Senator Kate Lundy, Shadow Minister Assisting on Information Technology, today condemned the Government for refusing to release individual Commonwealth reports outlining the preparedness of each of the 37 departments and agencies to deal with the Millennium Bug.
“It is clear from the Government’s action in voting against the order for the production of documents in the Senate today, the second time in as many weeks, that they are trying to hide the fact that Commonwealth information systems are at risk of crashing come the year 2000″, said Senator Lundy.
“The Government is trying to cover up the fact that it has not properly funded its departments and agencies to deal with this critical issue and to become Y2K compliant.
“In light of the fact that the Government is refusing to publicly release these documents I call on the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts to give the Australian public a guarantee that agencies such as the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, the Tax Office and Centrelink are not going to have their information systems crash on 1 January 2000.
“If the Minister can not give that guarantee then he should tell Parliament exactly what is facing government administration at the turn of the century”, said Senator Lundy.
Contact: Matthew Cossey (02) 6277 3334 or 0412 023 334
