use the state-based QR code in terms of the state processes, but can also demonstrate at the same time, that they’ve been vaccinated,” Minister Robert said.
“That process will be ongoing, and I suspect at this stage, that this will be live across states and territories into September.”
Minister Robert said how states and territories use the data “will be up to them”.
“Whether that vaccination certification data is used will depend of course, upon state and territory public health orders, and that’s a matter for those states and territories.”
On Friday, NSW Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello said on LinkedIn that he planned to show a prototype of the integration on Monday.
“I am working with Minister Stuart Robert … so that we can provide people with an option of integrating the vaccine certificate on their Service NSW app,” he said.
Minister Dominello has previously lobbied for access to the data, telling InnovationAus that it would be “a very clunky experience to essentially open three different apps just to get through the front door” of some venues.
He said previously that such a record in the Service NSW app could detail whether someone was fully or partially vaccinated against COVID-19.
Meanwhile, NSW announced this week that it would begin to scale down the use of contact tracing as vaccination rates rise, and would rely more on its Service NSW app for alerting people if they have been to a venue of concern. New features, as flagged by Mr Dominello, will be introduced into the app to allow for this to occur in late September.
The federal government has tightened sovereignty requirements for data hosting vendors and service providers due to security and supply chain concerns.
But nearly six months on, only three vendors have been certified while the department responsible for some of Australia’s most sensitive data declined to say how it will approach the new scheme.
Stuart Robert is leading reforms to tighten government oversight and access to data systems holding sensitive government information.
Since March, the federal government has required hosting providers to be certified against a range of security, risk mitigation and ownership requirements to achieve one of two new levels of certification: “Assured” and the higher “Strategic”.
The new certifications are part of a Hosting Certification Framework (HCF), which was developed by the Digital Transformation Agency and operationalises the principles set out in the whole-of-government Hosting Strategy.
In June, the government minister responsible for whole-of-government data and digital policy, Stuart Robert, announced “all relevant government data” under the HCF must be stored in either Certified Assured or Certified Strategic data centres. This requirement came into effect on June 4 and includes all future and “in-flight” projects.
“The Morrison Government is committed to having effective controls in place for the critical systems and data holdings that underpin the operation of government,” Mr Robert said at the time.
“This includes knowing how, where and when data is stored and transmitted whilst achieving greater assurance over the operation and supply chains of providers.”
A spokesperson for the DTA confirmed it will be up to agencies to determine their hosting requirements, including whether their data and systems require certified hosting.
“[Agencies are required to] use Certified Strategic or Certified Assured Data Centres for high value or sensitive data sets, PROTECTED data, or whole of government systems; and assess data and systems for the likelihood of data sensitivity changing over time,” a DTA spokesperson told InnovationAus.
“The DTA supports agencies to specify and source hosting arrangements consistent [with] requirements of the agency’s systems and data holdings.”
An Assured certification requires hosting providers to pass a detailed initial assessment and include clauses in contracts that safeguard government agencies and lessen their exit costs in the event of a significant change of ownership, control or operation of the provider.
The higher Strategic certification includes all Assured requirements and adds a more stringent initial assessment and requires a guarantee the provider will not change strategic direction operation or ownership in a way which would “adversely affect”:
the level of confidence the Australian public has in the Commonwealth;
the Commonwealth’s interests; and
the certainty of services delivered to tenants for the life of the current government contract/s
Strategic certified providers must cover the full transition costs associated with exiting a data centre due to a breach of the contract. They are also required to mitigate supply chain risks by adhering to a formal risk management framework, have key personnel vetted by the government and provide support from “locations that do not pose a threat to the Commonwealth”.
Certification approvals at each level will be made by the DTA deputy chief executive officer or an authorised delegate, according to the HCF. Maintaining certification will require providers to notify and obtain approval from the government of any “relevant change” to personnel, strategic direction, ownership, land sale, security or any other circumstance relating to security operations of the data centre.
In short, the HCF wrestles back much more control and oversight of data centres to government agencies while imposing tough new requirements on vendors and potentially significant penalties for breaches. But it raises questions for competition and the role of systems integrators and cloud service providers.
The framework applies to all direct and indirect providers of hosting and related data centre services to government customers, including involved systems integrators, managed service providers and cloud service providers.
A certification process for direct hosting service providers on the government Data Centre Facilities Supplies Panel began in March and remains open, with other registered providers eligible to apply from next month. All other providers are encouraged to apply now.
So far only three companies have been certified: Australian Data Centres and Canberra Data Centres at the Certified level, and Macquarie Telecom Group at the Strategic level.
The DTA declined to reveal how many other providers have begun the certification process and if any were direct or indirect providers, except to say it “continues to engage and evaluate additional hosting providers against the Framework”.
The Department of Home Affairs declined to answer repeated requests about how it will assess certification needs or how a provider’s personnel are vetted, making it unclear how the department, which has its own extensive hosting requirements and will be providing security advice to other agencies, will interpret the framework.
Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo has flagged the tightening makes the Australian government an “exemplar” and will “not be very attractive” to multinational cloud vendors which have become popular with federal agencies.
The framework stipulates that for system integrators, managed service or cloud service providers certification will need to happen “for each data centre facility arrangement used by the provider”.
“This may result in a certification being granted for only some, but not all data centre facilities arrangements utilised by the provider. In such cases, providers will only be able to use the certified data centre facilities (certified data centre facilities arrangements) that satisfy the certification level required by agencies,” the framework said.
The first private company has received accreditation from the federal government as a digital identity provider, with legislation facilitating a significant expansion of the digital ID program set to hit Parliament soon.
Sydney-based startup OCR Labs, which offers an automated, contactless identity verification platform used by a number of banks, has been accredited by the government after meeting its requirements for privacy and security.
The company was accredited under the Digital Transformation Agency’s Trusted Digital Identity Framework (TDIF), which sets out standards, rules and guidelines for digital identity services, and joins Australia Post and the ATO’s myGovID as the only services validated so far.
Responsibility for the wider digital identity was moved from the DTA to Services Australia earlier this year.
The TDIF requires applicants to meet a number of privacy protections, security and fraud control, risk management and technical integrity. OCR Labs will also have to continually show that it is meeting these obligations as part of annual assessments.
The company satisfied 262 requirements to get the accreditation, which took four a half months. This made it the second-fastest accreditation so far, out of the three completed.
“We want Australians to have confidence that their information is private and secure, regardless of who holds it. It has become increasingly important in this digital age to be able to establish trust, particularly online,” Employment Minister Stuart Robert said.
“Digital identity underpins the government’s Digital Economy Strategy that will allow Australian businesses like OCR Labs, and in particular small businesses, to capitalise on the opportunities that digital technologies are creating, enabling them to grow and create jobs as part of Australia’s economic recovery.”
But OCR Labs will not yet be actually in the government’s digital identity system and its services can’t be used to access government services for the time being. This will be made possible when legislation is passed by Parliament facilitating an expansion of the program to the private sector and state and territory governments.
The startup has also not received the higher Identity Proofing Level 2 Plus level, but will attempt to do so by the end of the year.
The government’s digital ID program has been running for six years at a cost of nearly $500 million. It aims to create a whole-of-economy federated digital identity scheme, where individuals can use a range of digital identity services to access services and products across the economy, including government services.
The draft legislation, unveiled in June, also establishes permanent oversight and governance structures for the digital identity scheme, with a number of privacy and consumer protections to be enshrined in law.
Security researchers have also raised concerns with the TDIF, with Thinking Cybersecurity CEO Vanessa Teague saying the framework is “very vague” and “counter-intuitive”, with too much left up to the providers.
“It leaves a lot of detail to the implementer. That’s the opposite of what a well-defined standard should be. The option standards and vague descriptions of how it might be done leaves a lot open to the implementer to potentially make a mistake,” Professor Teague said.
The DTA has previously said the TDIF is based upon the international standard OpenID Connect 1.0 and is “consistent” with the International Government Assurance Profile. But Professor Teague said it doesn’t stick to these best practice standards closely enough.
“It implements something a little similar to the OpenID Connect standard, but not quite. That ought to make you nervous to think that the DTA has taken an existing open standard quite carefully designed and then implemented something kind of similar,” she said.
“They should have implemented an existing standard. They should implement a real open standard that already exists. They shouldn’t have made up their own in the first place.”
State and federal ministers charged with digital transformations efforts have agree to the need for need for legislation to enshrine privacy and consumer protections and governance and oversights into law to support the expansion of digital identity.
The Data and Digital Ministers’ Meeting is a committee adjacent to the National Cabinet and is chaired by Employment minister Stuart Robert, who runs digital service delivery and coordination for the Federal government.
A meeting of ministers on Friday via videoconference continued long-standing work on national digital identity issues including on resilience and included a discussion on the need for improved security certification for data hosting.
Digital identity gets a workout in meeting of ministers
A communique said the meeting had welcomed the release of the federal government’s Digital Identity Legislation position paper in June, as part of ongoing collaborative efforts between jurisdictions to reap economic and citizen benefits of a national to digital ID.
“Ministers noted the need for legislation to enshrine into law a range of privacy and consumer protections, governance and oversight arrangements to support the expansion of Digital Identity nationally and to the private sector,” the communique said.
The ministers also acknowledged that the problem of identity crime and data breaches was growing and agreed to work toward a national approach to providing victims with recovery and remediation services.
“Ministers acknowledged governments are held to a high standard when it comes to the security and safety of Australia’s data,” the communique said.
“The public expects data held by governments to be managed with appropriate privacy, sovereignty and security controls. Ministers discussed the need for Australian data to be held in accordance with high standards of security across the board.”
No details were made available on how any of these acknowledgements would be progressed. The following ministers attended the meeting:
Digital Transformation Agency CEO Randall Brugeaud is set to leave at the end of the month, after three years in the role, with the agency facing a significant funding cut and major restructuring.
Mr Brugeaud notified DTA staff of the decision in an email on Friday morning, saying that he has been appointed to chair the new Simplified Trade Systems Implementation Taskforce in the Department of Trade.
In the email, seen by InnovationAus, Mr Brugeaud said it was a “hard decision”, and his last day at the DTA will be 30 June.
“I know this will come as a surprise to many of you, but the combination of the upcoming changes to the DTA and the urgency of filling the role I’ll be moving into means that the change needs to happen quickly,” Mr Brugeaud said in the email.
“Our work is and will continue to be important and I’m confident that the next evolution of the DTA achieves everything the government and the APS hopes to achieve.”
With Mr Brugeaud leaving the agency in less than two weeks, it’s unclear whether his replacement has already been lined up or if a recruitment process is underway.
The DTA is in the midst of a significant restructuring after being moved from Services Australia to the Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet in April. This coincided with a large funding and resourcing cut to the agency, and a shifted focus from service delivery and project management to delivering whole of government advice and strategy.
DTA chief Randall Brugeaud
Mr Brugeaud was appointed as CEO in July 2018 after serving as the deputy Australian Statistician, and previously as the chief information officer at the Department of Immigration.
His new role at the Simplified Trade Systems Implementation Taskforce will focus on cutting red tape around trade regulations and modernising outdated ICT systems, and will see Mr Burgeaud serving under trade minister Dan Tehan.
“In true DTA spirit, we’ll be taking a user focused approach to streamlining trade and border processes for Australian importers and exporters,” Mr Brugeaud said.
The DTA was launched in 2015 as a pet project of then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, originally named the Digital Transformation Office and sitting in the communications department.
In the time since it has moved across departments, with varying levels of influence on government policy and projects.
It was renamed to the DTA and moved to Prime Minister & Cabinet in 2016, before being shifted to the Department of Social Services and later Services Australia until earlier this year.
Mr Brugeaud said he remains confident in the DTA’s ability to achieve its goals and objectives.
“Our work and our operating environment have been challenging, but we’ve been able to drive forward the whole of government digital and ICT agenda and deliver great outcomes for the people and businesses of Australia,” he said.
The DTA has not been without controversy, with the agency experiencing continually high levels of staff turnover, and large spending on consultants in recent years.
Under the changes announced earlier this year, the DTA also lost control of several of its most significant projects, including digital identity and the redevelopment of myGov.
The DTA also led the development and rollout of the controversial COVIDSafe contact tracing app last year, which thrust the agency into the national spotlight.
The Simplified Trade Systems Implementation Taskforce was announced by Mr Tehan and employment minister Stuart Robert on Friday morning.
“Mr Brugeaud is uniquely qualified to work hand in hand with businesses to design and implement a cross-border trade system that meets their needs,” Mr Tehan said.
The government has released more details on its plan to expand its digital identity scheme to the private sector and the states, as it pushes to significantly accelerate the program which has already cost more than $500 million over five years.
The federal government released a new position paper on its Digital Identity Legislation, which it plans to introduce to Parliament later this year. The government is now consulting on the paper, with submissions closing on 14 July.
The paper reveals the government is sticking with plans for an independent oversight authority and legislating privacy and consumer protections but has changed a key definition of digital identity, and left the verifications systems outside of the legislation.
Digital identity is an Australian government program that allows people and businesses to prove their identity and use the proof across several government and private sector services, with the goal of reducing time and costs associated with in person verification.
Identity service providers must gain accreditation and follow a set framework in verifying users’ documents and biometrics to participate in the scheme. Currently there are only two accredited identity service providers: Australia Post and the ATO’s myGovID.
The federal government wants to expand its system into a “whole of economy” solution but requires legislation to do so. A privacy impact assessment in 2018 also recommended legislation to enshrine the privacy and consumer protections currently only present as rules.
The federal government is drafting legislation to expand its Digital Identity program to the states and territories and the private sector.
In the latest consultation phase on the legislation, the government has kept its proposal for a permanent Oversight Authority, an accreditation system and non-mandatory participation in the scheme, which is already used in limited government services but will eventually expand to the private sector and state and territory governments.
A new interoperability principle has been introduced to clarify how participants will work together and the proposed definition for “digital identity” has changed and will now focus on participants generating a person’s identity rather than the characteristics of a digital identity itself, a new government position paper, released on Thursday, said.
The new paper defines digital identity as “a distinct electronic representation of an individual which enables that individual to be sufficiently distinguished when interacting online, including when accessing online services”.
The precise terminology will be considered further in the drafting of the bill, which is expected to be introduced to Parliament in late 2021.
The paper makes no changes to the plan to leave the Document Verification Service and the Face Verification Service outside the scope of the legislation.
“These services are verification tools for identity providers and are expected to be subject to their own standards and legislation,” the paper said.
The Australian Human Rights Commission recently warned of the dangers of biometrics and called for a moratorium on its use in important decisions until appropriate regulations are in place.
Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business Stuart Robert said more than 2.5 million Australians and 1.27 million businesses use digital identity to access some government services.
“Establishing the right safeguards and protections will lay the foundations for the digital identity program and grow the digital economy by improving digital infrastructure,’ Mr Robert said.
“We want a system that Australians can use and trust. The legislation will ensure the expansion of the digital identity system meets the expectations of all Australians and that users can have confidence in the integrity as the system expands.”
The legislation will only include subject matter and general rules not likely to be compromised by advances in technology, including privacy safeguards and the power of ministers to set charges for participants. Users of digital identity will not be charged.
Rules on how the wider scheme will operate are to be made by the minister but can be disallowed by Parliament, according to the proposal. Written guidelines and policies will also be provided by a new statutory office.
Technical specifications on how the scheme works won’t be a matter for Parliament, however, but will need to be publicly notified.
Under the legislation, the current interim Oversight Authority will be made permanent as an independent statutory officeholder to be advised by boards appointed by the minister. The authority will be in charge of providers accreditation and ensuring they comply with the legislation’s safeguards.
Identity providers and accredited participants will need to comply with rules and standards for usability, accessibility, privacy protection, security, risk management and fraud control.
The Information Commissioner will also oversee compliance with the privacy provisions in the Bill.
The paper suggests security requirements will continue to be updated in line with advice from the Australian Cyber Security Centre, but a baseline compliance will be with the Australian government’s own cyber policies, including the Protective Security Policy Framework PSPF and the Information Security Manual.
The government also intends to mandate the Essential Eight requirements of the Protective Security Policy Framework for government entities after nearly a decade of low levels of compliance.
Accredited participants will be allowed to share some information with each other to manage cyber incidents, a process to be overseen by the Oversight Authority.
The federal government is in a “mad rush” to turn the NDIS into a “human-free robo-system” and should move to immediately scrap plans to introduce mandatory independent assessments, shadow government services minister Bill Shorten says.
The federal government is planning to introduce mandatory “independent assessments” for people already accessing or looking to access the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Independent assessments would see government-appointed assessors deciding on an individuals’ needs and how much funding they will receive, rather than their existing specialists.
New Government Services Minister Linda Reynolds has “paused” the rollout of these assessments while a second trial is being conducted, but there is no indication they will be scrapped. A government website on the NDIS said these assessments will become mandatory in “late 2021”.
They have been slammed by advocates as a cost-cutting measure that will harm Australians with disabilities, and as a move to automate the NDIS.
At a National Press Club address on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Shorten backed these calls and said the government should immediately abandon plans to introduce the independent assessments, and tear up contracts it has signed with providers to conduct them.
“The promise of the NDIS is being betrayed. Not yet fatally, but certainly substantially. The NDIS has been chaperoned by the cavalier vandalism of successive Liberal governments. After eight years of neglect, and seven different ministers for disability, I’m sorry to say that the ongoing existence of the scheme, as it was dreamed to be, is at risk,” Mr Shorten said.
“It is not overstating things to say that those in charge at a ministerial and agency level have been more concerned with data points than people, that they are too secretive, that there is too much of a closed shop, a black box dealing with the key numbers as evidence and this approach is killing trust.
“It is not too much to say that they are in a mad rush to trade a vital public service for a human-free robo-system.”
The move to implement independent assessments is “privatisation by stealth”, Mr Shorten said.
“The so-called independent assessments are not independent at all. They are robo-planning from the government who brought us robodebt and, as with robodebt, robo-planning is based on flawed mathematical algorithms,” he said.
“It has been constructed in a black box and the disability community fear it and detest it legitimately. Those currently in charge of the scheme see people with disability as numbers on a page, data in a system, a cost to be reduced.”
On Tuesday, a number of disability advocates and people with a disability appeared before a public hearing as part of a senate inquiry into the independent assessments plans.
People With Disabilities president Samantha Connor told the Senators the “robo-planning” is a “travesty” that should be “ceased immediately”. Ms Connor also urged the committee to further investigate the trial of incorporating blockchain payments into the NDIS, attempts to link data and how privacy is being “disregarded” in this process.
People With Disabilities WA executive director Brendan Cullinan also appeared at the hearing, saying he has “deep concerns” about the independent assessments plan, which he said would “further exacerbate the entrenched disadvantage experienced” by many people with disabilities.
The independent assessments introduce the “problematic nature of automated decision-making”, Mr Cullinan said in a submission to the inquiry. He said that the independent assessments framework points to some level of automation taking place in deciding how much funding an individual will receive.
“We can only presume that an algorithm/logic has been developed to determine how the results of an independent assessment translate into a particular budget amount,” Mr Cullinan said.
“Without clear, transparent information on how the independent assessment is being translated to a plan budget there is no assurance that this process is not based, at least in part, on automated decision-making.
“Essentially both the information a decision is based on and the process for making that decision are unable to be scrutinised. The lack of effective remedy in these circumstances make it all the more concerning.”
The Digital Transformation Agency has a whole-of-government approach to data and digital policies in its new home in PM&C, employment minister Stuart Robert says.
Despite his new role in the employment portfolio, Mr Robert has retained control of the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) and will be the “whole-of-government minister with responsibility” for the government’s data and digital agenda.
In a speech at the Australian Financial Review Government Summit, Mr Robert outlined the DTA’s new structure and mandate, and provided a series of updates on a number of government digital policies, including digital identity and myGov.
Stuart Robert says the DTA now has a whole-of-government approach
Earlier this month the DTA was moved from Services Australia to the Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet, where it was previously located, under the control of Mr Robert.
This move came with an updated mandate, Mr Robert said, with a focus on a whole-of-government approach to tech policies and digital transformation.
“We are now taking a whole-of-government and, where appropriate, a whole-of-nation approach to building scalable, secure and resilient data and digital capabilities that will not only deliver for Australia in a customer sense, but give us competitive advantage as a country and as an economy,” Mr Robert said in the speech.
This will involve the DTA working across portfolios, departments and agencies, and with state and territory governments, Mr Robert said.
“The problems we face currently as a nation – whether it is economic recovery from COVID and creating more jobs, protecting our health and the vulnerable, or defending our national interests – require that we interact across all portfolios and tiers of government,” he said.
“Government must operate as a consistent platform that brings together stakeholders, systems, processes and data to solve the challenges ahead of us. This is the only way to deliver the alignment we need, to be on the same pages with all Australians, to develop the right policies and deliver the right services.”
The DTA has also already covered many whole-of-government IT policies and strategies, including large deals with tech providers such as IBM.
The agency’s mandate now includes responsibility for whole-of-government ICT governance, strategy, policy, architecture, processes and procedures.
The DTA is currently developing a whole-of-government architecture to map out the existing capabilities of government and gaps that need to be addressed.
This strategy will take into account the age and complexity of existing government systems to get a “complete picture of what we have, what we need, what we must invest and by when”, Mr Robert said.
In the speech, the Minister also announced that three cyber hub pilots will be establish allowing large agencies such as Home Affairs and Services Australia to provide cybersecurity services for small agencies that “cannot match their breadth and depth of skills”.
“We can see a future where such hub models may be established for other types of scalable services, not just cybersecurity,” Mr Robert said.
Mr Robert flagged changes to address “long and complex” government procurement processes which only serve the “specialised industry that has been built around them”.
“Government often finds itself with investment proposals that are presented as urgent or critical, but with limited opportunity to consider the broader strategic context of those proposals,” he said.
“Such practices cost government and providers a lot of money, use precious time that can be more productively put towards implementation and artificially restrict the available providers to those that can afford the high costs and long timeframes involved.
“As a result, the government may be missing out on significant innovation from segments of the market, including Australian providers, who may find it easier and faster to engage with private sector customers, rather than go through the long procurement cycles in government.”
The Commonwealth’s federated digital identity program is now a “high priority” across government, with Mr Robert revealing that Eftpos has recently applied to have its digital identity service accredited under the scheme, the first private sector organisation to do so.
He also said that a further round of consultation on legislation underpinning the digital ID scheme will open soon.
Mr Robert also drew attention to the ongoing redevelopment of myGov, with a beta site launched several months ago.
