The NBN Company will charge internet service providers a one-off fee of $300 for each connection to its wholesale fibre network in Tasmania, with no monthly access charges due until the middle of next year.

Computer industry veteran Jim Hassell has joined the NBN Company's senior executive team running product development and sales, reporting directly to chief executive officer Mike Quigley.

South Australian independent senator Nick Xenophon has renewed calls for the creation of a government Online Ombudsman to respond to public concerns about offensive or illegal postings on social networking sites.

Coalition heavies Joe Hockey and Andrew Robb have mugged the Government's two flagship information technology projects as part of Opposition plans to cut $47 billion from federal spending if it is elected later this year.

Information technology skills have retained a priority status on the Rudd Government's newly-published Skilled Occupation List on which skilled migration program is based.

The Senate has issued orders to protect Australian Taxation Office employees from prosecution if they participate in an Inspector General's review of the ATO's troubled Change Program.

Treasurer Wayne Swan's third federal Budget has delivered the first green shoots of public administration reform that incorporate core Web 2.0 technologies for citizen consultation and collaboration and incorporates broad philosophies of open government.

Impending telecommunications structural reform might be aimed at reducing regulatory complexity, but that hasn't stopped the competition watchdog being given an additional $24 million Budget boost to manage the new issues and new complexities that will arrive with the National Broadband Network.

Industry has broadly welcomed Federal plans to spend $466.7 million building a national electronic records management infrastructure in the health sector, but say too few details have been released to fully understand what the system might achieve.

The Rudd Government has doubled minimum broadband service speeds and doubled the minimum data allowance under its Australian Broadband Guarantee following Telstra's announcement of more competitively priced NextG wireless services.