The Northern Territory Government has become the latest long-serving Labor administration to lose power in Australia. The Country Liberal Party has put an end to an 11 year Labor term, winning the 25 August election with an expected 14 seats from Parliament’s total of 25. Terry Mills will replace Labor’s Paul Henderson as Chief Minister and will commence a $425 million savings drive to reduce the Territory’s debt.
Savings measures include an increased use of video-conferencing in an effort to save $1 million a year in travel costs. The CLP has also promised to decentralise emergency services contact centres to improve response times.
The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) has signed a $4.2 million deal with UXC Limited for Managed Contact Centre Services over three years to 2015. It is the largest identified contract to be signed through the whole-of-government panel for Telecommunications Management.
DIAC is also advertising for a new Deputy Secretary to head its Business Services Group, which includes CIO Tony Kwan’s Technology Services Division. Kwan will answer directly to whoever is appointed to the role.
The NSW Procurement Board has sat for the first time, on 22 August 2012. Earlier this year enabling legislation passed the State’s Parliament officially dissolving the State Contracts Control Board and replacing it with the Procurement Board, which is made up of the Directors-General of the nine principal NSW Departments.
Contrary to prior AusTender listings, the Department of Education, and Employment and Workplace Relations’ (DEEWR) data centre lease with Hitachi will not expire until 21 August 2013. As Hitachi is not a member of the whole-of-government Data Centre Facilities Panel, DEEWR will have to find a new vendor to replace these services.
Indian IT vendor Wipro has been awarded its first Federal Government contract outside of the Department of Human Services (DHS). It has signed a $1.3 million deal with the Australian Bureau of Statistics for the installation, configuration and integration of products within the Oracle Identity and Access Management Suite. The contract has been signed through the Department of Human Services widely-used IT Services Panel.
Comcare has become the latest Federal agency to piggyback off of the DHS IT Services Panel.
NSW Premier, Barry O’Farrell, has issued a memorandum to Ministers and Directors-General in his Government to remind them that under the State’s ICT Strategy they are required to report to the ICT Board by December 2012 with plans to:
- Identify priority datasets for publication on data.nsw.gov.au;
- Facilitate public participation in policy development;
- Improve and expand the use of social media by the Government;
- Increase online access to government services; and
- Engage the community and industry to collaborate in service design.
The NSW Department of Finance and Services (DFS) is in the process of recruiting more staff to work in Executive Director William Murphy’s ICT Policy unit, which has been given responsibility for the roll-out of the State’s ambitious ICT Strategy. The successful candidate for the role of Principal Policy Officer, Information will answer to the newly appointed Director, Information Dawn Routledge.
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