Hansard in $3.8m facelift

Online overhaul of parliamentary records.

South Australian software developer Oconics has won a $3.8 million deal to re-develop and provide 6.5 years of support for Hansard - the system that publishes transcripts of parliamentary proceedings online.

The company has already developed a similar system for the South Australian parliament but Oconics' CEO Jonathan Ruckert said the Federal Hansard project will "be a much more complex and integrated [system]."

Ruckert claimed not to be familiar with Open Australia, a volunteer-built service which provides an alternative to the Hansard site in order to give citizens greater insights into the Government.

He put the Hansard update down to a "general process", rather than an initiative aimed at catching up to private sector alternatives.

"The existing system has been around for ten years and with the newer technology that has come out [the Government is looking] to standardise and manage everything in a more streamlined fashion," he said.

"That's their primary business motivation, just to upgrade everything into the latest technology."

Ruckert said Oconics is eyeing more Federal Government contracts in Canberra but was not currently at liberty to reveal any further details.

The company plans to open an office in Canberra in the next three to six months which will initially house three new employees, with the potential to expand should it secure additional Federal agency contracts.