Federal agencies miss mandatory infosec deadline: ANAO

Compliance struggles for ATO, Human Services, Customs and Foreign Affairs

24 June, 2014

ATO backs away from redundancy entitlements clawback ahead of tech update

The CPSU claims a win over conditions rollback; senior Tax officials to give industry update to practitioners and software developers.

16 June, 2014

Online government seeks retail therapy to sell one-stop-shop and shed jobs

Digital services from agencies like Medicare and Tax return to bricks-and-mortar.

12 June, 2014

ATO hit by dispute over redundancy entitlements as it tries to slash 3,000 staff

Revenue agency put on notice over one month consultation period.

2 June, 2014

Tax set to fire 3,000 staff as Abbott’s ‘natural attrition’ promise for APS falls

Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey has given the green light to mass redundancies in government agencies to prosecute public service spending cuts in the forthcoming Budget.

9 May, 2014

Welfare and Tax primed by Hockey for core systems overhauls

Decades of sweating systems infrastructure has come back to haunt policymakers after the Treasurer cautioned replacements will cost ‘billions’.

29 April, 2014

City of Melbourne gets lean and keen

By Kate Jackson The City of Melbourne was in the spotlight following the Australasian Lean Thinking and Practice Summit, held in Melbourne in May 2013. More than 200 people came to the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre to hear Dr Jim Womack, the founder of the Lean movement, and numerous other speakers, to learn how […]

23 January, 2014

CPSU cold on voluntary demotion offer to avoid retrenchments

By Julian Bajkowski The conspicuous collapse of the Coalition’s promise to slash 12,000 federal public service jobs through natural attrition has been quickly followed by revelations that parts of the bureaucracy are looking at radically redefining job structures and pay grades in an apparent bid to limit forced retrenchments. The Community and Public Sector Union […]

22 November, 2013

New Tax app launched in frustration

By Julian Bajkowski A long running push by Australia’s independent software community to spur the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) into improving and adding new features to the revenue agency’s eTax lodgement interface has just taken a bold new twist. Plucky mobile developer Wave Digital claims it has given up waiting for the taxman and launched […]

29 October, 2013

Auditor slams risky GST reporting systems

By Julian Bajkowski Legacy computer systems at the Australian Taxation Office that extract crucial reporting data on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) have again been found to have serious shortcomings that pose a threat to the quality of data the taxman produces for the government. In a new report […]

13 June, 2013

New bids to lock-up the Taxman

By Julian Bajkowski The Australian Taxation Office is best known for banging up tax cheats, but the Commonwealth’s chief revenue raiser has just announced it’s now officially on the hunt for a national locksmith to secure its sprawling estate of 51 offices across all states and territories. The call for national locksmith services is likely […]

4 April, 2013

Federal Police logo hijacked in online scam

By Julian Bajkowski They may not want the undivided attention of police, but they’ve got it. Brazen crooks have digitally pilfered the official emblem of the Australian Federal Police in a bid to dupe unsuspecting internet users into parting with their financial details in an online con job where police appear to demand funds. The […]

19 October, 2012