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[post_content] => 
The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) has released a YouTube video showing how to create its new Govpass digital identity.
The video was announced in a blog by Felicity Hitchcock, a product manager at the DTA.
Govpass will replace the existing 100 point identifier used to access Federal Government services. It is still in its beta development phase and is being trialled with selected users. The DTA is working with Australia Post to integrate the system with that agency’s existing Digital iD program.
The Government intends Govpass to be universal digital ID for access all government services. It hopes to extend the system to the states and to private industry. Full scale implementation is planned for late 2018 or 2019.
The YouTube video shows how a Govpass ID can be created online using documents such as a Medicare card, passport, drivers license and other information. It is, we are told, ‘trusted and secure’, and has had ‘hundreds of hours of user testing’.
The documents are verified by the issuer. For example, a birth certificate will be verified by the department of Births, Deaths and Marriages in the issuing state.
The final step of the five-minute process is to verify a photograph of the user. Using the camera on a computer, phone or tablet, a number of photographs are taken.
These are submitted for comparison with an existing photographic identification such as a passport, which is held by the Attorney-General’s Department’s Facial Verification System – the same system that we were told just last week would be used only for antiterrorism.
"The Australian Government has more than 30 different logins for digital services,” said Assistant Minister for Digital Transformation Angus Taylor, announcing the availability of video.
“Not only does this create extra work for users, it represents unnecessary expense for agencies.”
Mr Taylor said no details from the documents, or the photograph, are retained by Govpass. They are verified and discarded.
“Face-to-face contact for government services will still be available, and an offline solution is being designed which will allow those who don’t have access to the appropriate documents to create a digital identity.”
The YouTube video can be viewed here.
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Famous sports teams and individual sportsman are increasingly referred to as ‘brands’. In a celebrity-driven world where most money comes from corporate sponsorship, this makes sense.
It also works for countries. Brand value is determined by the size of the economy, but also by such factors as the quality and volume of goods and services, the level of investment, and the functioning of society.
Marketing agency Brand Finance has released its annual ‘Nation Brands’ report on the brand value of individual countries.
Australia does well, but the report says its reputation is at risk because of a poor record and continued inaction on taxation. Australia is in 11th place overall, after the Top Ten:
- USA
- China
- Germany
- Japan
- United Kingdom
- France
- Canada
- India
- Italy
- South Korea
“Australia continues to perform consistently, maintaining an AAA nation brand strength rating with a nation brand value of US$1.5 trillion,” said Mark Crowe, Managing Director of Brand Finance Australia.
“The country performs very well across all the key pillars except one – it has a relatively poor score in regard to taxation.
“Inertia over reform to the taxation system will continue to hurt Australia’s brand image. The country risks being seen as a much less attractive location for overseas investment.
“There is also a negative perception towards tourism in Australia in terms of value for money. If not addressed, this perception can have an adverse impact on other areas of the Australian economy.”
The Trump Effect
With a value of US$21.1 trillion, the US remains the most valuable nation brand in the world, but a low 2 percent annual growth rate is putting its long term dominance at risk.
“Its stagnation can be attributed to macroeconomic challenges such as the declining participation rate caused by the mass-retirement of baby boomers, ultimately contributing to a slow pace of GDP growth compared to previous expansions,” says the report,
“Nor are perceptions of Donald Trump’s presidency helping Brand America. Trump’s administration is seen as increasingly unpredictable, and America’s image in the world is waning.
“Sabre rattling in the Middle East and Asia, closing borders to migrants and refugees, and breaching global commitments in relation to climate change, have all seriously undermined US global leadership. Recovering that influence in the future may be close to impossible.”
The growth of Asia
According to the study, China is the fastest-growing nation brand of 2017 in absolute terms, with a change of over US$3.1 trillion year on year. This figure is equal to the entire nation brand value of the United Kingdom, which illustrates just by how much China is outpacing other countries.
In relative terms, China’s nation brand value grew 44 percent year on year, or at a 20 times faster pace than the US. But at US$10.2 trillion, China’s nation brand value is still only half that of America’s, and sustaining growth will be key to narrow the gap, says the report.
“The dynamic between American and Chinese nation brands is mirrored by the broader trends of Western stagnation and Asian advance. Established European nation brands, such as Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, Austria, record either a decline or a negligible growth of value. At the same time, Asian nation brands grow at breakneck speed.”
Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand and South Korea have all added between 37 to 43 percent to their nation brand value last year. Singapore has the strongest Brand Strength Index of 92.9, the only country to score over 90.
The report is available here.
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Alan IvoryWith more and more government departments looking at ways they can digitally transform their practices, many are looking at software as a service (SaaS) providers as a core part of that strategy. Previously only consistent in their disparate approaches, a clear set of procurement practices are now emerging to ensure the successful integration of SaaS and maximise ROI.
Working with the biggest brands in the world, I have spent thousands of hours with both government and enterprise procurement teams. Over the last year, this has involved facing over 20 different procurement departments in Asia Pacific and globally across the finance, technology, telecommunications, retail, government and travel sectors. Based on that experience, below are my top tips for a smooth procurement process.
- Implementation first
SaaS procurement has changed the very nature of procurement teams and their core skillsets. Today’s best teams are no longer just looking at contract value or the software as a platform – they are looking at how the software will be adopted more widely by the organisation or department. This is so relevant in government where teams are often large and diversely skilled, getting the whole team on board early is essential. The success of a project depends upon the integrity of the implementation, hence executing this phase flawlessly can prevent issues from creeping up further down the line.
- End to end ownership
SaaS will inevitably impact multiple teams and departments. Staying involved and engaged throughout all the stakeholder reviews is the only way procurement can meaningfully understand the requirements unique to each unit. Where we used to see procurement collecting opinions, this deeper level of understanding provides a more balanced overview of the suppliers competing for the contract, so you are comparing apples with apples. For our business, this generally starts with the event team, then moves through marketing, finance and IT.
- The skill set
The single truth of a SaaS is it should improve your efficiency, ideally reducing the number of vendors you use. This, in turn, reduces risk, contracts, manual processes and overheads. To drive a more efficient procurement timeline, with stakeholder engagement still high at the critical onboarding phase, government organisations need to invest in personnel with a unique skillset. They will need to repeatedly bring multiple stakeholders across numerous teams together and extract the complex ways SaaS will impact, improve or challenge them.
It’s a common mistake to have a ‘techy’ run this process. While they may understand the technical implications, we frequently see the engagement efforts derail due to the lack of experience in meeting facilitation.
- Operationally centric
Procurement based on contract terms and price is setting itself up for failure. Conversely, striving for operational excellence hallmarks the most successful outcomes. We are seeing the best procurement teams asking to complete pilots. Most SaaS providers will have a testing platform alongside their production platform.
- Don’t just test the software, test the integrations too
Integrations are a critical part of the SaaS procurement process. Look at how the software works within your own software climate - often something difficult to change within government. Determine the short term and long term goals and ask how the platform can fit into that. How will the data flow? What are the advantages and the costs to deploy?
Leaders in this field are testing the integrations in pilot phases, ensuring they work with existing software, CRM, MA, financials, membership software, etc. Integration teams from the vendor and client agree on the integration piece and test with dummy data for a full end to end review.
It’s also important to ask: what is the ROI of those integrations and what are the cost savings? Cost of implementation is no longer the primary focus, as organisations instead look to cost reductions of replacing manual processes and headcount reductions. The value inherent in provision of real-time analytics and big data enable further cost savings or revenue generation.
- Work in partnership
If you want the SaaS vendor to provide a project team to assist in the deployment, meet the team – not just the sales team. Make sure the team is local, has the resources, and will be dedicated to your organisation during the process. Ask who is running the project. If utilising the vendor’s professional services team, make sure there is an alignment between procurement so the expectations are unambiguous.
- Contract transparency
Make sure all of your internal stakeholders understand the contract. Previously a tightly-held document, we are seeing an evolution into contract transparency from the top tier procurement teams. The best implementations occur when significant time is invested in multi-team consultation and onboarding after the contract is signed, with positive uptake and a sense of ownership driving optimal engagement. Conversely, where stakeholders are given no sense of ownership or empowerment we are seeing poor adoption rates, departmental stand-offs and resentment from lack of buy-in.
- Own the onboarding
Most successful procurement teams have KPI linked to the successful outcome of the project implementation, not the contract value. There has never been better reason for procurement to have a part of the onboarding process, involving multi-team training of all stakeholders and any third-party agencies that may have interactions with the SaaS. If this process is not driven powerfully internally, then the project will stall here, no matter how motivated the vendor is. Disenfranchised stakeholders, under-skilled users, and lack of internal project management will quickly derail any SaaS uptake into your business.
- RFP
Surprisingly, software RFP have not evolved well with the digital era. Often they are a technically focused generic checklist of features, as opposed to focusing on organisational objectives. Make sure your RFP is up to date, has had input from the various departments and stakeholders, and is aligned with the its overall needs. Here are some of the more important, but often omitted, questions from RFP:
Many organisations have multiple procurement teams. Australian banks and some government departments, for example, often have a security procurement team who review the security aspects of the platform and contract. Procurement teams must be aware of the compliance regulations, specifically when it comes to sensitive information. Being an informed consumer is key to success here; things to consider when developing your checklist are:
- Where is the data stored?
- What level of data security standards have you reached?
- What level of encryption do you hold your data to?
- Support
How will the platform be supported? How will the team be supported? Where is the support service located? Is this inclusive to the contract value or at an additional cost? Support can be very difficult to measure, so it is an extremely variable cost unless it is inclusive.
The beauty of a SaaS is that you are not bound by the location of a team of people – until you want specialised support or a professional services team to implement your projects for you. If there is any possibility this will be the case with your organisation, then it is important you know where the team will be located, how responsive they can be, and if they have the resources to dedicate time to you during the implementation process.
Not surprisingly, it is the big consultancies, insurance companies, banks, technology companies and leading associations that are doing these things best. However, with accessible technology there is plenty of opportunity for government agencies and organisations to join the best-practice leaders for SaaS procurement. In a world of increasing scrutiny around data security and compliance, efficiency, and the importance of emotional intelligence, there is exciting scope for procurement professionals to step into this void and powerfully impact the return on investment which a well planned and executed SaaS procurement affords.
Alan Ivory is the vice president- global professional services for event management SaaS provider etouches.
[post_title] => SaaS procurement in government
[post_excerpt] => The procurement practices that lead to successful integration.
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City of Darebin council in the northern suburbs of Melbourne is implementing business process management software to enhance the council’s focus on improved frontline customer service.
The City of Darebin has a population of more than 150,000. The council’s full-time employees are responsible for providing a broad range of services to the community, including street lighting and signage, waste collection, maintenance of parks and sporting facilities.
The move follows a comprehensive review by the council of customer service team processes as part of a customer service model review to ensure that policies and procedures relevant to customer queries are close at hand. At the same time, the council wants to provide an easy and fast way for staff to access a central repository of everyday processes.
The cloud-based software will enable the organisation to map, review and improve processes on an ongoing basis, providing a faster, smarter way to deliver a range of appropriate and well-planned services.
Coordinator of council planning and performance, civic governance and performance Jim Barrett at the City of Darebin said: “The software will assist in supporting the council’s strategic framework for planning and document integration. At the same time, it will play a pivotal role in enabling us to maintain a high level of governance across the entire organisation.
“These processes involve many forms and include applications such as planning permits and waste bin replacements, which individually can be complex procedures and involve several departments within the council.”
It will also enable the council to measure and demonstrate process efficiencies following rate capping.
“We came across the Promapp system through our council colleagues in the local government sector and also appreciated the benefit of access to its local government shared process library that will enable us to share knowledge and learn from the experience of other councils throughout Australia and New Zealand,” said Mr Barrett.
The cloud-based process library includes over 2,500 processes developed and shared by councils and includes processes for activities such as building consents, resource consents, wastewater management, environmental health and environmental monitoring.
“The software will easily integrate with our existing intranet and we'll be able to embed it ad hoc within specific processes for different policies as they are developed in the years ahead,” said Mr Barrett.
“The council plans to use lean management methodologies as part of our deployment to analyse and improve processes on an ongoing basis. The result for council residents is that they will see consistency in messaging with faster, more accurate service,” said Mr Barrett.
[post_title] => City of Darebin to boost customer service
[post_excerpt] => City of Darebin is implementing business process management to enhance its focus on customer service.
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[post_date] => 2017-08-21 14:53:05
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[post_content] => 
Whilst a number of licences are already available in electronic (digital) versions in NSW, the drivers’ licence is set to become digital in 2019.
Digital drivers’ licence trial to begin in November
The NSW Government is preparing to launch testing of the digital drivers’ licence technology in Dubbo in November.
Dubbo residents who participate in the trial will be able to use their digital driver licence, accessible on a mobile phone, for proof of identity and proof of age to gain entry into pubs and clubs as well for roadside Police checks.
NSW Minister for Finance, Services and Property Victor Dominello said: “This trial is the first of its kind in Australia and will allow Dubbo motorists to use their digital driver licence in everyday scenarios with Police and selected licenced establishments.
“The trial will draw on the learnings from the successful roll-out of digital RSA/RCG, boat and fishing licences over the past two years. Today we are a step closer to fulfilling an election commitment of delivering a digital driver licence by 2019.”
Minister for Roads, Maritime and Freight Melinda Pavey said: “A person’s driver licence is an important proof of identity document. This trial is an opportunity to demonstrate the additional levels of identity security and increased protection against identity fraud that a digital licence provides compared to a physical one,” Mrs Pavey said.
The digital licence requires motorists to install the trial app, register a MyServiceNSW account, and add their NSW driver licence details.
Other licences now available in digital form
The recent launch of the digital licence platform means residents can now access three NSW government licences and permits digitally using their mobile phone or tablet. The first licences to become available were:
- Recreational Fishing Fee.
- Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) Competency Card.
- Responsible Conduct of Gambling (RCG) Competency Card.
Digital licences are currently available on an opt-in basis, users still receive a physical licence or permit. When asked to display the licence or permit, they have the choice to provide either the physical card or digital licence.
[post_title] => D-licence to become an e-licence
[post_excerpt] => The NSW drivers’ licence is set to become electronic in 2019, joining three others already available in digital form.
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[post_content] => [caption id="attachment_27755" align="alignnone" width="287"]
Cr Jennifer Alden, Craig Lloyd and Cr Andrea Metcalf (L-R).[/caption]
Recent audits of local waste and recycling bins have shown that Greater Bendigo residents are still sending significant amounts of recyclables straight to landfill by placing many items that could be recycled into their waste bins.
In an effort to improve recycling rates, the City of Greater Bendigo has launched a new community education Sort it out before you throw it out! advertising campaign. The campaign will provide useful information about the items that residents are currently not recycling to make them aware that they can. It will utilise television, radio, print, social media and signage to encourage residents to think about and improve the way they sort their waste, organics and recycling.
City of Greater Bendigo Presentation and Assets director Craig Lloyd said the City’s recent waste bin audits showed that 40% of the contents of local waste bins should have been placed in the recycling bin while 22 per cent could have gone in the organics bin.
“The audit is backed up by State Government figures that place Greater Bendigo in the bottom 50 per cent of Victoria’s 79 local government areas for waste resource recovery,” said Mr Lloyd.
“Unfortunately, many Greater Bendigo residents are still placing recyclables such as paper and cardboard, glass bottles and jars, cans, plastics and organic garden and food waste in their red lid waste bin.
“Objects that can be recycled are a valuable resource and the cost of sending waste to landfill will continue to rise so the more we recycle and the less we send to landfill the better.
“Greater Bendigo wants to become one of, if not the best, local government area for resource recovery in the future.
“Many people may be surprised to learn that Greater Bendigo residents are not very good at recycling and we want to see this change for the better in the near future.”
Results from the audit:-
- The average residential red lid waste bin contains 40% recyclable items, 22% organics and 38% actual waste.
- The recyclable materials found in the red lid waste bin were mostly paper and cardboard, glass, plastic and metals.
- The organic materials found in the red lid waste bin were mostly grass clippings and leaves, general food waste and food in packaging.
- The average residential recycling bin contains 9% contamination. This is comprised of 5.3% general waste and 3.7% of materials such as clothing, crockery and scrap metal that cannot be processed through the kerbside recycling collection.
- The average organics bin contains 2% contamination. This is comprised of 1% general waste and 1% recyclables such as glass, plastics and metals.
[post_title] => Recycling audit hopes to educate
[post_excerpt] => City of Greater Bendigo has launched a community recycling education campaign.
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[post_content] => 
The Federal Government has declared the half-way point in the roll-out of the National Broadband Network.
Minister for Communications Senator Hon Mitch Fifield said at a press conference: “The NBN is now available to half of Australia. That’s ahead of schedule and ahead of budget. The NBN is now available to 5.7 million premises nationwide. 2.4 million premises have taken up that opportunity already. By the middle of next year NBN will be three quarters complete and will be done and dusted by 2020.”
There are, however, some questions remaining: why have only half of the eligible households connected to the NBN; what is the data and service quality; and indeed, why has NBN Co. spent $177m on copper wires to the end of the financial year – would it not have been better to replace the old technology with fibre, rather than repairing the old copper?
“Fibre to the node is a good product,” Minister Fifield retorted. “And an overwhelming majority of people on fibre to the node have a good experience. People on HFC have a good experience. People with fixed wireless have a good experience. People with satellite overwhelmingly having a good experience. This is a major project. There will obviously be a percentage of experiences in the rollout which aren’t perfect. But NBN is working day-by-day to improve that experience.”
Customers say otherwise
Connection rates are remaining slow and many customers are holding back in their allowed 18 months of connection time, unsure of the dependability of the NBN service.
A recent Choice survey reported that 76% of Australians on the NBN said they had a problem, mentioning slow speeds or disconnections/drop outs.
And if you have an NBN connection and would like to join the Choice project to monitor service provider broadband speeds, you can sign up to be part of the project, with CHOICE and Enex selecting participants based on postcode to ensure national coverage: www.choice.com.au/broadband.
Many existing users are reporting data drop-outs and extended waiting times for repairs and service, with one customer the Sydney Morning Herald talked to finding himself in “bureaucratic limbo” for four months between his service provider, the Telecommunications Ombudsman, ACCC and NBN, on a fault that took just 48 hours to fix once the newspaper got involved.
The NBN’s SkyMuster satellite service is equally – or even more – in the doldrums, and this writer can attest to the service going AWOL many times a day for no apparent reason and large file transfers (read 2MB or more) are cup-of-tea affairs. (I.e., once you press the button you have time to go and make a cup of tea – and drink it! – by the time it is downloaded.) Streaming movies, or even audio, are a subject for dreams.
While the Minister was not admitting it, NBN CEO Bill Morrow told Senate Estimates in June that the organisation is looking into improving the satellite service following widespread complaints about congestion and slow speeds.
Mr Morrow said several options are under consideration to improve the Sky Muster satellite service, including launching a third satellite, buying space on a third-party satellite, building more towers, or improving the connectivity technology on the two current satellites.
"[A third satellite] is one of the options that we are looking at to satisfy Minister Fifield and Minister Nash's requests," Mr Morrow said in June.
"We will look at enhancing the existing technology with the two satellites that are up there today; we will look at a third satellite to see if that's feasible; we will look at other satellites that are third party that will be up in the sky that maybe we can leverage those satellites to get more capacity; we will look at getting some other towers to relieve the congestion of the satellite beams that are coming down.”
Renters can forget it
Whilst officially half of all Australian properties can access the NBN, this figure is reduced to a fraction when it comes to rental properties.
Rent.com.au has told ZDNet that only around one third of all its rental properties have access to the broadband network.
As of the end of June, NBN services were available at just 31 per cent of Rent's rental premises in the Australian Capital Territory; 32 per cent in Victoria; 35 per cent in Queensland and Western Australia; 36 per cent in New South Wales; and 37 per cent in South Australia.
Only Tasmania and the Northern Territory – two of the earliest NBN rollout areas – at 80 per cent and 92 per cent, respectively, are above the one-third mark.
[post_title] => NBN ‘all good’ – if you’re the minister
[post_excerpt] => The NBN has declared the half-way point in the roll-out of the network.
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The Board of Australia Post has selected Christine Holgate as the corporation's next managing director and group CEO, to succeed Ahmed Fahour, who is leaving in July after seven-and-a-half years in the role, following the outcry over his multi-million dollar salary package.
Ms Holgate will officially start in the position mid-to-late October 2017. She joins Australia Post after a successful nine-year tenure as CEO of Blackmores and previous executive roles with Telstra, JP Morgan and Cable & Wireless.
Ms Holgate, who is the inaugural Chair of the Board of the Australia-ASEAN Council, supporting the development of trade and cultural relations between Australia and the 10 member countries of the ASEAN region, joined Blackmores in 2008 and took the company some wild and turbulent years, including an aggressive expansion into China.
Australia Post chairman John Stanhope said Ms Holgate’s Asian and eCommerce experience were important factors.
"The Board was impressed by her experience of working very successfully in a range of different industries that are highly regulated. And, on top of that, she has a proven ability to implement strategy – and successfully grow a business in Asia.
"Her knowledge of global eCommerce will be invaluable as we pursue our Asian Strategy, which is all about offering logistics support to Australian businesses that are either selling in Asia, or sourcing their products there.
"Ms Holgate has a demonstrated track-record of delivering results in large, complex organisations, both here in Australia and internationally.
" Ms Holgate's business philosophy is also a perfect fit for Australia Post. She is a firm believer that businesses must perform commercially, but also serve the community. And that's entirely consistent with our objectives as a community-based business that has both commercial objectives and community service standards to uphold."
Ms Holgate said: "Australia Post has proven itself to be one of the most resilient and successful postal businesses anywhere in the world. I feel fortunate to be joining at a time when we can really strengthen Post's leading position in the eCommerce market – both here, in Australia, and in Asia.
"I'm a passionate advocate for Australian business seizing the opportunity that's on our doorstep in Asia and that creates opportunities for everyone – our workforce, our shareholder, the community, as well as businesses across Australia.
What about the pay?
Ms Holgate's remuneration has been set at $1.375 million fixed annual total remuneration and the potential to earn incentive payments of up to $1.375 million, in accordance with the parameters set by the Commonwealth Remuneration Tribunal.
In the meantime, current Australia Post Group chief customer officer Christine Corbett will lead the business through the CEO transition period, between Ahmed Fahour's departure on 28 July and Ms Holgate's arrival in October.
[post_title] => Blackmores CEO to head up Australia Post
[post_excerpt] => Blackmores' Christine Holgate has been named Australia Post's new MD and Group CEO.
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[post_date] => 2017-06-05 18:41:50
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[post_content] => 
Is the federal government two Tim Tams short of a packet?
The federal government is backing a principles-based approach for product packaging in response to industry calls to review measurement labelling laws.
The government was responding to calls to address industry requests to cut red tape with options to change measurement marking placement rules.
At present, a products exact weight and/or volume must appear on the front of the packet under the national trade measurements regulations (NTMR) 2009 Part 4.
If the industry proposal is successful, weight and volume markings could be moved from the front of packaging making it difficult for consumers to compare products and value for money.
The current proposal to review the NTMR outlines three possible options: leave regulations as they are; clarify the regulations; implement a principles-based approach.
The government is in favour of the third option, which, if implemented will see the removal of regulations controlling size, orientation, and position of the measurement mark.
Read more here.
This story first appeared in C&I Week.
[post_title] => Industry vs consumer in labelling laws review
[post_excerpt] => Removing weight and volume markings from packaging.
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[caption id="attachment_26690" align="alignnone" width="377"]
Hemp oil and seeds. Hemp seeds from low-THC Cannabis Sativa do not have an intoxicating effect when eaten as food.[/caption]
By Ben Hagemann
Although it wouldn’t be considered revolutionary anywhere else in the world, the legalisation of hemp seed as a food here in Australia could be a major game changer.
Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) has recently announced that it will permit the sale of low-THC hemp seed products, such as flours and oils, for human consumption.
The regulatory body has already prepared and assessed a proposal to develop new regulation that will allow the sale of products derived from low delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol varieties of Cannabis Sativa.
It is expected that a decision will go before the Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation on April 28 this year, which is also when the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting will be held.
Read more here.
This story first appeared in C&I Week.
[post_title] => Hemp seeds to be approved as food in Australia
[post_excerpt] => FSANZ will permit sale of low-THC hemp seed products.
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[post_date] => 2017-01-13 12:37:04
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[post_content] => 
By Emily Bencic
More than 20,000 shoppers complained to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) about consumer guarantees in 2016, with more than a quarter reporting problems returning electronics and whitegoods to retailers.
As the Christmas period ends and Boxing Day sales wind down, the ACCC is reminding shoppers they have automatic guarantee rights that a product will work for a reasonable period of time under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).
Read more here.
This story first appeared in Appliance Retailer.
[post_title] => ACCC receives over 20,000 complaints
[post_excerpt] => As consumers rush to return products.
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[post_date] => 2016-12-20 16:43:33
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[post_content] => 
One year on and Human Services clients are still tearing their hair out in frustration over the Department’s dysfunctional, bug-ridden mobile apps.
According to user reviews, the three main apps -- Express Plus Centrelink, Express Plus Medicare and Express Plus Child Support -- are still giving users headaches and holding up benefit payments and Medicare claims.
Government News covered this sorry state of affairs in March last year and it appears few improvements have been made over the last 12 months. The same problems continue to occur and many customers remain disenchanted.
Apps designed to save time for customers and DHS staff end up driving people to despair and into their nearest DHS office or phone queue, twice as frustrated as before.
Express Plus Centrelink
The Centrelink app was probably the most complained about of the three apps, with many reviewers hitting their caps lock and exclamation marks to vent their spleen. It is also probably the most heavily used, by students, job seekers, seniors and families to update family income estimates, report wages and update study details.
The most frequently mentioned gripes - using only current reviews from February to April 2016 - were:
- Log-in problems
- Long loading times
- Difficulties reporting earnings or hours or updating personal details
- Bugs in the registration screen, where users could not see the whole password they entered (Tip: if your password is longer than 8 characters keep typing then hit submit)
- Frequent crashing
- Poor layout
- No notices about maintenance or outages
Customers had some choice words for the Department and its apps and many people were upset that they could not use the app to report their earnings or their hours.
One Centrelink customer said: “It’s constantly down. Hopeless app. Hopeless system that keeps referring us to use the broken app. How is it that a department that so many people have to report to keeps getting it wrong?”
Another said: “Tells me to report. Tells me I have not reported. The list goes on.”
One enterprising wag suggested drug-addled rodents would do a better job: “Warning to anyone who plans to download this app: don’t, it will not let you report. A hamster on speed could report for you better. FFS!”
“Had to spend an hour on the phone just to report my earnings because this app wouldn’t let me. Should have had this running properly before shutting down the job seeker’s app, which worked perfectly fine!!! Doesn’t even deserve one star!!! NOT HAPPY,” said another unsatisfied customer.
Some people complained that they were not allowed to report their income until after the reporting date, at which time the app informed them they were too late: “Constantly down, won’t let me report yet tells me daily I’m overdue for reporting.”
More seriously, some people said they had missed their benefit payments because of glitches in the app.
“Says report has been submitted but not processed and I haven’t been paid. Will have to spend hours on the phone. Grr,” one frustrated person said.
Another had also missed out on payments: “Not sure Centrelink are getting my updates for the past month. I updated my study twice. Now I’ve missed out two fortnights of payments so I’ll be expecting back pay. Says my claim is incomplete so I click on it and it won’t do anything. I’m going to have to go into office and get it sorted.”
One Express Plus Centrelink user said: “If DHS employees had these many hoops and roundabouts to get paid there’d be a senate inquiry. Alan Tudge sir, you suck!”
There were a few words of cold comfort for Human Services, “Yeah, not bad. Considering that this is a government app it appears to work ok.”
“App has improved recently and is really helpful” and “very well laid out application. Easy to report my income using the timesheet option.”
Express Plus Medicare
The Express Plus Medicare app, which can be used to claim Medicare benefits and view information such as immunisation records and your Medicare Safety Net balance, came in for a bit of a serve too.
Claimants reported difficulty installing and opening the app, constant crashing and over-compressing images of photographed documents so that claims could not be read or processed.
Comments included:
“Can’t even take clear photo of invoice through app (photo is pixelated). What is the point if we can’t take a clear picture? This app is really terrible. Please get your act together and stop wasting the taxpayers’ money and produce an app that functions as it should. The government wants us to use these news tools to innovate but can’t even write a simple app!”
“Stupid app is stupid. When are claimants going to be able to claim Medicare rebates easily?”
One Medicare user said it took him four attempts to claim resulting in him receiving a Medicare letter by post demanding more information: “this app is so buggy it makes going to a Medicare office the quick and easy option.”
“Even giving it one star is favouring it. The most useless app ever.”
“The level of suckyness (sic) of this app is unending.”
“Your stupid app only crashes and your staff insist I use it and won’t help me in person.”
“What a convoluted process to try and make a claim. Linking accounts, have a My Gov account, need a user names, password, secret questions, PIN! Need to go to the My Gov website, will not accept personal details! Dozens of prompts in help section! You cannot be serious about citizens using this app!”
Express Child Support
There were similar but fewer rotten tomato reviews for the Department’s child support app, with users complaining about loading problems, log-in difficulties, limited functionality and not being able to load documents.
One said: “Worst app of all time … doesn’t ever load. Need to check apps before u (sic) make them available.”
“This app has never opened since I installed it. It keeps saying “unfortunately child support has stopped working. EVERY SINGLE TIME I OPEN IT!!” This app won’t log in at all.”
“So far it’s still downloading and has been for five and a half hours.”
An app developer's view
App developer Danny Gorog from Outware took a look at the Express Plus apps and gave Government News his verdict, one year on from his last comments.
Mr Gorog, who is currently designing apps for Transport NSW, said he could see little improvement since he last reviewed the apps for Government News in March 2015.
He said the user interface (UI) remained very complicated.
“It’s a non-native app … it feels very clunky and it feels like a situation that no-one is really taking seriously,” Mr Gorog said.
“I’m sure they’ve spent a lot of money on it but it feels like it has been built as a cross-platform app, using the same code for Android and Apple.”
He was also heavily critical of the lack of accessibility for people with disabilities, such as vision impairment.
“Apple and Google have very strict accessibility guidelines so people with disabilities won’t find it hard to use. The accessibility and the UI should be thought through.
“I had a look at it and I’m disappointed,” he said. “It needs to conform to iOS and Android guidelines of how apps should look and work on the platform and this doesn’t conform to any of them. I would be building native code.”
Mr Gorog said those responsible for developing the app needed to trawl through customer complaints and start fixing things.
“The truth is that it’s often hard for government. They’ve got a budget for app development for the year. The number is normally too low and the government wants cheaper solutions.
“[they might say] “we are over budget and you can’t spend any more.”
Response from Human Services General Manager Hank Jongen (in full)
Government News sought comment from Human Services regarding the user experience and performance of the department's apps. Human Services General Manager Hank Jongen said:
"The multiple award winning Express Plus mobile apps continue to be a highly popular way for our customers to self-manage their routine business with the department, with the number of downloads approaching 7 million as of February 2016.
"As technology evolves, we continue to make enhancements to our mobile apps to ensure they remain world class and continue to provide superior digital access to services for our customers.
"We’ve added new functionality like booking appointments and Income Management to enable our customers to use mobile apps for more services. Further improvements are planned for next financial year and will be communicated to customers when they become live.
"Our apps have proven to be hugely popular with our customers and demand continues to grow with more than two million new app downloads and more than 54 million transactions made using the apps in the 2015-16 financial year to date. At any one time we have an average of 80,000 concurrent connections through our gateway.
"All customer complaints and feedback made through our feedback channels are responded to in accordance with the DHS complaints and feedback policy. While we do monitor customer feedback on iTunes and Google Play, we do not respond to comments, leave reviews or post information in the reviews section.
"We work as one digital team across the Department and in close collaboration with the Digital Transformation Office. This approach ensures all digital products are developed in multi-disciplinary teams that include insights from technologists, specialist, and frontline staff and often directly from our customers as well. This ensures an end-to-end solution approach and greater uptake."
[post_title] => Best of 2016: This app is STILL crap: Centrelink and Medicare clients
[post_excerpt] => One year on: "The most useless app ever".
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In the wake of Australia Post's new two-speed letter deliveries, announced earlier this month, we revisit what went wrong.
All is not well with Australia Post. It is losing money with the death of the stamped letter. It is making money from parcels, but the numbers don’t add up.
Australia Post recently announced a full-year loss of $222 million in 2014-15. It is the first time the organisation has been in the red since it was corporatised in 1989.
The reason is clear. Hardly anybody sends letters any more. Personal mail hardly exists in the Internet era, except for Christmas cards, and even they are in serious decline. Business mail has been the mainstay of the postal system in recent years, but is also declining quickly with the move to online invoicing and statements.
The decline has been obvious for years, but it has been accelerating, not declining. Last year alone addressed letter volumes fell by 7.3 per cent, with ordinary stamped letters falling by 10.3 per cent, off bases that had already declined sharply. Australians now send a billion fewer letters a year than they did in 2008, when mail was already in serious decline.
Australia Post would have got out of this loss-making business years ago if it weren’t for its Community Service Obligation (CSO), a statutory requirement to deliver mail and keep post offices open. For many years the big money has been in its parcel division, now separately branded as StarTrack (Australia Post bought out Qantas’s half share in 2012).
The parcels business is booming, in large part because of Australia’s love affair with Internet shopping, which is growing as quickly as ordinary mail is declining. Products can be ordered on the Internet, but someone still has to deliver the things, and Australia Post is doing well in a very competitive market against the likes of FedEx, UPS and Toll (recently acquired by Japan Post).
Australia Post is led by Ahmed Fahour, Australia’s highest paid public servant. He was brought in to restructure the organosation, but he is having to balance this against the Community Service Obligation. No Australian government wants to be seen to be cutting postal services. It is a continuing battle, one which will eventually have to confront commercial reality.
The numbers are stark. Australia Post’s loss of $222 million last year was an enormous turnaround from its $116 million profit the previous year. Revenue was constant at $6.37 billion, with the parcel business comprising more than half for the first time, up 3.6 per cent to $3.21 billion.
Last month Australia Post asked the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to allow it to increase the price of a stamp by more than 40 per cent, from 70 cents to $1, to “better reflect the cost of the regulated letters service.” The government supports the application, which also. includes keeping the concession stamp price at 60 cents for 5.7 million concession cardholders, and the price of Christmas cards at 65 cents.
Concession and season greeting (Christmas) mail comprise nearly half of all mail sent by consumers. The great majority (97 per cent) of regular mail now comes from business and government, with very few personal letters.
Last week the Senate approved the reforms, which also include reducing the number of post boxes nationally from over 15,000 to the 10,000 specified by the CSO, and cutting 1900 jobs (from 32,000 current full-time and part-time employees). Regular post will still be delivered every day, but it will be slowed down by up to two days to allow for savings on air freight.
It is not certain the changes will be enough to cut the losses. Mr Fahour’s enormous $4.6 million salary will remain, though there may be some cuts to the 400 Australia post managers who earn more than $195,000 a year (a figure from last year’s annual report). Mr Fahour has, unsurprisingly, defended his salary as consistent with that paid to his private sector counterparts. He was formerly CEO of National Australia Bank.
“We continue to make headway with reforming our letters business and we are investing in the infrastructure and digital capabilities – vital to servicing the changing needs of our customers,” said Mr Fahour last week. “We are confident we have the resources, infrastructure and support in place to manage the ongoing transition of our letters business as we become a more e-commerce-centric organisation.”
Last month Mr Fahour announced the establishment of an industry working group to consider regulatory reform of the letters business and “other strategic issues facing the postal sector.” It follows a Senate Inquiry into the Licensed Post Office network, which recommended the establishment of the group.
It will be chaired by former Victorian Liberal Senator Helen Kroger, and will include representatives from the printing industry, mail houses, post office licensees and unions (the Communications Workers Union is the main union covering Australia Post workers). Ms Kroger, married to Victorian Liberal Party powerbroker Michael Kroger, lost her Senate seat at the last federal election to Australian Motoring Enthusiasts Party senator Ricky Muir.
The Communications Workers Union recognises the need for change, but says reforms should be done “sensibly” and without forced job losses.
“It is abundantly clear that the letter side of the business cannot be profitable in its current form,” said CWU National Secretary Greg Rayner after the losses were announced. “The very encouraging part is the parcel side of the business, which is a huge growth area and will see substantial jobs growth in coming years.
“The digital disruption to letter volumes we are seeing now is nothing new to Australia Post. The company, its hardworking loyal staff and the CWU have adapted before and will adapt again.
“This union was working with Australia Post when it was horses and carts. Our members have transformed it from a network of telegraph wires to one of fibre optics and modern precision logistics.
“We are committed to partnering with Australia Post to transform the business again because that’s the only way to guarantee secure, quality jobs for our members and a reliable, useful service for all Australia.”
Mr Rayner said with the right approach, these results and the reform they demand lay a path to more jobs, better conditions and greater job security for postal workers.
“We have been at the table with Australia Post at the highest level for months now preparing a long term response to reform. In the coming weeks we hope to unveil an Accord to support our members and all Australia Post employees through reform and help guide Australia Post into the future,” Mr Rayner said.
Good luck to him, to Mr Fahour, and to the government. It is something of a race against time, and one that Australia Post has been losing thus far. The postal business continues to decline faster than the parcels business is growing – if losses continue expect Mr Fahour to depart (with his millions) and his successor to initiate a new round of restructuring.
This story first appeared in Government News magazine in October/November 2015.
In January 2016, Australia Post announced it would create a two-speed letter delivery system. Priority letters would cost $1.50 and arrive within one to four business days (depending on the destination), while Regular mail - which increased from 70 cents to $1 - could now arrive up to two business days afterwards, potentially taking more than one week to reach the recipient’s letterbox.
[post_title] => Best of 2016: Where to now for Australia Post?
[post_excerpt] => Going postal: what went wrong.
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By Anthony Wallace
Directors and managers from space agencies around the world met in Brisbane last week for the annual Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) plenary, culminating in the launch of the Australian Earth Observation Community Plan.
The CEOS plenary occurs annually and enables short and long term planning of how billions of dollars of funding are directed to designing and operating satellite imaging systems used for remote sensing. As part of the CEOS Plenary, the Australian Earth Observation Community Coordinating Group (AEOCCG) has released the new Earth Observation Community Plan as a roadmap for the next ten years leading up to 2026.
Read more here.
This story first appeared in Spatial Source.
[post_title] => Launching Australia’s new earth observation community plan
[post_excerpt] => The future for satellites.
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The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) has released a YouTube video showing how to create its new Govpass digital identity.
The video was announced in a blog by Felicity Hitchcock, a product manager at the DTA.
Govpass will replace the existing 100 point identifier used to access Federal Government services. It is still in its beta development phase and is being trialled with selected users. The DTA is working with Australia Post to integrate the system with that agency’s existing Digital iD program.
The Government intends Govpass to be universal digital ID for access all government services. It hopes to extend the system to the states and to private industry. Full scale implementation is planned for late 2018 or 2019.
The YouTube video shows how a Govpass ID can be created online using documents such as a Medicare card, passport, drivers license and other information. It is, we are told, ‘trusted and secure’, and has had ‘hundreds of hours of user testing’.
The documents are verified by the issuer. For example, a birth certificate will be verified by the department of Births, Deaths and Marriages in the issuing state.
The final step of the five-minute process is to verify a photograph of the user. Using the camera on a computer, phone or tablet, a number of photographs are taken.
These are submitted for comparison with an existing photographic identification such as a passport, which is held by the Attorney-General’s Department’s Facial Verification System – the same system that we were told just last week would be used only for antiterrorism.
"The Australian Government has more than 30 different logins for digital services,” said Assistant Minister for Digital Transformation Angus Taylor, announcing the availability of video.
“Not only does this create extra work for users, it represents unnecessary expense for agencies.”
Mr Taylor said no details from the documents, or the photograph, are retained by Govpass. They are verified and discarded.
“Face-to-face contact for government services will still be available, and an offline solution is being designed which will allow those who don’t have access to the appropriate documents to create a digital identity.”
The YouTube video can be viewed here.
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The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) has released a YouTube video showing how to create its new Govpass digital identity. The video was announced in a blog by Felicity Hitchcock, a product manager at the DTA. Govpass will replace the existing 100 point identifier used to access Federal Government services. It is still in its beta […]
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