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

Post to front crisis talks with CPSU as anger over chief’s $4.8 million salary grows

Few deny the paper mail business is headed for red ink, but there are many questions over why the head of a government business threatening to make billion dollar losses is still being paid a big banker’s salary on the taxpayer’s coin.

11 June, 2014

Australia Post’s senior executives under fire over leaked mass redundancy details

Industrial tensions escalate over softening up tactics.

10 June, 2014

Warning of surge in customer aggression caused by 6,000 APS job cuts

Survey of 5,800 government staff reveals blowouts in client waiting times, mistakes and chronic understaffing is hitting frontline services.

8 May, 2014

Turnbull strongly backs Hockey on merged Human Services and Australia Post functions

Medicare and Centrelink retail duties floated as a potential lifebuoy to stop mail from drowning in red ink.

21 March, 2014

Total APS job cuts too difficult to predict for Public Service Commission

By Julian Bajkowski The Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) has released its annual stocktake of the federal bureaucracy with the grim warning that it is now “difficult to predict” how the cumulative impact of successive rounds of job cuts under both the Coalition and Labor will hit staff numbers. Tabled in Parliament on Monday afternoon, […]

2 December, 2013

eHealth examination probes for private sector buy-in

By Julian Bajkowski The private sector and medical providers could soon have a much bigger say in how Australia’s ailing efforts to create a national system of electronic health and medical records unfolds. The Abbott government has revealed it now wants substantial input on what non-government providers can contribute to make eHealth a reality after […]

4 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

Proposed Centrelink and Australia Post retail fusion draws fire

By Julian Bajkowski A proposal to use Australia Post’s retail footprint to deliver shopfront services for welfare agency Centrelink has drawn immediate fire from the union representing federal public servants. The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has warned that although a “one-stop shop where you can sort out your mum’s pension entitlements and pick-up […]

29 October, 2013

National Commission of Audit to probe far and wide

By Julian Bajkowski Initial details of the highly anticipated National Commission of Audit promised by the Abbott government have been released in Canberra by Treasurer Joe Hockey and Finance Minister Senator Matthias Cormann. The sweeping review of government functions, activities and spending will be chaired by Business Council of Australia president Tony Shephard. It will, […]

22 October, 2013

Coalition promises “virtually all” government services to be online by 2017

By Julian Bajkowski The Coalition has officially launched its eGovernment  and Digital Economy policy for the election in a wide-ranging document that reaffirms a commitment centralised procurement of government computing combined with the development of a permanent and centralised digital identity credential for online transactions between the public and agencies. Released by Shadow Communications Minister […]

2 September, 2013

Local governments could be 60,000 workers short

By Paul Hemsley Councils across Australia are facing an unprecedented shortfall in replacements for retiring baby boomers with the local government sector cautioning it could soon be up to 60,000 staff short unless new talent is recruited to backfill anticipated departures. Around one third of the nation’s 200,000 local government employees are now estimated to […]

5 August, 2013

Digital Mailbox or Virtual Australia Card? Australia Post’s big gamble

Analysis: Julian Bajkowski The prospect of a single national identity credential being issued to all Australians has reignited after a senior executive at Australia Post suggested that it would be “wonderful” if a future Coalition government put in place a “mandate” for government agencies to use its new digital mailbox service. The comments, attributed to […]

28 May, 2013

States drive Feds to buy more Australian-made vehicles

By Paul Hemsley and Julian Bajkowski The South Australian and Victorian governments have gone on the offensive to embed Australian made cars into public sector procurement plans for fleet purchasing as a way to prop-up struggling local automotive manufacturers. South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill and Victorian Premier Denis Napthine have demanded that a majority of […]

22 April, 2013