Page 2825 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 29 June 2010
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should apologise to all those who had their security compromised. It is for that reason that the dissenting report put together by Mr Smyth and Mr Seselja included a recommendation that the ACT government apologise in writing to the ACT public servants who had their privacy breached by the security breach of the W drive.
As a result of this and as a result of the public pressure—I fear it was only because of the media attention—the Chief Minister requested a security audit to be undertaken. On 28 May, the Chief Minister took on notice the following question:
In relation to: The external and internal reviews currently being undertaken on the security of the “W” drive. Can the committee be provided with the terms of reference for both the external and internal review.
The Chief Minister has provided the terms of reference for this review. It is an extremely broad inquiry that will be undertaken. I understand, based on estimates, that it will cost $50,000 or thereabouts to undertake this review. I will be very interested to see the results of this review and to see whether, in fact, it leads to any substantial changes in the ACT government’s security policy. Quite frankly, if 15,000 people have been compromised by this government’s amateur attitude towards privacy then I think it is very much up to the government to take it extremely seriously and, as I said earlier, to apologise to those affected.
On the broad issue of procurement, finances and HR within Shared Services and also within IT, as I said, it is important that we get it right. If we do not get it right then the effect of the situation is magnified because it affects the entire public service. I think the state of the internet in this building and the appalling speeds that we all have to endure are testimony to the problems that can go wrong when you have a central agency looking after IT services. I think we have to be ever vigilant in ensuring that the ACT government, including the ACT Legislative Assembly building, are not losing considerable productivity as a result of the poor arrangements.
It comes down to governance and it comes down to making sure that we are managing the contracts properly. Obviously, when there are 15,000 to 20,000 people on the ACT government network that are being adversely affected by very average internet speeds, it is going to be to the detriment of the entire public service and, of course, the taxpayers who are subsidising this. I urge the government to look into what efficiencies they can provide within Shared Services and what improvements they can provide to ensure that all services across the ACT government are delivered in a much more efficient and effective way.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Proposed expenditure—Part 1.7—Department of Land and Property Services—$8,610,000 (net cost of outputs) and $24,708,000 (capital injection), totalling $33,318,000.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (10:20): The first thing to say about this line item is that it brings us back to where we were in TAMS. This is the
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