[LINK] Contract signed for national health ID system

[Craig Sanders]

On Sat, Jan 12, 2008 at 05:24:49PM +1100, Stephen Wilson wrote:
> Holy innumeracy!
>
> A "$51 billion contract" would match the annual expenditure of the entire 
> Australian health sector.

yes, well, stuff like that shouldn't surprise anyone.

e.g the vic govt is replacing the current public transport ticketing
system with a new smart card system, at a cost of $500M - half a billion
dollars! and the only "advantage" it has over the existing tickets is
that it allows them to track who travelled where, and when and how often
(and, by inference, who with).  in theory, it will eventually allow
travellers to also purchase other items with the card.

YASIC - Yet Another Stealth Identity Card.

and, of course, it's another opportunity for corporate welfare.  which
is why we pay taxes, after all.

obviously, it has never occurred to anyone in govt that there are much
better things to spend half a billion dollars on, even without looking
outside the public transport system.

craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>

BOFH excuse #270:

Someone has messed up the kernel pointers