Yes, the Australian Government decided to follow America’s lead in outsourcing anything which was not ‘core business’. I remember having to justify what was ‘core’ IT&C to the organisation, only to be overruled by beancounters. Ironically, this was despite the fact that America was already turning the corner and large corporations were starting to return IT back to their control after encountering the obvious pitfalls.
As with so many things, our Governments did not, and does not learn from overseas experience, just follows behind ideological leads slavishly.
Also, the constant Machinery of Government changes (relocating Government organisational components from one Portfolio to another) has resulted in many Departments having a mish mash of computer systems. The lack of resources and the variety of computers and systems within organisations makes it difficult to keep thing running, never mind keeping them secure.
For a cracking read (it’s relevant to this discussion) read: Peter W Singer - Ghost Fleet - A novel of the next world war
