Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Communications. Will the minister update the House on what is being done to bring government services into the 21st century and make sure that the Public Service is more efficient and productive?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question and note his very keen interest in technology. Governments across the board represent a bit more than a third of our economy. Making government efficient is not simply a matter of cutting costs and saving money; it is a matter of making our whole economy much more efficient. The fundamental challenge that we face, which the Prime Minister and the Treasurer explain every day, is: how do we ensure that we as a high-wage, generous-social-welfare-net, developed economy maintain that in the face of a far more competitive world, where we have convergence, where developing countries that used to compete with the low-wage, low-skill jobs are now competing with the high-wage, high-skill jobs and of course where the internet and globalisation are making so many things trade exposed that were not before?

We are living in a world of much greater competition but much greater opportunity. So we have to, across the board, be more productive, more efficient, more innovative, more technologically sophisticated. And government is a big part of that; it is a third of the economy. So, the Prime Minister has established a Digital Transformation Office within my department, the Department of Communications. And its job, my goal, is to ensure that by 2017 all major transactions between citizens and government can be completed digitally online end to end. This is going to ensure that government services are vastly more compelling, vastly more attractive to citizens, and of course it will save them time and money.

Now, the human services minister, Senator Marise Payne, already has in her department an outstanding product, which I am sure many honourable members use, which is myGov. There are six million active users for myGov. This is a digital platform that is now being made available to state governments—and in time local governments as well. I was talking to the chief information officer of the Department of Human Services, Gary Sterrenberg, only the other day, when I was visiting a myGov shopfront. And he made the point that to bring a state government agency onto myGov costs only $50,000 in onboarding costs. Now, we are going to make this platform available to all local and state government for no charge from the Commonwealth. This is going to revolutionise the way government services are delivered. It is going to make government more efficient. It is going to drive our national target of productivity, competitiveness and innovation that will deliver us the growth and ensure our children's jobs in the years to come.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move the following motion:

That this House:

(1) censures the Liberal-National Government for misleading the Australian people before the last election and hitting Australians with its:

(a) unfair GP tax, hurting Australians every time they go to see the doctor;

(b) $100,000 university degrees, making it harder for Australians from modest backgrounds to further their education;

(c) $80 billion cuts to schools and hospitals;

(d) attack on pensions, meaning older Australian will be up to $80 a week worse off;

(e) $1 billion cuts to child care; and

(f) cuts to family payments, slashing $6,000 from a typical Australian family; and

(2) given the Prime Minister promised good government starts now, 521 days late, calls on the Government to immediately dump its:

(a) unfair GP tax;

(b) $100,000 university degrees;

(c) $80 billion cut to schools and hospitals;

(d) attack on pensions;

(e) cuts to child care; and

(f) cuts to family payments.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As it is a pack of lies, leave is not granted.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the House will withdraw the unparliamentary language.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw.