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Some 75 towns across New South Wales have started accessing the Internet through Linux-based satellite routers in what is said to be largest network of its type in Australia spanning upwards of 800,000 square kilometres.

Australian broadband penetration is continuing to lag behind the rest of the world, according to META group research.

Expand Networks, providers of airborne secure remote access to US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the Joint Forces Command, has substantially upped its antipodean presence aiming to gain a substantial foothold in defence, government and corporate sectors.

At the third annual "Open Source in Government" conference at George Washington University in Washington. D.C. last week, Netscape cofounder Marc Andreessen came up with his top twelve reasons on why open source will boom over the next five to 10 years.

Australia's 600-pound telco Telstra is in the midst of its biggest security shake up in more than a decade, and is understood to have appointed a new group manager for security across the whole enterprise. It is also advertising for no fewer than 10 senior and executive security positions.

Open source software will have to lift its security game if it is to match that of proprietary software, particularly if its use proliferates, according to representatives from global information security companies.

In what has been a clearly testing week, Australian Taxation Office CIO Bill Gibson has spelled out his vision for Australia's single largest revenue raiser and scotched allegations that the Tax Office is set to move its applications code shop to India.

In the six months since the spectacular exit of Richard Alston as IT and communications minister and his replacement by Daryl Williams QC, much has quietly changed in the way those who hold power in the federal sphere view public sector information technology and particularly outsourcing.

IT needs to be upfront about costs, speak in plain English and be prepared to deliver reality rather than promises to both users and suppliers to secure the budget they want.

Australian unions and the Labor Opposition have signalled their support for US-style legislation that penalises companies that engage in offshore outsourcing.

The federal government has moved decisively to centralise control of its ICT expenditure, architecture and execution across all agencies and will appoint an Australian government chief information officer (AGCIO) to oversee whole of government ICT coordination, backed by a new specialist office to oversee the development and promotion of its own ICT agenda.

Five government agencies have been told to develop performance measures for their Internet offerings after their Web sites were declared rudderless ships floating aimlessly on a sea of taxpayer's money, according to the findings Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) report.

Taking the per-employee pricing model it introduced last September a great leap forward, Sun has said it's readying a per-citizen licensing plan for countries using its Java Enterprise System and Java Desktop System software.

The 2006 national Census will be among the many beneficiaries of a new government database that helps translate addresses into geocoded locations.

The push within Australia to give open source software major grip in government and large organisations has been boosted by the formation of a new representative body, Open Source Industry Australia.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) will conduct a concerted campaign against Telstra and the federal government to stop the national carrier from sending jobs offshore, according to ACTU president Sharan Burrow.

A little bewildered by Australia's public sector charge toward Linux, Microsoft claims misguided 'perceptions' and 'misinformation' has derailed the IT purchasing debate.

Australia’s software industry is looking for more access to grants, tax concessions and Government procurement, according to a recent study conducted on behalf of ARN.

Federal Privacy Commissioner Malcolm Crompton has released a discussion paper on information privacy and employee records that will have widespread implications for the IT department.

Australia's IT unemployment rate is 77 percent higher than the national jobless average but incredibly, the rate is an improvement on the year before, according to the Australian Computer Society's (ACS) 2003 ICT Employment Survey.