Page 899 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 9 April 2014
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government is continuing an extensive program which contributes to digital Canberra objectives.
One such initiative which I am pleased the shadow minister has supported is the digital Canberra challenge—one aspect of the government’s business development strategy. The challenge is a program that promotes more effective and efficient government through competitive challenge rounds each year. The first round was launched in August last year. Twenty-one challenges were put forward by the ACT public service.
At 6 pm, in accordance with standing order 34, the debate was interrupted. The motion for the adjournment of the Assembly having been put and negatived, the debate was resumed.
MR BARR: Submissions were put forward for 21 unresolved business requirements and we then sought submissions to provide solutions to these challenges. Eleven innovators submitted their solutions. Two were selected to develop proof-of-concept prototypes. Last month I was pleased to announce the winner of the challenge, DigiACTive, who partnered with Territory and Municipal Services to develop a proof-of-concept prototype to provide an online permit approval service. I would also like to acknowledge Design Managers, who were the runner-up in that first round. Round 2 has now been opened and new challenges have been set.
In November last year, through the accelerating innovation program, I agreed to review innovation activities in the ACT to look at ways of achieving even better outcomes. In February a workshop was held with over 30 key stakeholders. It made a series of recommendations, and I was pleased to be able to announce earlier today the establishment of the Canberra Innovation Network. The government will be inviting ANU, NICTA, CSIRO and the University of Canberra to be core partners in this particular network.
The government, through the department’s annual report, will be providing updates in relation to the delivery of this particular program. So we will not be supporting Mr Doszpot’s amendment. Clearly, the budget will contain a range of initiatives that will go part of the way towards what Mr Doszpot is seeking. The balance of that will be met, clearly, through annual reports and further updates provided by the government through the delivery of these particular programs and others. So we will not be supporting the amendment this afternoon but we do undertake to provide regular updates to the Assembly in relation to the delivery of the program. (Time expired.)
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella) (6.02): I rise tonight to support this motion and thank Ms Berry for bringing it forward. I want to talk on the positive work being done moving forward into the digital age and I will start in education. ACT schools are taking this development and the challenges associated with it head on with several different and exciting resources now being placed into schools. One of the recent steps towards this has been the creation of the digital backpack, an online portal for ACT teachers and students that has been live since October 2013. The portal allows
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