Swag of tech spending in Tassie budget
Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett used last night's state budget to announce an $8.87 million centralised IT plan for all state government agencies. The budget also included e-health projects, a smart grid trial, new police equipment and extra National Broadband Network spending.
The Tasmanian Government's IT is currently handled separately by each individual department, but under Bartlett's new transformation plan, a division of the Department of Premier and Cabinet will provide a "single, centralised service".
"That will give Tasmanians faster, more secure access to government systems and resources," Bartlett said.
This year's portion of the $8.87 million will go towards a single email platform for government agencies, as opposed to the 12 currently in use.
"That means some services are being duplicated, and we're not exploiting economies of scale," he said.
The budget also sees the state injecting $100 million into implementing the National Broadband Network, doubling the estimated expenditure from previous budgets.
In addition, the state has outlined a $500,000 smart grid trial, making good on election promises, as well as $400,000 for a West Coast e-Health Solution and a $1 million National Broadband Network fund for Tourism project grants.
Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Lin Thorp, announced a $6.5 million Police Connectivity Program, which upgrades GPS vehicle tracking and provides new equipment such as breathalysers, speed cameras and drug detection equipment.
(Front page image credit: Tangled Network image by Bruno Girin, CC BY-SA 2.0)