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Tuesday
29 June 2010
Legislative
council
Estimates
Committee B (Bartlett) - Part 2
IN
ATTENDANCE
Hon.
David Bartlett MP, Premier;
Minister for Innovation, Science and Technology
Department
of Premier and Cabinet
Rhys
Edwards, Secretary
Rebekah
Burton, Deputy Secretary
Greg
Johannes, Deputy
Secretary
Philip
Foulston, Director,
Executive Division
Jeff
Reeve, Director,
Corporate Services
Louise
Mills, Deputy Director,
Corporate Services
Peter
Wright, Manager, Finance
Tim
Bullard, Director Policy
John
McCormick, Director,
Policy
Mat
Healey, Manager Office of
Security and Emergency Management
Mellissa
Gray, Director, Social
Inclusion
Frank
Ogle, Director Public
Sector Management Office
Phillip
Hoysted, Director
Tasmanian Together Progress Board
Nick
Evans, Director,
Community Development
Piero
Peroni, General Manager,
TMD
Kathy
Baker, Acting Director,
Service Tasmania
Mitchell
Knevett, Director, Office
of the Government
3.3
Management of TASINET and Networking Tasmania -
Mr
FINCH - Premier,
householders are finding new ways to cut their communication costs
such as Skype over the Internet instead of the normal telephone
services. Will the rollout of the fibre-optic cable see a cut
to TASINET costs?
Mr
BARTLETT - I will hand
over to Rebekah in a minute but I will say just this: I am
confident that the rollout of the fibre-optic network will improve
the level of bandwidth you get per dollar. Whether or not that
reduces costs over time is a different question because, if you had
asked that question 20 years ago when you reduced your
telecommunications costs, you might have said yes, but since then
telecommunications costs have gone through the roof because you are
using much more of it.
Rebekah
has already talked about VOIP - which stands for voice over Internet
protocol and is effectively, like Skype, using the Internet to do
voice and conferencing and we are certainly doing that - and she has
probably outlined some of those sorts of things. Whether it
reduces the overall cost to government, who knows? What I can
guarantee, though, is that we will be getting more of it for the same
cost.
Mr
WING - Better value for
money.
Mr
BARTLETT - That is a
better way of putting it, yes.
Ms
BURTON - Just picking up
on Mr Finch's question, I mentioned before that we have these 22 000
phones that need to be migrated to something else because these are
going to be the support for the land lines. What you have
identified, I guess, is the project: we have to determine what
is the best way for government to get the most efficient use of its
voice services, but now with convergence, data and voice come
together - Skype is the classic example. That is your data
service that provides a voice service, so in the future there will be
a shift in the usage by public servants - which is effectively what
Tasmania needs - and in the cost of phone and data, computers and
phones.
[2.45
p.m.]
There
will be shifts but just to reinforce the Premier's point, we have a
data service contract with Telstra and the proportion of use that is
expended on Internet, while the cost has gone down, the actual
Internet access increases all the time. When I talk to my staff
and they say that they have had to negotiate a bigger bandwidth.
So that is really the answer: as soon as it becomes cheaper,
people want more.
Mr
FINCH - Because this is a
big item in the Budget as we run to $21 million and nearly
$22 million, I am wondering, Premier, whether we can get some
detail of the mobile phones, and the 22 000
landlines you have mentioned - just a breakdown of that
$22 million so that for future reference we can see what changes
might take place.
Mr
BARTLETT - We might have
to take it on notice.
Mr
FINCH - That is fine.
If we can get some clarity in respect of just the usage, the number
of mobile phones?
Ms
BURTON - Ten thousand
mobile phones is the number and that has tripled probably in the last
three or four years so that is just an indicator but we are happy to
provide you with some further information, Mr Finch. I do
not think there is any comparative data but we could give something
that provides the 22 000 landlines by department and we could
also give the number of mobile phones, the cost of mobile phone usage
and also the data contract - data services, when you get on your
computer and go on the Internet. The total cost of the data
service for the Government is about $13 million. We talk
in big numbers here but it is now the bread and butter of everyone's
daily life - if you take away e-mail, you cannot identify
yourself on the computer system really and in most workplaces you
cannot be productive.
Mr
FINCH - Unless you have a
notebook like the member for Launceston.
Mr
WING - I left it in the
drawer.
Laughter.
Mr
FINCH - I think as we
move into the future with these sort of line items in our budget
Estimates it will be good for us to see just the changes that are
being brought about by the NBN and the developments that are taking
place. I am assuming that Networking Tasmania is your landlines
-
Ms
BURTON - It is basically
data and voice for the Tasmanian Government. Once again, about
12 years ago we got all agencies to cooperate and we went out
for one contract and we called it Networking Tasmania, so that is
effectively the name of the Tasmanian government contract, which at
the moment is with Telstra, Aurora and a small wireless company
called BBW, and a panel contract, and that is what Networking
Tasmania is, so it is the power of the Tasmanian Government
contract's telecommunications. |
