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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 12 Hansard (6 December) . . Page.. 3749 ..

MR QUINLAN: If you like to look up the Net, there is user information there for the computer thing with a keyboard on it. Windows 2000 will crash during some very basic operations. In an Internet week survey, 74 per cent of network administrators said that Windows 2000 crashes regularly. There is no uninstall available on a machine after upgrading it to Windows 2000, so once you have it you have it to stay, and the system is very hungry in its use of computer memory and disk storage. In light of these statistics, Minister, will you tell this house whether InTACT or any strategic partner of InTACT has made arrangements to manage, configure, install, provide help desk support, hardware upgrades and technical advice for, and meet any other associated expenditure related to, Microsoft Windows 2000? If so, which strategic partners are involved, and what amount of money has been expended or is planned to be expended on the project?

MR SPEAKER: That is an extremely detailed question.

MS CARNELL: I have responsibility for information technology. InTACT has not at this stage installed Microsoft Windows 2000. As you would know from your own computers, we use Windows NT. InTACT has been very conservative about going to Windows upgrades unless there is perceived to be a benefit in doing so. There is no requirement under our contract to upgrade to the latest Windows version. We use the versions that suit us best. To my knowledge, there is no view that we will adopt Windows 2000 in the foreseeable future.

MR QUINLAN: I ask a supplementary question. To confirm that, there is absolutely no contract at this stage between InTACT and anybody else for Windows 2000?

MS CARNELL: We are not using Windows 2000. Our contract with Microsoft does not require us to upgrade to the latest version. We use the version that suits us.

Mr Quinlan: Is that a direct contract with Microsoft?

MS CARNELL: We have a contract with Microsoft, yes, but we do not have a contract with Microsoft that requires us to upgrade to the latest version. In fact, we have regularly not upgraded. Nobody uses Windows 2000. Even the retailers recommend using Windows 98 until the next version of Windows 2000, one without the said problems, is released. But remember that the approach InTACT has taken has been very conservative. We did not upgrade to Windows 98 in many cases, because there was no need to. We have Windows NT in most scenarios, but we take the approach that we do not upgrade unless parts of the new version are absolutely necessary to the operation of the ACT. At the moment Windows 2000 is not on the horizon.

MR HIRD: My question is addressed to Mr Stefaniak, the Minister Assisting the Attorney. Minister, what is the government doing to reduce the incidence of crime in the ACT?

Mr Stanhope: Not much.

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