James Riley
Thursday, 24 June 2010 18:50
IT Policy -
Government Tech Policy
Page 1 of 2
Freshly minted Prime Minister Julia Gillard lost one of her government's key talents within hours of her promotion, with Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner announcing he will not contest the next election.
With Mr Tanner's departure, the Australian technology sector is losing one of its great advocates, a policy-wonk Finance Minister who loved the possibilities and potentials that new technology offered government and society.
It also loses one of the sector's great task masters. Holding the purse strings of government, Mr Tanner could drive a hard bargain, constantly sought efficiencies and productivity improvement, putting the IT sector on notice very early in the term that there is no such thing as a lazy pay cheque.
He said he had told Julia Gillard he was willing to continue to serve as Finance Minister until the election but said "it would accept whatever decision she chose to make on that question.”
Mr Tanner said his decision was unrelated to the elevation of Julia Gillard to the prime ministership, saying he had recently advised Kevin Rudd of his intention not to recontest the next election.
"He asked me to reconsider my decision, and I agreed to talk further with him at the conclusion of the Parliamentary session (and) we were scheduled to discuss this matter at 9:30am today," Mr Tanner said.
"My intention was to advise him that my decision had not changed. My decision is absolutely unrelated to the events of the last twenty-four hours, and is entirely related to personal considerations."
Widely acknowledged as one the parliament's sharpest intellects, and certainly one the Labor's best performers – both inside and outside of the parliament – Mr Tanner has aggressively reshaped the Commonwealth's use of information technology.
As the Minister with portfolio responsibility for Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO), Mr Tanner oversaw a value-for-money revamp of Federal technology procurement, with sharp cuts to government's use of costly outside contractors the first of a series of reforms.
His engagement with public sector technology issues has been far more hands-on than predecessors, and certainly broke the mould for a Finance Minister – most recently through his direction of the Commonwealth's new data centre strategy.
