The Naked Chief Blog

The Naked Chief wishes to thank Sam Higgins for this policy contribution. 

As a kid it was bug-catchers, Mechanno, and as I got older the 200-in-1 electronic kits from Tandy, and Dick Smith that helped me understand how things worked. Dad tended to draw the line at power tools (though shotguns and rifles were fine?!).  Our television was the oldest in the neighbourhood and servicing it was a regular occurance on weekends before  the serious Saturday and Sunday night movie marathons began. Sometimes he would allow me to change a valve but mostly my sisters and I had to sit back in a wide arc and just be ready to wack him with a piece of wood. Unfortunately that never happened either. Anyway, on top of those things came sport, music, language, and reading. I learned a great deal as a kid through some wonderful experiences but such a busy schedule is pretty standard fare for a kid growing up today, and in most cases we take it all in our stride.

When it comes to ICT, national competition does not even stop at the company level. In many cases state-based parochialism hinders Australia's national interests. The cases in point are numerous from train guages to the Murray Darling river system, and more recenlty the squabbling over which piece of the NBN will go to which state jurisdiction. 

Let's consider this in the context of national licencing. Queensland will be the first state to implement a smartcard-based driver's licence. Yet as certain as the other states are to follow, it is highly unlikely that other states will implement the same solution. They will be subtley different but fundamentally the same. Therefore, a national licencing bureau would seem like an intelligent national ICT undertaking. But rather than implement a single version, each state will be allowed to pursue thier own solution so long as they remain "interoperable". It is the modern version of the rail guage problem that took over a century to rectify.

Today's policy asks whether a constitutional change to recognise and define multi-jurisdictional projects that represent the national ICT interest is achievable. So let me start this conversation by saying that the fear of God does not exist in modern commerce and for that reason the ICT industry is often treated with a mix of both awe and contempt. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is the classic case study in ethical dilema that drives a lot of what goes on in our industry today.

Mortgage brokers changed the banking industry and its accompanying service ecosystem. Mobile mortgage brokers took that to an even greater level. The public sector has for many years offered service capability extensions for transactional type activities through outlets including Australia Post for everything from rates to passport processing, and car dealers for vehicle registration. Wider attempts to institutionalise complex multi-authorisation processes have been either project based, transitional (such as the ATOs original GST help teams), or unsuccessful.

It is not that the model doesn't exist. Cite badge-carrying ATO or Customs agents or clip-board wielding inspection agents, or the entire Police force. But rather than the negative association of an IRS agent showing up at your door, the Canadian government found that their shared service initiative proved that a positive government service experience can actually increase votes. Yet a positive experience engendered via the partnership of personalisation and automation remains a policy white elephant.