Estimates vary as to Australia’s population growth by 2050, but the most reliable source, the 2010 Intergenerational Report, pins it at around 39.5 million people, up from 29.4 million in 2008. The crux of the matter is that all those people will have to live somewhere, and although various levels of government are trying to siphon growing urban populations into infill developments, the overwhelming number of new domestic building is still detached houses - in 2008/09, detached houses made up 71 per cent of all new building approvals, the majority of them on greenfield sites surrounding major urban centres.

In the past these greenfield sites would have utilities supplied at around the time that building started. Telecommunications was no different. Telstra, because of its universal service obligation, would provide copper to the premises, at a cost to Telstra of around $800 per dwelling.

You, dear reader, are an “Aussie Muppet.” “You ain’t got what it takes.” Indeed, come the London Olympics and, “The only Golds you’ll be picking up will be from a chocolate wrapper. You won’t win nothing, Aussie. Zero. Zilch. So ... you might as well stay home, cos there’s no way you are going to be making it to London.”

When Kevin Rudd woke on the morning of Wednesday June 23, his Prime Ministerial website was a rich source of content. As well as the usual media statements, speeches and transcripts, his site was more interactive than that of his predecessor and other Ministers, carrying videos, blogs and visitor comments.

By early afternoon the next day it would be reduced to a static page with a simple message:

“On 24 June 2010, the Hon Julia Gillard MP was sworn in as Prime Minister by the Governor General, succeeding the Hon Kevin Rudd MP. 

“The Department of the Prime Minister and cabinet (PM&C) has archived material from the former Prime Minister’s website, and this will be available shortly.”

Gary Pettigrove is a CIO with high standards, but not all of them are his own.

“We live in a glass house,” says Pettigrove, Chief Information Officer at the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO). “We go out to other agencies and tell them they are not doing well,” a situation which means that when those agencies peer back at ANAO they expect to see its house well and truly in order.

When Pettigrove arrived at ANAO in 2005 he found his job was not, however, that of a typical CIO.

The outwardly sedate world of government records keeping and archiving is experiencing a period of rapid change designed to make better use of information and expose it to the public.

Recommendations such as this from the Government 2.0 Taskforce are behind a push to see non-confidential government records made available to the public and commercial interests to create new applications and information services. At the same time government bodies are increasingly keen for improved interoperability through standardisation of data sets, with the goal of achieving productivity improvements.

With 1.4 million end-users and 500,000 PCs, the NSW Department of Education and Training is the nation’s single largest IT organisation. In this interview with Government Technology Review, CIO Stephen Wilson offers his insights into how other information managers – and those who work with them – can deliver services, his experience of the Digital Education Revolution and his opinions on the National Broadband Network.

“We are doing cloud computing evaluations with governments in Australia” - Google

Cloud computing giants Google and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have both held recent meetings with State and Federal chief information officers, who they say are increasingly receptive to the idea of adopting public cloud computing services.

In recent conversations with Government Technology Review, both companies said they are receiving a warm reception when they visit Canberra and state capitals.

The Federal government has committed nearly half a billion dollars to the implementation of a national e-health database. But as Lia Timson explains, the commitment seems to lack definition, an adequate budget and could be an old school cure

The Federal Government’s response to recommendations of the Gov 2.0 Taskforce mean Australia has a chance to outstrip Europe and the USA in terms of harnessing the power of Web 2.0 according to Andrea Di Maio, a Vice-President and Distinguished Analyst at Gartner.

Debate over the best use of Australia’s native forests is a hardy perennial of politics. Conservationists argue current practices are unsustainable. Timber industries argue the opposite view, pointing to a long heritage of environmentally sustainable forest practices, the many citizens employed and the value of export earnings.

Somewhere near the middle of the debate, at least in Western Australia, is the Forest Products Commission (FPC), a government trading enterprise established to develop and market Western Australia’s renewable timber resources. The Commission is obliged to find a market for all of the State’s timber output and does so through a range of marketing, scientific and research activities.