SUMMARY
We have now analysed the 2023-24 Budgets for the federal, NZ, NT, WA, VIC, and Tas governments and have a two week break before QLD (13th) and SA (15th) release theirs. ACT will drop on 27 June and NSW on 19 September.
FEDERAL
The PwC tax affair has hung over Senate Estimates all week, creeping into several hearings, and showing no signs of going away.
We also learned that the government’s in-house consulting service is expected to be operational in the second half of this year.
The government has finally revealed the new Ambassador for Cyber Affairs and Critical Technology will be Brendan Dowling, who will move from Home Affairs to DFAT some six months after Tobias Feakin announced his resignation back in November. Dowling will have significant responsibilities for developing Australia's (revised) Cyber Security Strategy for 2023-2030.
Norfolk Island Regional Council (NIRC) will receive $7.35 million over the next two years to engage Telstra for upgrades to the island’s satellite telco network serving some 2,200 residents (we did the math: it’s $3,340 per person).
Education minister Jason Clare has referred an inquiry on the ‘risks and potential opportunities of generative artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT in school and higher education’ to the House Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training. Submissions (autogenerated or not) can be made until 14 July.
The Prime Minister has made some changes to his ministry, appointing Patrick Gorman as assistant minister for the public service, in addition to his existing role as assistant minister to the PM, placing him in a remarkable position straddling various digital government decisions. Further, Andrew Leigh has been appointed as assistant minister for employment, and Anthony Chisholm adds infrastructure to his long list of parliamentary secretary portfolio responsibilities.
STATE BY STATE
WA Premier and Treasurer Mark McGowan has announced his resignation after 27 years in the state parliament, six as Premier and two as Treasurer.
ID Support NSW is taking its identity theft message on the road, visiting eight regional communities from 30 May until 28 June, with 30 events scheduled in Bathurst, Orange, Dubbo, Broken Hill, Wilcannia, Griffith, Wagga Wagga and Albury.
The Tasmanian government has issued a request for tender (RFT) inviting local businesses to join the state’s Technology Services Multi-Use List (TSL) to be eligible to bid for work with Tasmanian Police as an implementation partner on its long-running systems integration, known as Project Unify.
INTERNATIONAL
Gartner analysts are predicting worldwide government IT spending will increase by 7.6% in 2023, driven by “internal talent scarcity” and inflation. The biggest growth is expected in data infrastructure and software, while demand for devices and telco services softens.
A ‘global network outage’ caused phone lines to be cut at the New Zealand parliament for most of Tuesday, the same day that a security upgrade for .nz websites caused significant disruptions for several bank customers across the ditch.
A New York lawyer using ChatGPT for legal research is facing disciplinary proceedings after he was caught out presenting non-existent cases in a submission to court. The judge found the brief contained “bogus judicial decisions, with bogus quotes and bogus internal citations.” The lawyer has apologised and insists he had no intent to deceive. What was it all about? The lawyer was representing an airline passenger allegedly injured when a metal serving cart struck his knee. Only in New York, kids, only in New York...