"The redeveloped Web site in question http://www.dcita.gov.au is that of the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts--not my Web site http://www.richardalston.dcita.gov.au, which is separate from that of the Department," said the Communications and Information Technology Minister.
DCITA has come under fire for spending over AU$4 million on its Web site, including AU$1.2 million spent on Web site development, AU$956,046.51 on hosting and support services, and AU$927,705.90 on software.
"Given the minister signed off on this expenditure, he must be held accountable--if this were the private sector, the minister would have lost his job!" Senator Kate Lundy, shadow minister for Information Technology, said in a statement.
Alston disagrees with this sentiment. "Claims by Senator Lundy that I 'signed off on this' are incorrect," he said. "This [expenditure] was entirely the responsibility of the Department, along with any approval processes associated with spending on the Web site redevelopment."
I find this very hard to buy. Typing in Richard Alton's domain name merely redirects to a different root document for Vignette (http://www.dcita.gov.au/Home/0,,0_4-2_4008,00.html)
So the fact that he claims his site is different is either whitewash or our 'Minister' for Technology clearly has no idea about what's going on his his or his departments website