SENATE ECONOMICS COMMITTEE INQUIRY INTO TELECOMMUNICATIONS DEVELOPMENT

[ianp@peg.apc.org]

Eric Wainright is looking for examples of
telecommunications/information services developments with
Commonwealth and local government working well together.

The best example (in fact the only example) I can think of is the
CouncilNet project. This began in 1992, with DEST and OLG being
the prime movers in Commonwealth area, and also involving ALGA and
various local government bodies.

Maria Simonelli at DEST (marias@peg.apc.org) would be the best
person to give the early history of this, but one of the things it
is important to note was the presence of third party brokers (in
this case CRES at ANU and Pegasus) in the establishment. The
project is now managed by MCA and Pegasus.

I mention the third parties because co-operation between
government departments in the same tier of government seems
difficult enough, let alone co-operation across tiers.

Ian Peter