Dubbed PIPA – or the Platform Independent Personal Assistant – the DHS’s Augmented Intelligence (AI) Centre of Excellence, launched at the end of last year, was assigned to develop the bot. 

While PIPA is expected to be embedded within several customer-facing government service platforms, its first known deployment will be on the DHS's own Centrelink Express Plus mobile app.

The much welcome funding boost will give the ODG enough fuel to support its operations beyond the end of this financial year, something it would have struggled to fulfil on its existing budget – receiving just $7.4 million last year following an extended review of the Office's funding model.

The ODG is expected to use the funds to deliver on its an extensive reform program, including improvements to online service delivery, implementation of higher cybersecurity standards, revised data protection and sharing protocols, as well as further support for ICT procurement reforms.

Atos said it will leverage GovNext-ICT infrastructure – WA’s whole-of-government, cloud-backed ICT transformation program – to deliver its digitisation program, transitioning WA Health’s largely centralised ICT infrastructure into a fully managed hybrid digital cloud service.

“A modern and contemporary cloud-based ICT system will enable us to respond better to innovation that will help improve patient care and reduce unnecessary duplication,” said Chief Information Officer at WA’s Health Support Services, Holger Kaufmann.  

The Government has offered a modest $100,000 to support the national blockchain strategy which it hopes will put the country “on the front foot in exploring how government and industry can enhance the long-term development" of the technology, Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews said.

Beyond regulation, the blockchain roadmap will focus on key policy and governance areas including skills and capacity building, innovation, investment, and international competitiveness and collaboration.

Announced as part of the Government’s forthcoming budget, the multi-million dollar funding allocation will support ongoing tests of the digital ID service, as well as supporting the remaining seven of eight pilot programs.

The $67m cash injection brings the total spend on the myGovID project to $190 million, following an additional $92 million allocation in last year’s budget.

The new guidelines will serve as an interim measure until the legislation of the government’s Data Sharing and Release Act, which is currently being drafted.

Minister for Human Services and Digital Transformation Michael Keenan said the new digital governance code will deliver for public sector agencies “a more consistent and comprehensive approach to data sharing."

After a successful six-month trial on the fast payments network, which included $2.2 million in emergency response funds processed during the Townsville floods, the welfare agency was able to slash payment transfer times from two days to just seconds.

Minister for Human Services and Digital Transformation Michael Keenan acknowledged the stress faced by citizens in waiting for payments to process through the banks' existing clearing and settlement system. 

The protective DNS layer will block known and likely malicious domains, filtering multiple “threat feeds” through an analytics engine.

The service will also provide up-to-date reports to the ASCS and select external partners, with the overarching goal of “[uplifting] the whole of Australia (sic) security posture by reducing the volume of known and likely malicious intrusions,” tender documents state.

Dubbed WINTEROSE, the DNS project has been declared a “strategic priority” by The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), the ACSC’s parent agency.

The Digital Restart Fund will adopt agile as a guiding philosophy for digital projects funding, shifting away from a predetermined funding mechanism (largely driven by finance) to a more iterative model based on the agile methodology – the widely embraced software development model which encourages incremental, evolutionary and continuous improvement to solutions.

“As many agile practitioners know, the biggest inhibitors to widespread digital adoption are the traditional funding and governance processes over projects,” digital.nsw said in a statement.

The new ‘ask the market’ feature opens a new communication channel between buyers and sellers, giving government buyers an option to seek Expressions of Interest (EOI) or Requests for Information (RFI) from businesses.

With the platform upgrade, government agencies can approach sellers with questions or problems and then incorporate feedback before fully defining the solution requirements. Buyers can expect to receive a response through ask the market between five and 10 business days.

One of the major announcements in the airport’s 2018 annual report, the CSOC forms part of the transport hub’s “maturity improvements” – a key component of its Information and Cyber Security 2020 strategy.

“A refreshed Information and Cyber Security 2020 strategy has been at the centre of our cyber programs to drive security governance, improved maturity levels, and stronger user awareness via security culture campaigns,” the report said.

In a statement released by the Digital Health Agency (DTA), responsible for the rollout of the national database, nearly 23 million individuals were automatically signed up to the scheme at the conclusion of the final opt-out period, ending 31 January 2019, with 2.5 million opting to remove themselves from the system entirely.

This was the second extension of the initial opt-out window, originally set for October last year.

Equipped with a state-of-the-art Linescanner camera, the new jet – supplied by Canadian-owned aircraft manufacturer Learjet – can map large-scale areas of current emergencies, including regions devastated by fires and floods.

The technology is particularly useful for tracking active bushfires across the state, with the high-tech camera capable of peering through smoke and cloud cover and delivering intelligence reports in near-real time.

The re-launched Transperth app, which adds a new GPS tracking function to the existing JourneyPlanner capability, allows commuters to track Perth buses across the city in real-time. The tracking function is, however, limited to metropolitan buses, with Perth trains or ferry services yet to be incorporated into the new network.

The Transperth app has been in beta testing since last November, receiving near-universal praise from 5,000 or so testers – 98 per cent of whom said they would continue to use the app after its official launch.