Expert: Minister Gray must show ICT leadership

Noonan praises Gray’s understanding of IT, but claims the ICT industry needs guidance

The new Special Minister of State and successor to Lindsay Tanner, Gary Gray, must take a hands-on leadership role in Government procurement if he wants to succeed, according to an industry expert.

Ovum public sector analyst, Kevin Noonan, said Minister Gray’s first interview with industry media revealed a thoughtful politician with a game plan in mind.

“We’re seeing a very different approach to [former Minister] Tanner,” he said. “It’s much more softly-softly when it comes to IT, he’s clearly coming to speed on the issues and the industry needs to give him a bit of space.”

But Noonan warned that resellers and the tech industry had already spent years waiting for firm details after the Gershon Review was published and was desperately in need of guidance from one of Australia’s biggest IT consumers.

“There is a real need for both political and administrative leadership at a whole-of-government level for IT,” he said. “The Government spends about $6 billion a year on IT and every service delivered depends on IT in some form or another.

“To step back from whole-of-government leadership would really be bucking a worldwide trend…the tech industry certainly appreciated the level of contact it had with Tanner and it was a clear demonstration that he understood the issues.”

The analyst said Gray’s decision to release the Reinecke Report, which will provide a granular roadmap for the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO), was a good one.

“That’s the one thing that’s really been missing – the future directions of IT really need to be informed by a realistic review of how the past worked,” he said.

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