ABS poaches tax IT exec as new CIO

A tax office IT executive will take charge of leading the online Census and Australia's statistics systems as the new chief information officer of the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The ABS has appointed Steve Hamilton, currently head of digital strategy and design at the Australian Taxation Office, as its CIO following the February departure of long-serving IT chief Patrick Hadley. The news was first reported by Computerworld.

Hadley revealed in February he would leave the agency after five years to retire. The agency started advertising for his replacement at the same time.

As the new joint CIO/CISO, Hamilton will report directly into the deputy Australian statistician and take over responsibility for all ICT functions and activities, including information security.

He will take charge of a "significant period of transformation change": the ABS was given $250 million in the 2015 federal budget to overhaul its ageing systems, and last year contracted CSC to provide a skilled IT workforce for the transformation.

Hamilton's new role will also include responsibility for the country's next online Census in 2021, following the disastrous 2016 national survey.

Hamilton is no stranger to difficult technology initiatives, having served as interim CIO at the tax office over Christmas when it was first forced to deal with the collapse of its HPE SAN.

He will start his new role on May 22.