In other public sector ICT and digital news for 8 December:

• The NSW Electoral Commission has issued an apology after iVote online voting systems went down on election day. The agency attributed the problem to a server overload.
• The NSW Government is planning a $40 million expansion to its Spatial Digital Twin using funding from the Digital Restart Fund. The expansion will cover the entire state over the coming two years.
• The Federal Government has refreshed its Digital Government Strategy. The new strategy aims to uplift digital ecosystems, reuse technologies to deliver value for money and expand the government's digital workforce. The government aims to have all of its services available online by 2025.
• Gayle Milnes is the country's new national data commissioner. Other major public sector appointments include:
  • Michael De'Ath as the Director-General of the QLD Department of Education;
  • Kevin Corcoran as the Commissioner for Corrective Services NSW; and
  • Nicole Ingram as the First Assistant Secretary at Veterans' Affairs.
• Federal Minister for Health and Aged Care Greg Hunt is expected to resign at the next election. Hunt was sworn into the role in January 2017.
• Minister for Science and Technology Melissa Price has announced a second round of government grants for space technology initiative, the Demonstrator Program. Grants will range from $750,000 to $10 million from a $41 million grant pool.
• CSIRO has launched the $12 million Collaborative Intelligence (CINTEL) Future Science Platform to help develop the nation's automation, robotics and machine learning capabilities.
• NSW has been collaborating with Cisco to trial AI, IoT and edge computing technology to improve public transport across the state. The technologies will be connected to numerous buses, ferries and light rail trains.