Mr THOMPSON (Sandringham) — In commenting on the budget I would like to cover a range of issues that affect multiple government departments. The Labor Party has had the opportunity to deliver a government information superhighway, but unfortunately and regrettably for the residents of Sandringham and the people of Victoria we have been left with a boulevard of broken dreams. Under the previous Liberal government Victoria was a world leader in multimedia and information technology industries. Bill Gates noted in his book Business @ the Speed of Thought that Victoria was the world leader in multimedia, electronic service delivery and IT. This view was also supported by a group of seven industrialised states known as the G7, and elsewhere. While from one side of the globe man can put a spaceship on Mars, in the Sandringham electorate Victoria Police cannot tell the people of Sandringham how many traffic fines are issued from one camera on one day. Then there are multiple other examples that affect other departments. In the Department of Planning and Community Development there is the Electronic Conveyancing Victoria project; in the area of transport, the failed myki ticketing system; in the area of health, the delays to HealthSMART; in the area of education, the delays to the ultranet project; in the area of housing, the extraordinarily and tragically bungled housing integrated information program; and in the area across the whole of government, the failure of Project Rosetta to deliver its improvements on time and on budget.
In relation to the Electronic Conveyancing Victoria project, under the ministerial watch of the Attorney-General and Ministers Madden and Jennings in the other place we have seen a project that commenced in the year 2000; other jurisdictions were working on their own conveyancing projects. In 2004 the major banks told all jurisdictions they wanted a single national system, but the Victorian government did not listen. In 2005 a national steering committee of representatives of all jurisdictions and industry was set up to develop a single national system. The National Electronic Conveyancing Office implemented the work program of the national steering committee. All jurisdictions except Victoria stopped their projects and supported the national system. Victoria continued with Electronic Conveyancing Victoria. Over the last three years the national steering committee has put considerable effort into accommodating Victoria and working with it. The National Electronic Conveyancing System involves a legal framework, legislative changes, governance issues, risk management, business practices, systems operation, funding arrangements and industry, government and community confidence. ECV simply provides a computer system which may or may not be suitable as a national system. Victoria continued to develop the Electronic Conveyancing Victoria project without regard for requirements outside Victoria. ECV went live in November 2007 at a development cost of $40 million. At the same time the government increased titles office registration fees to cover the system’s operational costs. The major banks will not use it because it is not national; Victorian lawyers will not use it because of uncertainty over its risk management arrangements; and Victorians are paying for a system their industry does not want and will not use. There has been only one transaction in more than six months, and no others are in the pipeline. Electronic Conveyancing Victoria is continuing to cost Victorians $6 million each year, most of which is being paid to contractors. Victoria continues to refuse all offers to have ECV incorporated into the national scheme.
All major banks and law societies, including the Law Institute of Victoria, support the national system. With no prospect of ECV being used nationally, Victoria is frustrating the efforts of industry and all other governments to establish a national system that will benefit consumers of conveyancing services throughout Australia, including Victoria. Victoria has wasted $40 million, is continuing to waste $6 million each year, and is holding up the genuine efforts of all government and industry stakeholders to realise genuine economic benefits for Australia. I call upon the Auditor-General of Victoria to examine this absolute waste of taxpayers money affecting taxpayers not only of Sandringham but also across Victoria.
Again, there is this litany of government failure. The Department of Justice cannot give an outline of one traffic fine at one intersection on a single day in terms of the quantum of fines incurred at an intersection on a single day. The government cannot deliver a conveyancing project. It cannot deliver a public transport ticketing system. It cannot deliver a health hospital management service. It cannot deliver the ultranet. It cannot deliver a housing management system, and across government its Project Rosetta is a failure. When people from around the world tap into the Victorian government website and type in ‘www Victoria’, what will it stand for? It will stand for worldwide waste. The Victorian government has failed the electors of Sandringham, and it has failed the people of Victoria.
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