And these are some of the bureaucrats that the Australian Health Minister expects to have access to a national personal health infomation data base

Fifty-two per cent of the agencies

we assessed using capability models had not established

effective controls to manage IT risks, information security

and business continuity. Thirty-one per cent of agencies had

not established effective change controls and 33 per cent

had not established effective controls for management of

physical security [Information Systems Audit Report, March 2010]

On 26 March 2010 Computer World reported on Part Two of a West Australia Government Information Systems Audit Report covering 56 government agencies including the WA Health Department:

Ineffective security measures in Western Australian government agencies are failing to protect sensitive staff and taxpayer information, according to an official security audit....

The audit report found that Royal Perth Hospital and the Department of Commerce do not keep accurate records of laptops. It claimed that Perth hospital "could not provide any assurance on the number of its laptops, where they are or who had them" and possessed two conflicting record lists with a disparity of 277 devices....

"All seven agencies lacked comprehensive management, technical and physical controls over their laptops and portable storage devices to minimise the risk of them being lost or stolen and of sensitive information being accessed," the report states.

Six of the seven agencies failed auditor expectations by not enforcing access controls for laptops or portable devices that would help prevent sensitive data leaving the organisation. The WA Police received praise for encrypting all outgoing sensitive information.

The auditor found critical software vulnerablilities across each of the seven agencies due to a lack of patching. WorkCover was the only agency to enable laptop firewalls to protect computers from introducing potential infections from insecure networks into the corporate environment.

The second part of the report, tabled by acting auditor general Glen Clarke, blasted the agencies for poor application and general computer controls.

Out of the 52 agencies investigated, two had stored unsecured credit card data — one via a network "accessible by any user" and the other within an application — in direct violation of the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard.

Auditors were able to access sensitive information through "highly privileged" accounts that were accessed by simple password guessing. One agency allowed users to access accounts with a single character password that did not expire.

Thousands of sensitive records were cracked with the same basic password guessing in "several agencies".

Auditors were able to manipulate staff and contractor paychecks stored on freely accessible folders before they were processed.

Another unnamed agency sent out names and addresses of clients to external contractors, and many were found to lack basic account access controls that stop users from accessing inappropriate sensitive data, or even creating administration accounts without approval.

Boot passwords were scarcely employed by the agencies, leaving laptop hard disks vulnerable to hacking. Contractor service level agreements were found to be not enforced by another agency.

Weak access controls were found in 41 per cent of agencies, followed by poor network security in 23 per cent, polices and procedures, password control, and physical security.

Hard to get the Premier's attention? Well life's like that in regional New South Wales

On 5 February 2010 The Daily Examiner proudly announced:

TODAY four North Coast mayors and the region's three main newspapers start a combined campaign to get much-needed improvements to the Pacific Highway accelerated. Clarence Valley Mayor Richie Williamson, Coffs Harbour Mayor Keith Rhoades, Richmond Valley Mayor Col Sullivan and Ballina Mayor Phil Silver yesterday sent letters to the NSW Premier Kristina Keneally and Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell inviting them on a highway road trip between Coffs Harbour and Ballina - a road most of us travel regularly.
It is the first step in what is likely to be an ongoing campaign to get the government to rethink its highway priorities and it is a campaign that has the strong support of this newspaper, the Coffs Harbour-based Coffs Coast Advocate and the Lismore-based Northern Star.
It is rare - most likely unprecedented - that four mayors and three daily newspapers have banded together to support a single issue and illustrates the level of concern in the region about preventable highway deaths.
Late last year the NSW Government told us there were no major upgrades planned for the area between just north of Coffs Harbour and just south of Ballina for at least the next five years because it was focusing on areas with higher traffic volumes and where pre-planning work had been done.

I'm sure a resounding cheer went up at breafast tables all over the North Coast that morning.

Five days later Premier Keneally had passed the ball to one of her ministers and the editor was reporting:

THIS is a transcript of part of a conversation yesterday between a Daily Examiner journalist and a representative of the NSW Minister for State and Regional Development, Ian Macdonald.
The representative was responding to an invitation the mayors of Coffs Harbour, Clarence Valley, Richmond Valley and Ballina sent to the Premier, Kristina Keneally, to travel the Pacific Highway between Coffs Harbour and Ballina to see its condition for themselves.
Mr Macdonald was responding on behalf of the premier.
Reporter: "And he'll do the tour?"
Spokesperson: "He'll be doing that with the mayors, wouldn't he?"
Reporter: "Yeah, they're doing a drive from Coffs to Ballina. That's the idea, to highlight the problem areas."
Spokesperson: "Coffs to Ballina, that's, what, 18km?"
Reporter: "No, it's a reasonable drive ... about two-and-a-half hours. That was the thrust of the invitation, so they (the leaders) can see for themselves how bad it is."
Spokesperson: "Oh, it's a drive."
We don't want to crucify this spokesperson; they were trying to do their best to answer our inquiries. They may have just moved from interstate with little knowledge of the region.
Certainly the minister has a better understanding of the geography of the area after being here a number of times
But the exchange helps illustrate how difficult it can be to get the message across to political leaders about what is needed on the highway.
And it also illustrates why it is so important to get ministers and the premier here first hand to see the highway's condition and not rely on the advice of staffers.
'Coffs to Ballina, that's, what, 18km?'

According to yet another article it appears that the NSW Leader of the Opposition is overseas at present - what is your excuse for staying away Ms. Keneally?

Australia - what's wrong with this picture?

Map fromwww.geographicguide.net

Australia has an estimated land area of 7,686,650 square kilometres.
It has a growing population which currently stands at about 21.9 million people.
The majority of Australians live within 100 kilometres of the coastline and, in that narrow strip more people live in major cities and surrounding suburbs than live in smaller towns and villages.
Only around ten per cent of Australia's land mass is arable land suitable for crops or grazing and most of that is in the same coastal fringe. The majority of this arable land is in private hands.

By 2049 it has been estimated that Australia's population will reach 35 million people.
This means that in fifty years time there will be one person for every 0.21 square kilometres of the Australian continent, but most of these people will probably want to live within a total area of less than 1 million square kilometres.

Coincidentally by 2050 the predicted negative impacts of climate change (including prolonged water scarcity and coastal sea water inundation) should be pronounced in this country.

The maths are not looking good and all levels of government are only paying lip service to sustainable planning.

What are you doing to stop your local council and state government from allowing the coast to be developed to death?

Frontier Economics recycles its submissions to government and turns them into Turnbull's Greener, Cheaper, Smarter ETS? rofl

In September 2008 business consultants Frontier Economics (Australia) made an 18-page formal submission to the Commonwealth Department of Climate Change on the emissions trading scheme Green Paper.
It has previously made a 36-page formal submission to the Garnaut Climate Change Review in April 2008.

Unsurprisingly in August 2008 the consultants also advised on a joint industry response by the National Generators' Forum (which represents 22 major power generators) to the Rudd Government proposed emissions trading scheme.

What all this means is that the Rudd Government had considered Frontier Economics' assessment of ETS models and conclusions before it finalised the government's own proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme(CPRS) legislation.

Now I may be a trifle thick here, but I cannot see how Malcolm Turnbull or the Coalition get any political brownie points for this basic reworking of Frontier Economics earlier positions with a bit of colourful window dressing thrown in to produce the August 2009 Greener, Cheaper, Smarter ETS aka the 102-page graph ridden report The economic impact of the CPRS and modifications to the CPRS:REPORT FOR THE COALITION AND SENATOR XENOPHON.

If Rudd's CPRS is shaping up to be a dud because it gives too much leeway to dirty industries, then Turnbull's ETS is a complete disaster because it appears to give these industries even more (with only a promise of very short-term savings for ordinary Australian households during implementation of this scheme) and without a clear, workable incentive for industry to actually reduce greenhouse gas emission levels.
It seems we are supposed to rely on other countries doing the actual carbon reduction and being ever willing to sell Australian industry what Turnbull fondly supposes will be rather cheap credits.

Conclusion: Malcolm Turnbull will continue to be an embarrassment until his party finally potty trains this political l'enfant terrible.

The Prim Minister and Senator Conjob go sensoring

With their national broadband plans languishing (will there or won't there be an announcement on Friday 13th) and the Great Firewall of Australia still not legitimately live trialled, I was amazed to see the Prime Minster's monkey Senator Conroy announce his burning desire not to produce "dumb projects":
THE federal Government is considering mandating that all major new infrastructure projects such as bridges, roads and railways have smart sensors built into them to monitor maintenance and help prevent disasters like the Minnesota bridge collapse.
Minnesota bridge collapse?
Yeah that's a big bridge. In America.
But most of our bridges are smaller ones dotted over the country and maintained by local government on shoestring budgets.
Will the Rudd Government's grand smart sensor implant hype plan actually come with increased funding for local councils so that they can boost the rate of upgrading and why isn't any of this proposed smart technology going into aging infrastructure like the 7,000-odd wooden bridges in NSW many of which are on the North Coast?
Surely the most vulnerable of bridges deserve the highest level of monitoring.