Information technology can solve many of nation’s problems
Many challenges faced by the nation can be resolved by thinking outside the square and focusing on the data and the technology that can turn it into actionable information.
As Australians, we grow up thinking of ourselves as a relatively young country. After all, when most of us grew up, the second line of our national anthem even declared that we were “young and free”.
In reality, though, we are middle-aged among all the nations of the world. Look at a political world map from 1901, when Australia’s constitutional system of government was established, and the list of nations that have come and gone across all the inhabited continents is striking.
Australians live every day with the legacy of decisions made in the 19th century about how we govern ourselves. We just probably don’t notice because we are so used to it.
Some of those legacies – and how we had to move beyond them – have left us reminders even today. For example, how we had to build a single national rail gauge, leaving us Australia’s longest rail platform in Albury where passengers between NSW and Victoria had to swap trains because the tracks were different in the two states!
Other examples persist, not only consuming enormous bureaucratic effort in all governments but also having real impacts on the lives of Australians.
Think of the cross-border recognition of vocational training qualifications and trade certificates, drivers’ licences with different restrictions, specific business regulations such as health and safety, employment obligations, or car registration requiring different roadworthiness assessments.
The National Competition Policy reforms of the early 1990s addressed scores of examples. But it has proven to be a game of whack-a-mole – as one problem is fixed, new state-based regulation seems to pop up presenting more challenges. Governments have tried in the past to fix these inconsistencies top down through national agreements. But there is another way to think about some of these problems – by focusing on the data and the technology that can turn it into actionable information.
One of the best examples is how our three tiers of government pay for and manage infrastructure.
Community requirements for infrastructure, and the associated costs, have exploded with population growth and changes in the way we live.
Think about cars. In 1921, two decades after federation, there were fewer than 100,000 cars registered in Australia. Today, there are about 22 million.
Upgrading roads is both a necessity and very politically popular.
But when it comes to the cost, it can become very complicated.
The Bruce Highway in Queensland is a great case in point.
The federal and Queensland governments have invested tens of billions of dollars in upgrading the road in the past decade.
But the highway itself runs through 11 local council areas. The responsibility for the maintenance of the highway and the roads and infrastructure joining and around it is shared between three tiers of government.
Does anyone driving along the highway know or care? Do they know or care if they are paying for it through their federal taxes, state fees, levies and taxes of local rates?
Probably not.
But they will certainly notice if the driving experience in one part of their journey is wildly different to another.
Governments could try to get together to discuss how they most effectively navigate the constitutional division of powers and responsibility for every type and piece of infrastructure.
Or they could take a look at the investment already made in information technology that can deliver more value.
For example, almost all of the councils the Bruce runs through are using the same asset management system to schedule their work on road assets.
Imagine if all that data from all the councils was combined by the Queensland or federal government so decisions about where money was most urgently needed was based on a complete understanding.
How much more efficiently would money be spent?
How much better and more consistent – not to say safe – would the experience of travelling along the highway become?
This is not a specific criticism of the management of the Bruce today. The same applies to hundreds of asset types that are paid for by one tier of government, managed by another, but used by people who are residents of a council, and a state but think of themselves as Australians.
We have the technology. Thinking a little differently about how we can use it might just open up a whole new way to advance Australia fair – and fairly.
Ed Chung is CEO of TechnologyOne.
