WA govt funnels $10m into health systems

The WA government has prioritised $10 million to overhaul a number of the state’s critical health systems in this year’s state budget.

The government said that the capital funding had be reprioritised “in recognition of the current fiscal environment”.

The funding will go towards “a number of ICT requirements that are critical to the operation of key clinical and corporate system”, it said.

It will cover “a number of application and infrastructure upgrades”, including a $1.5 million overhaul of the psychiatric services online information system server “in order to address system stability issues”.

The government has also brought forward $7 million in funding for WA Police’s ICT optimisation program.

The funding, which will now be spent in 2018-19 instead of 2021-22, will be used to “update the radio core and telecommunications intercept system, and implement stronger cyber security measures,” it said.

The agency will also receive $2 million to upgrade its IT system to integrate with the national order reference system information sharing platform.

The platform was an outcome of the national domestic violence order scheme, and will be established at the end of 2019 to improve inter-jurisdictional monitoring of domestic violence orders across Australia.

An additional $2.3 million will be spent over the forward estimates on IT systems to support ongoing integration with the system.

Cyber security is also of concern to the state’s lottery authority, Lotterywest, which has been given $1.5 million to “respond to increasing cyber risks that threaten the integrity of ... gaming systems”.

This is in addition to $2.1 million for operating system upgrades, and $2.4 million for “networks and software in order to respond to evolving customer expectations and to maintain support environments”.

Elsewhere in the budget, the government has approved an additional $16.3 million for the Public Transport Authority’s ongoing radio system replacement project, bringing the total cost of the project to $136.1 million.

The project, which was first funded in the 2015-16 budget, will see the construction of “a digital radio system for the Transperth rail network”.

The agency will spend $41.5 million on the project during 2018-19. It will also spend more than half of the total allocation for its Smartrider replacement project during 2018-19.

Other measures funded in the budget for 2018-19 over forward estimates include:

• $22.6 million for computer hardware and software at the Department of Communities.
• $17.6 million for the Department of Transport to upgrade and replace IT infrastructure, including data storage, networks and servers.
• $16.8 million for IT hardware and software at the Insurance Commission of WA.
• $9 million for the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation to expand its existing Water Online IT system, including building an environmental portal for customer facing and back office processes and replacing legacy systems.
• $3.7 million for the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety to replace IT hardware and software.
• $3.3 million for Western Australian Treasury Corporation to update IT hardware and software.
• $2.9 million for the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation to replace ICT assets.
• $2.5 million to the Office of the Auditor General for IT hardware and software.
• $2 million for Treasury to upgrade its strategic information management system.
• $1.9 million for WorkCover WA Authority to replace and upgrade its core business systems and infrastructure.