Census fail to get Oz Senate probe; NDIS fix promised this year

Australia's Senate has voted to establish a committee to look into the Australian Bureau of Statistics' August Census IT collapse. The news comes as the government promises to fix another slow-motion train wreck by the end of 2016 – the online portal for the country's National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). The Senate …

[GrumpyKiwi]

Too fast for government

Woah, woah, woah, slow down there Tex. You can't just go leaping wildly into establishing a committee. You need a pre-committee planning committee to plan the establishment of the committee, making all the important decisions like which island resort the committee will be meeting on, what brands of liquor should be supplied and which escorts should be hired to deal with the various member's special emotional needs (all taxpayer paid natch).

In fact even that may be too much too fast. A pre-pre-committee working group will be needed to determine just who should be on the pre-committee.

[dan1980]

Re: Too fast for government

Sadly.

Politics over on your side of the Tasman works the same then, I take it?

[Pompous Git]

Re: Too fast for government

Politics over on your side of the Tasman works the same then, I take it?

"Works" seems rather too strong a term to use in relation to government.

[dan1980]

Which explanations?

"Not all of these explanations satisfy Australia's IT sector."

Sorry, just to be clear, which explanations do satisfy IT folk?

I'm not some technical genius or industry leader but none of the explanations I've heard amount to anything other than this being a total cock-up.

As Richard accurately points out, outsourcing can only provide good results when managed correctly by appropriately qualified internal staff. That the ABS clearly didn't have these resources - or at least chose not to involve them - speaks volumes about their attitude and trustworthiness*. This is corner cutting and, when you're dealing with the valuable, sensitive, personal information of an entire population, that's just not good enough. Not by a long shot.

* - When speaking about the ABS this way, I am, of course, referring to those who lead and manage it, and not those in the background working away diligently and with due respect for the people whose information they are handling.

[Anonymous Coward]

"stripping staff and their skills out of the public service"

It's become a sport for some senior managers.

Remaining staff with skills are routinely ignored or bypassed.

They just don't want to listen.

- Anon PS IT worker.

[Oengus]

Re: "stripping staff and their skills out of the public service"

Remaining staff with skills are routinely ignored or bypassed.

They just don't want to listen.

Remaining staff with skills are routinely ignored or bypassed retrenched.

They just don't want to listen them around to point out the bleeding obvious failures that management caused.

FTFY

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "stripping staff and their skills out of the public service"

Original AC.

Yes, that too.

[Pompous Git]

Re: "stripping staff and their skills out of the public service"

Isn't stripping staff sexual harassment?

[Gravesender]

Re: "stripping staff and their skills out of the public service"

>>>It's become a sport for some senior managers.

>>>Remaining staff with skills are routinely ignored or bypassed.

Sadly, this seems equally true in the private sector these days.

I speak from much personal experience.

[Anonymous Coward]

Scalps were collected

A week ago IBM Australia's Director of Delivery for A/NZ was let go .. or resigned.. depending on your interpretation of the phrase "resignation effective immediately" (I'm in the "jump before we push you" camp on that.)

Followed by today by his boss, the General Manager of Global Technology Services for A/NZ.

I hope you got a nice package lads.

[Richard C]

Re: Scalps were collected

Not that I doubt this has happened; but is there anything I can use to verify this?

IMO, this looks more like someone saying "I would like your resignation, now". From an HR perspective, it's better all around, if the exec "walks".

[P. Lee]

Testing at scale

Being a test client is one thing the public cloud might be good for.

That's after you've done you're internal load testing.

[MartinM]

I agree with the previous comments. This is symptomatic of what is happening around the world with privatising /"outsourcing" of the public sector, exorbitant cost with appalling results! The endless reduction of skills within the public sector will only make this worse.

We really need to stop this privatising of government function, the only beneficiaries are the shareholders of the transnationals and their employees. Government s need to be reminded that their primary obligation is to ensure that they provide the services required by their constituents, not look after the corporations!

[dan1980]

@MartinM

". . . the only beneficiaries are the shareholders of the transnationals and their employees."

You forget the politicians who get some nice election funds and who, along with public sector chiefs, can look forward to a nice, cushy, well-paid role in the private sector once they calmly depart in a life-boat.