Page 3457 - Week 08 - Thursday, 23 August 2012

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The Assembly voted—

Question so resolved in the affirmative.

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

Proposed expenditure—Part 1.8—Shared Services Centre—$12,173,000 (net cost of outputs) and $8,616,000 (capital injection), totalling $20,789,000.

MS LE COUTEUR (Molonglo) (8.26): Although Shared Services has a range of important roles, I will speak mostly on its key role in implementing various measures the government has announced in the budget to improve the environmental outcomes in government information and communications technology. I will also talk a bit about government procurement.

I moved a motion on sustainable government ICT in 2010, which I am pleased to say the Assembly passed unanimously. There has been some progress but more work is needed. I would like to see a better investigation of the lifecycle impacts of ACT government ICT. I am very pleased the budget includes extending the life of much of the government’s existing ICT equipment for another four years. This is something I have been advocating for years. It is both a financial measure and an environmental measure as there is reduced e-waste, and extending the life of equipment reduces our call on the world’s resources.

Shared Services will need to be smart about extending the life of the equipment and ensure that software demands do not overload the hardware to the extent that productivity is reduced. In this context I repeat my call for Shared Services to look at thin clients as a potential way of future proofing our desktops.

The government in the budget has also announced improved energy efficiency in government ICT infrastructure as part of its strategic plan for ICT in 2011-15, and this is welcome. We need to maximise our ICT benefits, of course, while minimising our ICT costs, including energy costs. I look forward to the government, through Shared Services, providing leadership on energy efficiency in ICT use. These are welcome moves which will contribute to reducing the government’s footprint and costs from ICT.

There still needs to be a policy promoting teleconferencing in the ACT public service. The budget notes that travel expenditure dropped 10 per cent in the last financial year and predicts further reductions, attributed in part to increased teleconferencing.

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