In 1996 the Howard Government came to power in Australia. At that point in time
the commonwealth budget was in significant deficit, the economy was weak and there
was significant commonwealth debt. To address these issues the Howard
Government moved to implement several cost savings and income generating projects
began under the outgoing ALP government. In addition, part of the Howard reforms
was the move toward the private side in the public / private mix in the delivery of
government services.
One of the high profile and significant projects was the outsourcing of the
commonwealth public sector Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
delivery. It was called the IT Initiative and was managed by the Minister for Finance,
the Honourable Mr Fahey. Mr Fahey had earlier attempted significant outsourcing
projects whilst in NSW government; at one time Mr Fahey was NSW Premier. The
intent of the IT Initiative as policy was to achieve better and more cost effective ICT
services for the commonwealth.
This research reviews the efficacy of the IT Initiative. Under the Westminster system,
governments can implement government policy as approved by the parliament.
However not all policy is reviewed by the parliament. In this case the IT Initiative
was part of the Howard pre-election policy and therefore was considered 'mandated'
by the electorate. Irrespective of this approval, was the IT Initiative supported by the
research at the time and did the IT Initiative and its implementation make sound
business sense when compared to the research and models and in particular
effectiveness, efficiency and economy.
This thesis will review the IT Initiative using both static and dynamic models using
Transaction Based Economics (TCE). Both models will support the view that the IT
Initiative as practiced was a relatively high risk strategy. The thesis will utilise TCE
and risk management to develop a risk profiling model for ICT with effectiveness,
efficiency, economy as the three dimensions. Finally, the risk-profiling model, while
based on earlier modelling, provides a new insight into the issue of centralising versus
decentralising of government operations especially as these approaches relate to novel
technological applications across various departments.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219579 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Martin, Anthony Phillip, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Business & Government |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Anthony Phillip Martin |
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