Shorten’s new Shadow Ministry: Who to watch

Welfare, Medicare & Broadband key fronts

25 July, 2016

PM orders urgent national cyber security strategy review

Report in six months, but expert advisers and focus raise eyebrows.

27 November, 2014

Lambie lobs legislative grenade into Defence pay row

Threat to block all government legislation.

7 November, 2014

Fury over sub-inflation Defence pay deal approval

Abbott takes fire for not standing-up for diggers.

4 November, 2014

Abbott in firefight over Defence wage deal

Staff advocates and Opposition attack below inflation offer.

14 October, 2014

Utility computing cutting across sectors

By Rob Forsyth* The change of government at the Commonwealth level will have no impact on the general move by the public sector toward greater acceptance of Cloud platforms to deliver citizen services. In fact, the new Coalition government will almost certainly accelerate this process. After several years of high-level policy development, the rubber is […]

8 January, 2014

Australian Industry Group hungry for high fibre broadband diet from Turnbull

By Julian Bajkowski New Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s key election promise to build cheaper National Broadband Network (NBN) faster using existing copper wire assets is picking-up initial static on the line to the business sector. One of Australia’s most powerful industry associations, the Ai Group, has called for Fibre to the Premise (FTTP) connections for […]

9 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

Quigley calls time on NBN

By Julian Bajkowski The chief executive of the National Broadband Network Co., Mike Quigley has pulled the plug on his role at the top job of the $37.4 billion government infrastructure provider, a move that paves the way for a senior executive restructure most likely to occur following the federal election. In an announcement this […]

12 July, 2013

Public service given mobile marching orders

By Julian Bajkowski Federal agencies and departments have been firmly put on notice by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and Special Minister of State Mark Dreyfus QC that they are expected to waste no time in delivering services to the public on mobile platforms as part of a major shake-up in public service culture. The two […]

12 June, 2013

Conroy launches National Cloud Strategy

By Julian Bajkowski Communications Minister Senator Stephen Conroy has used his annual speech to the CeBIT conference to launch the federal government’s National Cloud Computing Strategy ahead of a looming election campaign where broadband enabled technologies are set to be a key battleground. The wide-ranging tome sets out a raft of policy actions that Senator […]

29 May, 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

Amazon hopes for cloudy outlook from Canberra

By Julian Bajkowski Global cloud computing heavyweight Amazon Web Services (AWS) is mounting a concerted push into the federal government sector as agencies rapidly look for new ways to cut technology running costs while gaining the same sort of productivity and efficiency gains now being realised in the private sector. The company has revealed the […]

21 May, 2013

More public sector sackings expected in Budget

 By Julian Bajkowski   Federal public servants are bracing for a fresh round of job cuts after pre-Budget scene setting by the Gillard government confirmed around $580 million savings aim to be extracted from the bureaucratic machinery.   The projected savings have triggered warnings from the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) but are understood […]

14 May, 2013