Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, , 6:06:47 to 6:10:10
Discussion continues regarding the use of APS staff versus contractors for the migration IT project and the expected delivery of the ballot system by late November.
Topics: Government IT systems, Public service staffing
Speakers: Hon Jonathon Duniam, Elissa Walker, Stephanie Foster, Clare Sharp, Unknown Speaker
And when you say recruiting staff from within the organisation or extra two, because uh originally it was pre-existing staff, we've now talked about contractors, and now we're talking about recruiting.
So I'm talking about her broader workforce, Senator, which she could think of.
Beyond this 12.9. Yeah, if we could stick to the 12.9 then.
It's just difficult to do that because as I was trying to say, that gets allocated to Ms. Walker's budget. We then rely on her to recruit, use contractors as surge to use her existing workforce to deliver her priorities.
Okay. So then on that basis, can I ask are you recruiting extra staff beyond the existing staffing provision that you referenced earlier to fulfil this role? And do you intend to employ contractors to meet this KPI?
So as the Secretary mentioned, I have a large tech group with resources that work on lots of different things. It's my job to prioritise those resources or my staff's uh leadership job to re prioritize those resources against lots of different projects of which this is one. Sure. Um so um I can only assume that there's been some reprioritization of existing staff to meet this demand as other demands that we deliver on. Um as I said before, I would need to take on notice just to specifically check whether any contractors were specifically hired for this particular project.
So who is responsible for the hiring of contractors, you or someone else at the table or elsewhere in this room?
Um within my tech group, I am responsible for um bringing on contractors and approving them.
And at this point in time you have not, or you are unaware as to whether you've uh taken on the services of contractors?
For this particular project, I would need to just double check whether a contractor had been brought on for against that 12.9 million.
So it was and you were aware of the provision of this funding from budget day onward. That's money that's been available to you to undertake this task from May?
Um, as per our internal uh budget allocation processes across all of the groups.
Yes, okay. And so we're now in October five months on. How progressed are you in the development of this outcome that we're funding for 12.9 million dollars?
Um we are working with our migration uh group colleagues on the uh project. We're progressing the work. I couldn't specifically address what percentage of the work we're through. I don't know if Mr.
Sure, perfect.
So Senator Um, the the project is on track. Um as Minister Burke outlined in his press club speech, we're getting ready to be in a position to be able to deploy the ballot. I think he referenced in November. So we're working towards those dates. So the IT build um is advanced.
Okay.
And that's the information I was also just getting that we expect that towards the end of the year.
That is next month.
Yeah, so probably the back end or very back end of November.
I I've come back. I know I've got to share the call, but it is the end of October, and we don't I've I've got no visibility anyway.
Mr. Kylie, I think was just giving me an Assurance that he believes is on track for delivery.
I don't question that. I am wondering about the pathway to here, but anyway, we'll come back to that.
Looking forward to the journey, Senator Dunnington. Senator Hanson.