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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-10-16 Daily Xml
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ICT PROCUREMENT

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop) (15:03): Again, my question is to the Treasurer. By how much has his $1 billion information and communications technology deal known as Future ICT, scheduled to roll out between 2003 and 2008, run over budget and by how much will it run over time? In December 2002, the Treasurer told this house that the whole of government computer and information technology contract would be split up and a total value of $1 billion in contracts would be offered to the marketplace between 2003 and 2008. In doing so, the Treasurer acknowledged the previous Liberal government's work as having been 'an important factor in positioning South Australia as a recognised centre for world-class ICT services'.

But the first tranche of the new contracts scheduled for 2005 was signed off two years later than expected. The Auditor-General has again made special mention in his annual report that many Future ICT programs have blown out in costs or simply been axed. The entire program according to the government's own website on the procurements timetable has never been completed. The ICT industry has now been advised that the new minister responsible for this ongoing procurement will, on 12 December this year, outline 'the ICT industry blueprint for South Australia'. We hope it is an improvement on the old one.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Minister for Industry and Trade, Minister for Federal/State Relations) (15:05): We have fond memories of the EDS sagas in this place, don't we Iain, and others? The EDS contract was a whole-of-government contract signed by the former premier, Dean Brown. It was the first government in the world to—

Ms Portolesi interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Yes, that is right; my colleague is absolutely correct. Contractual arrangements were entered into before they agreed on a price for all government ICT services.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: Weren't there side deals for Motorola?

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: There were side deals in there. Buildings were built.

An honourable member: What went wrong?

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: What went wrong? A lot went wrong; we will get to that.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: And do you know what? One thing that one does learn with ICT is how quickly the ICT world changes in terms of technology—how rapidly—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: No. Members would be interested to know that in that contract—and that is not the contract I had leaked; I had the water contract leaked that went to 700 pages. We did not get the EDS contract leaked. A lot about EDS leaked, I might add.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: There was a lot to sort through.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: There was a lot to sort through. It helped bring down Dean Brown.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: And then John Olsen.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Yes; and then they got their own back on him. Nowhere in that contract is the word 'internet' mentioned, I am advised. Now, that is not a criticism of the government of the day: it just shows how much the world changes in seven, eight and 10 years. The internet was not mentioned in that contract, so I am advised. When we entered government and it was time to renegotiate that project, we had the option of rolling it over in one slab to EDS. However, the strong advice was—and that was the advice I was given at the time when I was in opposition—that you take a lot of risk putting ICT into the hands of one provider. You need internal competition.

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: You broke my train of thought.

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: Start again.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I will only go back to 1995. I was following the sequence. In fact, it started earlier than 1995, of course.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: It was signed in 1995.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Yes, it was signed in 1995. It goes back to before the 1993 state election, because Dean Brown and the then head of IBM announced either the day before or a couple of days before the election that they were going to do a deal. Thanks for that. I should have gone back earlier. Then they got into office and EDS said, 'Hey, hang on; you can't just give a contract to someone without a tender process.' That is how good Deano was at that time. Then, of course, they had a tender process and IBM lost. I think the IBM bloke lost his job, too. It was considered not good business practice to sign a deal with an opposition before it goes into government. They talked to me about whether or not we would get our act together on ICT. Anyway, that is 1993.

Mr WILLIAMS: I rise on point of order, Mr Speaker. The Treasurer, obviously, has no idea what he is talking about. I remind him that the question was about the Future ICT project that he announced in 2002, and the cost blow-outs and time overruns between 2002 and 2008.

The SPEAKER: Order! I do not uphold the point of order. The Treasurer.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: It is all coming back to me. The good old days. So, where were we—1994? No; I will skip forward a few years. There are a lot of secrets I would like to disclose to the house about those years, but I won't.

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: Not today.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Not today.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Coming back to—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: As I said earlier, we have locked in $30 million a year of savings out of that process. That ICT saving got us $30 million, because we have taken it in a blunt instrument that my colleagues begrudgingly had to agree to.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: Well, they didn't actually.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Well, they didn't, they hated it, but they got it—we just did it. We take the money off the agencies and we apply those savings across government.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Of course, there are volume increases, as my colleague has advised me.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: Price reductions per volume increase.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Price reductions per unit price—

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: A dramatic reduction.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: A dramatic reduction, but, of course, there is volume increase because governments churn out information.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: And they certainly churn out emails.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Did the email exist in 1995?

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: No.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Al Gore had not invented it by 1995.

Ms Portolesi: I was 15.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: You were 15. Really? I think I have finished the answer.

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