ITWire

Speaking at the eGovernment conference at Cebit, Mr Wadeson said that following the passage of legislation in May that will see agencies such as Centrelink and Medicare folded into the new Department of Human Services super-portfolio from 1 July, the organisation was on a two to three year journey to integrate and streamline systems and infrastructure.

Mr Wadeson however won't be there to see the job through. He is retiring later this year and the Government advertised his position this week.

Speaking during a panel session Mr Wadeson said that the main work to be done was at the infrastructure level. He said that a virtualisation programme would proceed but there were no plans to change much at the applications level of the brand agencies.

He welcomed the $373.6 million that was allocated for the integration project in the May Budget. 'Government is giving us the money to do this and build innovation for the three agencies. People have seen the sense in this,' he said.

Meanwhile John Sheridan, first assistant secretary of the Department of Finance and Deregulation reinforced to delegates that in Government ICT; 'Productivity is the new black.'

Mr Sheridan said that the whole of government approaches introduced in March 2008 with regard to ICT investment were starting to pay off.

 

For more on Gershon reforms read on...