House debates
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Bills
Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2011-2012; Consideration in Detail
5:01 pm
Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service and Integrity) Share this | Hansard source
I thank the shadow minister for her questions. I will get back to her on the staffing arrangements for Mr Oakeshott. She asked questions about solar panels. I will have to get back to her on the details of the solar panel questions because it is important and do accept the good intentions behind the questioning. She has asked about a range of detailed matters around the operation of such panels and whether there are interconnections with the ACT grid and whether there is reselling into that grid. I am not able to provide answers to those questions at the moment but, yes, Shadow Minister, and I will come back to you as soon as I possibly can with the detail of answers to that.
I would like to continue the discussion around the new policy measures in place from the Department of Finance and Deregulation to do with information technology and embracing the new digital environment. In that context, it is important to understand the importance of cybersecurity and the investments which the government is making in cybersecurity. Cybersecurity is one of Australia's national security priorities and our approach to this issue is clearly outlined in the government's Cyber security strategy. The same principles, key actions and measures will apply in our work on service delivery reform and underpin our evaluations of options in this area.
It is extremely important to ensure that those who do not have a computer will not be disadvantaged in this new digital age. Such a capability would not exclude people who do not have access to a computer. People who choose not to opt into the system which I have described would access services as they do currently—that is, by approaching the relevant agency and providing sufficient information to establish eligibility. Members will be aware that in the context of the need to provide the Australian government with that information, there may well be people who are not digitally enabled or not able to get access to a computer in order to take advantage of such a streamlined and capable system. We still need to ensure that such people do not have the disadvantage of needing to inform the government several times before that information is held in a common way by the government. We will be taking steps to ensure that those who are not digitally enabled are able to take advantage of the technology changes. The reforms in this area are likely to be very complex and they will evolve over time. They will need to be considered as long-term projects, subject to the government deciding to invest in competing frameworks. We will work closely consult widely with all relevant stakeholders, users of Australian Government services, privacy interest groups, Australian Government departments et cetera in developing the future reform options in this area. However, at this stage what is happening is that the government is trying to scope the nature of a possible framework that it might want to go into. The government is not, at this point, considering whether to introduce the new service delivery arrangements. What the government is doing is considering the possibility of the service of informing the government once of a range of personal details that our citizens hold and that they may require to provide to multiple government agencies.
These reforms are an extremely important part of what we call, in general, the digital democracy and enabling our community to better contact, access and obtain information from governments. As the NBN rollout across the nation continues, the capacity to do this becomes more and more important. The current budget includes funding for the Department of Finance and Deregulation to assist in the oversight of a new entity to ensure—
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