Vic opposition proposes metro ICT audit
If the Victorian Opposition takes power in the upcoming state election, it intends to conduct an audit on local municipalities to determine their ICT health and sustainability, according to Coalition planning policy documents.
(Checklist image by Alan Cleaver, CC 2.0)
The document (PDF) outlines the Coalition's pledge to conduct a whole-of-government audit for the Melbourne metro area, which would include ascertaining the ICT capacity of all of Melbourne's suburbs.
"In relation to ICT, we want to ascertain what needs to be upgraded in what areas," said the state's Shadow Planning Minister, Matthew Guy.
"It's about identifying where Melbourne needs to be in the next 20 or 30 years to stay at the level of livability we're at now while growing the population by close to 95,000 people per year," he added.
Guy told ZDNet Australia today that the review would be conducted by the Coalition if it were to win government, and would factor in research already conducted by local councils.
"If there [are] councils who have had materials conducted similar to this, they will be used as part of [the audit] and that would be factored in[to the results]," he added.
The shadow minister hinted to ZDNet Australia that once the review had been completed, the state government would consider implementing a shared services model to provide IT infrastructure where needed to support livability within the growing state.
"It may [take a shared services approach], but what it will do is identify to the government when we're sitting, priorities for new projects [and] where they'll need to be," he said.
The shadow minister said that the Coalition would be keen on delivering the results of the audit within the first two years of government.