[LINK] Government online

[brd at iimetro.com.au]

Government online
By Julian Bajkowski
CIO
Wednesday, 4 October 2006
http://www.misweb.com/magarticle.asp?doc_id=25986&rgid=2&listed_months
=0

John Howard’s pursuit of electronically empowered government has fundamen
tally
redefined relations between citizens, the public service and politicians. Y
et
almost a decade after the launch of e-government, massive challenges remain
.

On an early spring day in Canberra, it is almost possible to feel a sense o
f
renewal in the air. Trees heavy with ornamental blossoms lace the city’s 
myriad
circuitous avenues. Olive-coloured mountain ranges give way to sheer blue s
kies.
Magpies swoop at those who venture too close to their nests.

Once regarded as a town devoid of non-governmental activity, there is now a
flurry of construction that is rapidly expanding the infrastructure that ho
uses
the machinery of government. Canberra is a boom town today, thanks to the 1
0
years of economic stability John Howard’s coalition government has presid
ed
over.

Even so, it is the town the Prime Minister has officially refused to live i
n for
more than a decade.

Whatever Howard’s real reasons for shunning the Lodge – political, prof
essional
or personal – to the locals working in and around his burgeoning bureaucr
acy
this self-imposed distance is a telling facet of his leadership. Howard rem
ains
resolute in his conviction that Canberra’s massive bureaucracy will serve
 his
electors and through them the nation, and not vice versa, thereby deflectin
g
the inevitable accusation that the national leader has become isolated and 
lost
touch with mainstream values outside the national capital.

It is perhaps a logical sentiment given the long period Howard spent in
opposition attacking Labor governments with accusations of bureaucracy gone
mad, run by self-serving empire-building public service fat cats.

Once in power, Howard swiftly sought to reshape what he felt was a highly
partisan public sector beholden to the demands of trade unions that were
bitterly opposed to him and his new government.

Importantly, he sought at the same time to change the way the federal publi
c
service served its citizens.

He quickly understood the substantial power for rapid change. Equally impor
tant,
he swiftly grasped the improvements that advances in distributed computer
networking – not least the then nascent internet – afforded him.

On December 7, 1997, in a landmark speech to the National Press Club, Howar
d
declared that his government would “establish an electronic one-stop shop
 for
all business regulatory needs so that all appropriate services are delivera
ble
on the internet by 2001”.

Thus the first claim for e-government was made. It was meant to catapult th
e
bureaucracy into a 21st century world of seamless online transactions and
integrated electronic-service delivery through the internet. Since then the
dotcom bubble has burst, communications minister Richard Alston has resigne
d
and Howard has won a fourth term with all-important control of the Senate.

Nearly a decade later, on a Sunday morning in August 2006 at a doctor’s s
urgery
in the affluent Sydney suburb of Mosman, Howard was again seeking to stamp 
his
personal authority on the functioning of electronic service delivery.

However this time, he was flanked by his Health Minister Tony Abbott and Hu
man
Services Minister Joe Hockey. He demonstrated to the assembled mainstream m
edia
how the current magnetic strip-based Medicare card could soon be used to cl
aim
an electronic refund through the existing Eftpos transactional network owne
d by
the banks.

The occasion provided a pointed metaphor for the degree of success that the
Howard government has experienced both in changing the use of its own
technology, and how technology is changing the way citizens use the governm
ent.

Never before has the federal government spent so much on technology to keep
 it
running, despite the falling cost of technology.

A solid two decades after Australian banks pioneered Eftpos, Medicare – t
he
government’s second largest payments organ – was finally enabling its c
ustomers
to claim refunds at the surgery.

"Each day 80,000 people queue at a Medicare office to claim their rebate,"
Howard told the Mosman gathering. He also cited an estimate by forecasting 
and
consulting group Access Economics that the average cost in time and resourc
es
to make such a claim is $10.

"The private sector [banks] has indicated it can provide this technology si
mply
and quickly and the Australian Medical Association has given its support fo
r
the proposal," Howard said.

Why it took 20 years to get there, and what has happened in between, deserv
es
further explanation.

-- 
Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Sydney Australia
brd at iimetro.com.au

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