The Australian Federal Government Now Spends AUD 10Bn a Year on IT

On a positive note, the online services provided by a government agency are pretty good.

When I received a bill from the tax office I was able to go online and create a payment plan without human intervention.

There is also a portal that links multiple government services (Australian Tax Office, Medicare...) to enable access to multiple services.

A few weeks later, I also got a call from the tax office surveying about my experience.

Overall, my experience was great. (except for forking out money part :)

$500 annually for each person in the country. Just federal. Not state, not local.

In Canberra look at the names lit up on the tops of the buildings. The usual vampires. Imagine what you could do with 10 billion a year. Well they're improving oracle, accenture, computer associates, ibm global services profit.

Pay 100,000 people at $100k each, every year. IT for Canberra. It's enough to make you sick.

Ibm, consultants to the Nazi party. They're better than that now. But you've just got to hate them. No really, bilking if like this is evil.

As soon as the Western Australian state transit agency started submitting data to Google Maps, they released it to the public. http://www.transperth.wa.gov.au/About/Spatial-Data-Access

This has been going on for about 10 years. There are good people in this country doing good things.