In other public sector ICT and digital news for 9 November:

• The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has awarded Accenture a $31.5 million contract extension for three months of work on its business register consolidation initiative. This brings the total value of the project up to $110 million. The ATO has also recently awarded an additional $4.5 million to Ernst & Young for the “provision of ICT professional services”, pushing the contract value to $16 million.
• The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) is seeking to arrange a WofG procurement panel for acquiring IT products and services for data centres.
• Grant Dooley has recently been appointed to lead Breakthrough Victoria, the state’s $2 billion research and development fund. In partnership with private investors, the super funds and the Federal Government, the fund will deliver a range of grants, loans, equity and joint ventures to build the state’s key tech industry sectors.
• Telstra has just acquired its largest contract ever, signing a five-year AU$1 billion contract renewal with the Department of Defence. The deal includes Wi-Fi 6 rollout, 5G connectivity, SD-WAN, and ‘other software-defined networking elements’.
• Multinational consulting firm McKinsey has been awarded $1 million over three months by Austrade to deliver a ‘simplified cross-border trade digital roadmap’.
• Victoria has begun accepting applications for new providers to operate the Myki public transport ticketing system as its decade-long agreement with Japanese multinational IT firm NTT Data approaches its expiry in 2023.
• Telstra will deliver infrastructure upgrades to increase internet speeds at over 1600 Victorian public schools as part of a $100 million agreement with the state government. The project is already over halfway complete.
• Ernst & Young will receive $2.5 million over 18 months to help Home Affairs deliver its pilot cyber security hub. This is part of the $1.6 billion 2020 Hardening Government IT (HGIT) Initiative, which will establish a WofG cyber hub operating model.