Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Cities and Digital Transformation) Share this | Hansard source

I am really struggling with this question. It is extraordinary that you could stretch an appropriation bill consideration in detail to the broad-ranging discussion you want to talk about. I would love to spend some time talking about, as I said, Top Education Group—this is a very interesting bit—who paid dim Sam's $1,670 of debt or Wei Wah International Trading Pty Ltd, who donated $200,000 to the Australian Labor Party in 2013. This would be terrific to discuss. But we are here to talk about consideration in detail of the Appropriation Bill. That is what I will focus on. But I encourage you, in the appropriate forum, to ask your questions.

The member for Chifley did ask a question. It deserves a response, despite the fact that the implication of it is clearly wrong. Before I get to that, I want to spend a moment on the member for Banks's question, which was an absolutely outstanding question. He understands, unlike those opposite, that big IT projects are crucial to the future of this country and that investment in IT—the right digital projects and the right data projects—can yield substantial impact to the government. But it takes time. Investments made today have impacts over many years. That is why we need to have consistent levels of investment in IT infrastructure and in IT and digital and data projects.

That is what we did not see during the six years airbrushed by those opposite, when they were in government. I thought it would be worthwhile just going back through what we have had to deal with in the IT and digital space from the time when they were in government. They were rolling along okay, because, when the GFC hit, they only took $700 million out of IT investment—you had to pay for those pink batts somehow. That was $700 million ripped out of IT investment in 2009-10. That was the reality, because you did have to pay for the clunkers and you did have to pay for the pink batts. At that point, they realised the error of their ways; they knew these systems were going to collapse in a few years time. So they got to 2011-12 and they ripped another $100 million out. But then they got through from Rudd to Gillard and back to Rudd, and they were really out of money. So look what happened in 2012-13. Do you know how much they ripped out of the budget in 2012-13? It was $1.2 billion of investment just gone. They expected that the systems—the IT and the digital and data strategy—was going to work, having ripped $1.2 billion out of investment in 2012-13.

The member for Banks understands that, if we are to have quality services provided to the people of Australia and if we are to have data projects that are going to deliver on every one of our programs in welfare, health, infrastructure and cities, we need consistent quality investment. And we need that commercial acumen—that kind of savvy that the member for Banks has and those opposite clearly lack.

We are doing that through investments like the $1.5 million for the Digital Investment Management Office and the $13 million for building capabilities and skills that are fundamentally important. They are being overseen by DTA, and I meet with the head of the digital transformation team on a regular basis, as I have since I got into this job—in answer to one of his questions. We are reviewing every project over $10 million. Some of those projects that those opposite put in motion in their time in government have not been great successes. It is true that we need to review them, we need to get on top of them and we need to make them effective. On top of that, there is a real focus in this government on data integration. The Data Integration Partnership of Australia project is crucial to making sure that we make the most of the data that we have in health, welfare, infrastructure and elsewhere. It will integrate datasets that allow us to make the right policy decisions to make sure our services are effective. That DIPA project is one that I am personally invested in and that I firmly believe can have a very positive impact for Australia and for Australians for many years to come. $131 million in the DIPA project— (Time expired)

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

Remainder of bill—by leave—taken as a whole and agreed to.

Ordered that this bill be reported to the House without amendment.

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