Payments outsourcing stuck in Medicare waiting room

Industry, public service still waiting for answers.

27 April, 2015

Payne pillories CPSU Medicare attack ads

Health Department just window shopping, not selling, says Human Services minister.

30 September, 2014

Abbott names new chiefs for Health and Attorney General’s departments

But hunt on for new Immigration and Border Protection boss.

3 September, 2014

Federal Attorney General’s Department head to leave

No replacement named for Roger Wilkins

15 August, 2014

Outsourcing push reveals Health and DHS split

Cross-agency confusion on welfare infrastructure

11 August, 2014

Medicare outsourcing could cost 20,000 jobs: CPSU

Accusations fly over market testing

11 August, 2014

Apple discount for public sector? Forget it

Agencies pay full price for kit as volume discounts lose influence.

8 July, 2014

Still no date for e-Health review response: take-up remains in single digits

Despite the allocation of another year of funding, neither the Abbott government nor health bureaucrats are yet prepared to commit to an official date for when big changes will happen.

5 June, 2014

NeHTA set to be scrapped in radical eHealth overhaul

The government’s review of the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record has not only recommended that a new Commission be set up to run the scheme but that electronic records become the default.

20 May, 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

Federal job cuts of 12,000 swallowed by projections of 14,500 retrenchments

By Julian Bajkowski The Abbott government’s election promise of shedding 12,000 federal public service jobs voluntarily has started to publicly unravel after estimates of at least another 14,500 forced redundancies prompted by Labor’s loathed efficiency dividend opened a trapdoor under the Coalition’s plans. As Canberra’s public sector workers brace for one of the bleakest Christmas’ […]

19 November, 2013

Public service morale plummets as 12,000 ‘natural attrition’ target fizzles

By Julian Bajkowski The prospect of looming job cuts in the federal public service is dragging down morale and feeding into a climate of deep uncertainty over job security, unions and Canberra’s Labor politicians have warned. As the Coalition government sets about attempting to thin the ranks of the bureaucracy by 12,000 positions through ‘natural […]

8 November, 2013

Poor prognosis for Victorian eHealth

By Julian Bajkowski Australia’s troubled eHealth sector has been handed yet another negative appraisal after the Victorian Auditor General released a report cited “poor planning and an inadequate understanding of the complex requirements to design and implement clinical ICT systems” as the reasons for the state’s major online medical upgrade failing to deliver what it […]

31 October, 2013

Dentists drill Victorian councils on decay

By Julian Bajkowski Victorian councils have been urged to urgently sink their teeth into improving the dental health of their communities after the state’s lead oral health agency revealed it will soon be handing out individual profiles for local government areas. Dental Health Services Victoria has said it will start distributing individual oral health profiles […]

12 July, 2013