ACT announces $9.75m priority tech program

The ACT Government has allocated $9.75 million in its latest Budget as a priority investment program supporting the growth of key sectors including ICT, cybersecurity and e-government.

The allocation over the next three years will be used to attempt to provide more jobs in these and other industry sectors.

The 2018–19 Budget also includes an around $41 million commitment for multiple projects to replace core IT systems at ACT Health, including $18 million for a project to replace the ACT pathology laboratory information system with an end-to-end cloud-based system.

A further $23 million will be put towards replacing the ACT Health purchasing and inventory control system, as well as its hospital clinical communications system.

As part of the overhaul, the territory government plans to develop a plan for addressing any cybersecurity vulnerabilities at the department.

The government is also allocating funding for various smart city initiatives, such as $120,000 to expand the provision of free public Wi-Fi in town centres across the territory, $280,000 for an ongoing smart parking initiative at the Manuka shopping precinct and $586,000 for an upgrade of the territory's electronic voting system.

Other technology-related line items in the new Budget include $4.1 million to complete the rollout of government-wide digital record-keeping systems, $5.6 million to provide police officers with new smartphones, $1.1 million for a new Supreme Court jury management system and $557,000 for a new case management system for the ACT Human Rights Commission.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Maksim Kabakou

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