❓ Question regarding problems with the new Transport Executive and Licensing Information System (TRELIS), including incorrect information, delays, uncollected fees, and discarded documents. The Minister deflects blame to the previous government's underfunding of the project and claims issues are being resolved.
AnsweredQoN 448Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
I refer the minister to major problems in the Government’s new transport executive and licensing information system, which has resulted in incorrect information being sent out on licences, delays in the issue of licences, more than one million uncollected licensing fees and transfer documents being discarded. (1) Is the minister aware of whether she, the Director General of the Department for Planning and Infrastructure, the executive director, the chief financial officer and/or the project manager responsible for TRELIS received any advice in writing that there were problems with the system prior to it being implemented statewide? (2) Will the minister confirm that senior members of the management team responsible for the implementation of TRELIS went on leave shortly after its statewide rollout, despite obvious problems with the system? (3) What action has the minister taken to ensure that senior staff at the Department for Planning and Infrastructure did not ignore advice that the system was in trouble? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN
AnswerView source ↗
(1)-(3) There is a very interesting history to this, as I will outline briefly. The need for this system became evident when the previous Government made a decision, which was not an unreasonable decision, to move away from the police mainframe computer and to transfer licensing to the then Department of Transport. In 1995 it started thinking about TRELIS. Of course, the previous Government continued very slowly with that process and continued to use the very cumbersome and antiquated technology of the police mainframe computer. That system was becoming increasingly unable to cope with the growth of transactions. We are talking about a system that involves 6.5 million transactions a year. Therefore, the system must have an enormous capacity. The TRELIS project was started. In 2000 under the previous Government a contract was awarded to ADI. Unfortunately, part of the problem emanated from the fact that only $5 million had been allocated by the previous Government. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Were you given any written advice? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Hold on! It is certainly true that when we came into government it became obvious after a year or so that the TRELIS project was massively underfunded. The previous Government had put it in the budget as a $5 million project, even though the year before it had advice that it would be a $29 million project. A reassessment of the project was therefore under way in 2002-03 to see whether the project would be workable. An enormous volume of work was undertaken. It was decided that the project should be properly funded, which was a decision made by our Government. It was decided to not fund it for just $5 million, but to recognise that it was a $32 million project. We properly funded it and that work was completed. It was always recognised that it was an extremely complex project. A further study was undertaken in 2003 and early 2004 to see whether it was safe to go live with this project. It is important to understand that it required the police mainframe computer to cease operating in that area and for this new computer system to come online. It was therefore all or nothing. Once it went live, we had to go over to that system. It was always going to be a challenge. The advice given to us in about April 2004 was that the project was very complex and, of course, there would be teething problems, but it was safe to go live with the project. I repeat that of course there have been problems, and we acknowledge them. I also acknowledge that the department should have been more proactive in advising the public about these problems as they emerged. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior staff go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know. If the member wants to give me the name of the person she claims went on leave, I am more than happy to pursue the matter. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior members of the department go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know whether the member is familiar with the Public Sector Management Act. I do not personally supervise the leave arrangements of the thousand-plus people in the department. If the member has any detailed question, I am happy to answer it. I am saying that this crisis exists only in the fevered imagination of the comic that presents itself as our daily newspaper. There are difficulties but they are surmountable. We are very confident that over the next three to four weeks all the backlog that has been generated through the rollout will be dealt with. Several members interjected. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
(1) Is the minister aware of whether she, the Director General of the Department for Planning and Infrastructure, the executive director, the chief financial officer and/or the project manager responsible for TRELIS received any advice in writing that there were problems with the system prior to it being implemented statewide? (2) Will the minister confirm that senior members of the management team responsible for the implementation of TRELIS went on leave shortly after its statewide rollout, despite obvious problems with the system? (3) What action has the minister taken to ensure that senior staff at the Department for Planning and Infrastructure did not ignore advice that the system was in trouble? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN replied: (1)-(3) There is a very interesting history to this, as I will outline briefly. The need for this system became evident when the previous Government made a decision, which was not an unreasonable decision, to move away from the police mainframe computer and to transfer licensing to the then Department of Transport. In 1995 it started thinking about TRELIS. Of course, the previous Government continued very slowly with that process and continued to use the very cumbersome and antiquated technology of the police mainframe computer. That system was becoming increasingly unable to cope with the growth of transactions. We are talking about a system that involves 6.5 million transactions a year. Therefore, the system must have an enormous capacity. The TRELIS project was started. In 2000 under the previous Government a contract was awarded to ADI. Unfortunately, part of the problem emanated from the fact that only $5 million had been allocated by the previous Government. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Were you given any written advice? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Hold on! It is certainly true that when we came into government it became obvious after a year or so that the TRELIS project was massively underfunded. The previous Government had put it in the budget as a $5 million project, even though the year before it had advice that it would be a $29 million project. A reassessment of the project was therefore under way in 2002-03 to see whether the project would be workable. An enormous volume of work was undertaken. It was decided that the project should be properly funded, which was a decision made by our Government. It was decided to not fund it for just $5 million, but to recognise that it was a $32 million project. We properly funded it and that work was completed. It was always recognised that it was an extremely complex project. A further study was undertaken in 2003 and early 2004 to see whether it was safe to go live with this project. It is important to understand that it required the police mainframe computer to cease operating in that area and for this new computer system to come online. It was therefore all or nothing. Once it went live, we had to go over to that system. It was always going to be a challenge. The advice given to us in about April 2004 was that the project was very complex and, of course, there would be teething problems, but it was safe to go live with the project. I repeat that of course there have been problems, and we acknowledge them. I also acknowledge that the department should have been more proactive in advising the public about these problems as they emerged. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior staff go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know. If the member wants to give me the name of the person she claims went on leave, I am more than happy to pursue the matter. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior members of the department go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know whether the member is familiar with the Public Sector Management Act. I do not personally supervise the leave arrangements of the thousand-plus people in the department. If the member has any detailed question, I am happy to answer it. I am saying that this crisis exists only in the fevered imagination of the comic that presents itself as our daily newspaper. There are difficulties but they are surmountable. We are very confident that over the next three to four weeks all the backlog that has been generated through the rollout will be dealt with. Several members interjected. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
(2) Will the minister confirm that senior members of the management team responsible for the implementation of TRELIS went on leave shortly after its statewide rollout, despite obvious problems with the system? (3) What action has the minister taken to ensure that senior staff at the Department for Planning and Infrastructure did not ignore advice that the system was in trouble? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN replied: (1)-(3) There is a very interesting history to this, as I will outline briefly. The need for this system became evident when the previous Government made a decision, which was not an unreasonable decision, to move away from the police mainframe computer and to transfer licensing to the then Department of Transport. In 1995 it started thinking about TRELIS. Of course, the previous Government continued very slowly with that process and continued to use the very cumbersome and antiquated technology of the police mainframe computer. That system was becoming increasingly unable to cope with the growth of transactions. We are talking about a system that involves 6.5 million transactions a year. Therefore, the system must have an enormous capacity. The TRELIS project was started. In 2000 under the previous Government a contract was awarded to ADI. Unfortunately, part of the problem emanated from the fact that only $5 million had been allocated by the previous Government. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Were you given any written advice? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Hold on! It is certainly true that when we came into government it became obvious after a year or so that the TRELIS project was massively underfunded. The previous Government had put it in the budget as a $5 million project, even though the year before it had advice that it would be a $29 million project. A reassessment of the project was therefore under way in 2002-03 to see whether the project would be workable. An enormous volume of work was undertaken. It was decided that the project should be properly funded, which was a decision made by our Government. It was decided to not fund it for just $5 million, but to recognise that it was a $32 million project. We properly funded it and that work was completed. It was always recognised that it was an extremely complex project. A further study was undertaken in 2003 and early 2004 to see whether it was safe to go live with this project. It is important to understand that it required the police mainframe computer to cease operating in that area and for this new computer system to come online. It was therefore all or nothing. Once it went live, we had to go over to that system. It was always going to be a challenge. The advice given to us in about April 2004 was that the project was very complex and, of course, there would be teething problems, but it was safe to go live with the project. I repeat that of course there have been problems, and we acknowledge them. I also acknowledge that the department should have been more proactive in advising the public about these problems as they emerged. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior staff go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know. If the member wants to give me the name of the person she claims went on leave, I am more than happy to pursue the matter. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior members of the department go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know whether the member is familiar with the Public Sector Management Act. I do not personally supervise the leave arrangements of the thousand-plus people in the department. If the member has any detailed question, I am happy to answer it. I am saying that this crisis exists only in the fevered imagination of the comic that presents itself as our daily newspaper. There are difficulties but they are surmountable. We are very confident that over the next three to four weeks all the backlog that has been generated through the rollout will be dealt with. Several members interjected. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
(3) What action has the minister taken to ensure that senior staff at the Department for Planning and Infrastructure did not ignore advice that the system was in trouble? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN replied: (1)-(3) There is a very interesting history to this, as I will outline briefly. The need for this system became evident when the previous Government made a decision, which was not an unreasonable decision, to move away from the police mainframe computer and to transfer licensing to the then Department of Transport. In 1995 it started thinking about TRELIS. Of course, the previous Government continued very slowly with that process and continued to use the very cumbersome and antiquated technology of the police mainframe computer. That system was becoming increasingly unable to cope with the growth of transactions. We are talking about a system that involves 6.5 million transactions a year. Therefore, the system must have an enormous capacity. The TRELIS project was started. In 2000 under the previous Government a contract was awarded to ADI. Unfortunately, part of the problem emanated from the fact that only $5 million had been allocated by the previous Government. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Were you given any written advice? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Hold on! It is certainly true that when we came into government it became obvious after a year or so that the TRELIS project was massively underfunded. The previous Government had put it in the budget as a $5 million project, even though the year before it had advice that it would be a $29 million project. A reassessment of the project was therefore under way in 2002-03 to see whether the project would be workable. An enormous volume of work was undertaken. It was decided that the project should be properly funded, which was a decision made by our Government. It was decided to not fund it for just $5 million, but to recognise that it was a $32 million project. We properly funded it and that work was completed. It was always recognised that it was an extremely complex project. A further study was undertaken in 2003 and early 2004 to see whether it was safe to go live with this project. It is important to understand that it required the police mainframe computer to cease operating in that area and for this new computer system to come online. It was therefore all or nothing. Once it went live, we had to go over to that system. It was always going to be a challenge. The advice given to us in about April 2004 was that the project was very complex and, of course, there would be teething problems, but it was safe to go live with the project. I repeat that of course there have been problems, and we acknowledge them. I also acknowledge that the department should have been more proactive in advising the public about these problems as they emerged. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior staff go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know. If the member wants to give me the name of the person she claims went on leave, I am more than happy to pursue the matter. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior members of the department go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know whether the member is familiar with the Public Sector Management Act. I do not personally supervise the leave arrangements of the thousand-plus people in the department. If the member has any detailed question, I am happy to answer it. I am saying that this crisis exists only in the fevered imagination of the comic that presents itself as our daily newspaper. There are difficulties but they are surmountable. We are very confident that over the next three to four weeks all the backlog that has been generated through the rollout will be dealt with. Several members interjected. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN replied: (1)-(3) There is a very interesting history to this, as I will outline briefly. The need for this system became evident when the previous Government made a decision, which was not an unreasonable decision, to move away from the police mainframe computer and to transfer licensing to the then Department of Transport. In 1995 it started thinking about TRELIS. Of course, the previous Government continued very slowly with that process and continued to use the very cumbersome and antiquated technology of the police mainframe computer. That system was becoming increasingly unable to cope with the growth of transactions. We are talking about a system that involves 6.5 million transactions a year. Therefore, the system must have an enormous capacity. The TRELIS project was started. In 2000 under the previous Government a contract was awarded to ADI. Unfortunately, part of the problem emanated from the fact that only $5 million had been allocated by the previous Government. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Were you given any written advice? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Hold on! It is certainly true that when we came into government it became obvious after a year or so that the TRELIS project was massively underfunded. The previous Government had put it in the budget as a $5 million project, even though the year before it had advice that it would be a $29 million project. A reassessment of the project was therefore under way in 2002-03 to see whether the project would be workable. An enormous volume of work was undertaken. It was decided that the project should be properly funded, which was a decision made by our Government. It was decided to not fund it for just $5 million, but to recognise that it was a $32 million project. We properly funded it and that work was completed. It was always recognised that it was an extremely complex project. A further study was undertaken in 2003 and early 2004 to see whether it was safe to go live with this project. It is important to understand that it required the police mainframe computer to cease operating in that area and for this new computer system to come online. It was therefore all or nothing. Once it went live, we had to go over to that system. It was always going to be a challenge. The advice given to us in about April 2004 was that the project was very complex and, of course, there would be teething problems, but it was safe to go live with the project. I repeat that of course there have been problems, and we acknowledge them. I also acknowledge that the department should have been more proactive in advising the public about these problems as they emerged. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior staff go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know. If the member wants to give me the name of the person she claims went on leave, I am more than happy to pursue the matter. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior members of the department go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know whether the member is familiar with the Public Sector Management Act. I do not personally supervise the leave arrangements of the thousand-plus people in the department. If the member has any detailed question, I am happy to answer it. I am saying that this crisis exists only in the fevered imagination of the comic that presents itself as our daily newspaper. There are difficulties but they are surmountable. We are very confident that over the next three to four weeks all the backlog that has been generated through the rollout will be dealt with. Several members interjected. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
(1)-(3) There is a very interesting history to this, as I will outline briefly. The need for this system became evident when the previous Government made a decision, which was not an unreasonable decision, to move away from the police mainframe computer and to transfer licensing to the then Department of Transport. In 1995 it started thinking about TRELIS. Of course, the previous Government continued very slowly with that process and continued to use the very cumbersome and antiquated technology of the police mainframe computer. That system was becoming increasingly unable to cope with the growth of transactions. We are talking about a system that involves 6.5 million transactions a year. Therefore, the system must have an enormous capacity. The TRELIS project was started. In 2000 under the previous Government a contract was awarded to ADI. Unfortunately, part of the problem emanated from the fact that only $5 million had been allocated by the previous Government. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Were you given any written advice? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Hold on! It is certainly true that when we came into government it became obvious after a year or so that the TRELIS project was massively underfunded. The previous Government had put it in the budget as a $5 million project, even though the year before it had advice that it would be a $29 million project. A reassessment of the project was therefore under way in 2002-03 to see whether the project would be workable. An enormous volume of work was undertaken. It was decided that the project should be properly funded, which was a decision made by our Government. It was decided to not fund it for just $5 million, but to recognise that it was a $32 million project. We properly funded it and that work was completed. It was always recognised that it was an extremely complex project. A further study was undertaken in 2003 and early 2004 to see whether it was safe to go live with this project. It is important to understand that it required the police mainframe computer to cease operating in that area and for this new computer system to come online. It was therefore all or nothing. Once it went live, we had to go over to that system. It was always going to be a challenge. The advice given to us in about April 2004 was that the project was very complex and, of course, there would be teething problems, but it was safe to go live with the project. I repeat that of course there have been problems, and we acknowledge them. I also acknowledge that the department should have been more proactive in advising the public about these problems as they emerged. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior staff go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know. If the member wants to give me the name of the person she claims went on leave, I am more than happy to pursue the matter. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior members of the department go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know whether the member is familiar with the Public Sector Management Act. I do not personally supervise the leave arrangements of the thousand-plus people in the department. If the member has any detailed question, I am happy to answer it. I am saying that this crisis exists only in the fevered imagination of the comic that presents itself as our daily newspaper. There are difficulties but they are surmountable. We are very confident that over the next three to four weeks all the backlog that has been generated through the rollout will be dealt with. Several members interjected. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Hold on! It is certainly true that when we came into government it became obvious after a year or so that the TRELIS project was massively underfunded. The previous Government had put it in the budget as a $5 million project, even though the year before it had advice that it would be a $29 million project. A reassessment of the project was therefore under way in 2002-03 to see whether the project would be workable. An enormous volume of work was undertaken. It was decided that the project should be properly funded, which was a decision made by our Government. It was decided to not fund it for just $5 million, but to recognise that it was a $32 million project. We properly funded it and that work was completed. It was always recognised that it was an extremely complex project. A further study was undertaken in 2003 and early 2004 to see whether it was safe to go live with this project. It is important to understand that it required the police mainframe computer to cease operating in that area and for this new computer system to come online. It was therefore all or nothing. Once it went live, we had to go over to that system. It was always going to be a challenge. The advice given to us in about April 2004 was that the project was very complex and, of course, there would be teething problems, but it was safe to go live with the project. I repeat that of course there have been problems, and we acknowledge them. I also acknowledge that the department should have been more proactive in advising the public about these problems as they emerged. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior staff go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know. If the member wants to give me the name of the person she claims went on leave, I am more than happy to pursue the matter. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior members of the department go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know whether the member is familiar with the Public Sector Management Act. I do not personally supervise the leave arrangements of the thousand-plus people in the department. If the member has any detailed question, I am happy to answer it. I am saying that this crisis exists only in the fevered imagination of the comic that presents itself as our daily newspaper. There are difficulties but they are surmountable. We are very confident that over the next three to four weeks all the backlog that has been generated through the rollout will be dealt with. Several members interjected. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
The advice given to us in about April 2004 was that the project was very complex and, of course, there would be teething problems, but it was safe to go live with the project. I repeat that of course there have been problems, and we acknowledge them. I also acknowledge that the department should have been more proactive in advising the public about these problems as they emerged. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior staff go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know. If the member wants to give me the name of the person she claims went on leave, I am more than happy to pursue the matter. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior members of the department go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know whether the member is familiar with the Public Sector Management Act. I do not personally supervise the leave arrangements of the thousand-plus people in the department. If the member has any detailed question, I am happy to answer it. I am saying that this crisis exists only in the fevered imagination of the comic that presents itself as our daily newspaper. There are difficulties but they are surmountable. We are very confident that over the next three to four weeks all the backlog that has been generated through the rollout will be dealt with. Several members interjected. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior staff go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know. If the member wants to give me the name of the person she claims went on leave, I am more than happy to pursue the matter. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior members of the department go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know whether the member is familiar with the Public Sector Management Act. I do not personally supervise the leave arrangements of the thousand-plus people in the department. If the member has any detailed question, I am happy to answer it. I am saying that this crisis exists only in the fevered imagination of the comic that presents itself as our daily newspaper. There are difficulties but they are surmountable. We are very confident that over the next three to four weeks all the backlog that has been generated through the rollout will be dealt with. Several members interjected. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know. If the member wants to give me the name of the person she claims went on leave, I am more than happy to pursue the matter. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior members of the department go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know whether the member is familiar with the Public Sector Management Act. I do not personally supervise the leave arrangements of the thousand-plus people in the department. If the member has any detailed question, I am happy to answer it. I am saying that this crisis exists only in the fevered imagination of the comic that presents itself as our daily newspaper. There are difficulties but they are surmountable. We are very confident that over the next three to four weeks all the backlog that has been generated through the rollout will be dealt with. Several members interjected. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior members of the department go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know whether the member is familiar with the Public Sector Management Act. I do not personally supervise the leave arrangements of the thousand-plus people in the department. If the member has any detailed question, I am happy to answer it. I am saying that this crisis exists only in the fevered imagination of the comic that presents itself as our daily newspaper. There are difficulties but they are surmountable. We are very confident that over the next three to four weeks all the backlog that has been generated through the rollout will be dealt with. Several members interjected. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know whether the member is familiar with the Public Sector Management Act. I do not personally supervise the leave arrangements of the thousand-plus people in the department. If the member has any detailed question, I am happy to answer it. I am saying that this crisis exists only in the fevered imagination of the comic that presents itself as our daily newspaper. There are difficulties but they are surmountable. We are very confident that over the next three to four weeks all the backlog that has been generated through the rollout will be dealt with. Several members interjected. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
Several members interjected. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
(1) Is the minister aware of whether she, the Director General of the Department for Planning and Infrastructure, the executive director, the chief financial officer and/or the project manager responsible for TRELIS received any advice in writing that there were problems with the system prior to it being implemented statewide? (2) Will the minister confirm that senior members of the management team responsible for the implementation of TRELIS went on leave shortly after its statewide rollout, despite obvious problems with the system? (3) What action has the minister taken to ensure that senior staff at the Department for Planning and Infrastructure did not ignore advice that the system was in trouble? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN replied: (1)-(3) There is a very interesting history to this, as I will outline briefly. The need for this system became evident when the previous Government made a decision, which was not an unreasonable decision, to move away from the police mainframe computer and to transfer licensing to the then Department of Transport. In 1995 it started thinking about TRELIS. Of course, the previous Government continued very slowly with that process and continued to use the very cumbersome and antiquated technology of the police mainframe computer. That system was becoming increasingly unable to cope with the growth of transactions. We are talking about a system that involves 6.5 million transactions a year. Therefore, the system must have an enormous capacity. The TRELIS project was started. In 2000 under the previous Government a contract was awarded to ADI. Unfortunately, part of the problem emanated from the fact that only $5 million had been allocated by the previous Government. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Were you given any written advice? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Hold on! It is certainly true that when we came into government it became obvious after a year or so that the TRELIS project was massively underfunded. The previous Government had put it in the budget as a $5 million project, even though the year before it had advice that it would be a $29 million project. A reassessment of the project was therefore under way in 2002-03 to see whether the project would be workable. An enormous volume of work was undertaken. It was decided that the project should be properly funded, which was a decision made by our Government. It was decided to not fund it for just $5 million, but to recognise that it was a $32 million project. We properly funded it and that work was completed. It was always recognised that it was an extremely complex project. A further study was undertaken in 2003 and early 2004 to see whether it was safe to go live with this project. It is important to understand that it required the police mainframe computer to cease operating in that area and for this new computer system to come online. It was therefore all or nothing. Once it went live, we had to go over to that system. It was always going to be a challenge. The advice given to us in about April 2004 was that the project was very complex and, of course, there would be teething problems, but it was safe to go live with the project. I repeat that of course there have been problems, and we acknowledge them. I also acknowledge that the department should have been more proactive in advising the public about these problems as they emerged. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior staff go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know. If the member wants to give me the name of the person she claims went on leave, I am more than happy to pursue the matter. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior members of the department go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know whether the member is familiar with the Public Sector Management Act. I do not personally supervise the leave arrangements of the thousand-plus people in the department. If the member has any detailed question, I am happy to answer it. I am saying that this crisis exists only in the fevered imagination of the comic that presents itself as our daily newspaper. There are difficulties but they are surmountable. We are very confident that over the next three to four weeks all the backlog that has been generated through the rollout will be dealt with. Several members interjected. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
(2) Will the minister confirm that senior members of the management team responsible for the implementation of TRELIS went on leave shortly after its statewide rollout, despite obvious problems with the system? (3) What action has the minister taken to ensure that senior staff at the Department for Planning and Infrastructure did not ignore advice that the system was in trouble? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN replied: (1)-(3) There is a very interesting history to this, as I will outline briefly. The need for this system became evident when the previous Government made a decision, which was not an unreasonable decision, to move away from the police mainframe computer and to transfer licensing to the then Department of Transport. In 1995 it started thinking about TRELIS. Of course, the previous Government continued very slowly with that process and continued to use the very cumbersome and antiquated technology of the police mainframe computer. That system was becoming increasingly unable to cope with the growth of transactions. We are talking about a system that involves 6.5 million transactions a year. Therefore, the system must have an enormous capacity. The TRELIS project was started. In 2000 under the previous Government a contract was awarded to ADI. Unfortunately, part of the problem emanated from the fact that only $5 million had been allocated by the previous Government. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Were you given any written advice? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Hold on! It is certainly true that when we came into government it became obvious after a year or so that the TRELIS project was massively underfunded. The previous Government had put it in the budget as a $5 million project, even though the year before it had advice that it would be a $29 million project. A reassessment of the project was therefore under way in 2002-03 to see whether the project would be workable. An enormous volume of work was undertaken. It was decided that the project should be properly funded, which was a decision made by our Government. It was decided to not fund it for just $5 million, but to recognise that it was a $32 million project. We properly funded it and that work was completed. It was always recognised that it was an extremely complex project. A further study was undertaken in 2003 and early 2004 to see whether it was safe to go live with this project. It is important to understand that it required the police mainframe computer to cease operating in that area and for this new computer system to come online. It was therefore all or nothing. Once it went live, we had to go over to that system. It was always going to be a challenge. The advice given to us in about April 2004 was that the project was very complex and, of course, there would be teething problems, but it was safe to go live with the project. I repeat that of course there have been problems, and we acknowledge them. I also acknowledge that the department should have been more proactive in advising the public about these problems as they emerged. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior staff go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know. If the member wants to give me the name of the person she claims went on leave, I am more than happy to pursue the matter. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior members of the department go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know whether the member is familiar with the Public Sector Management Act. I do not personally supervise the leave arrangements of the thousand-plus people in the department. If the member has any detailed question, I am happy to answer it. I am saying that this crisis exists only in the fevered imagination of the comic that presents itself as our daily newspaper. There are difficulties but they are surmountable. We are very confident that over the next three to four weeks all the backlog that has been generated through the rollout will be dealt with. Several members interjected. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
(3) What action has the minister taken to ensure that senior staff at the Department for Planning and Infrastructure did not ignore advice that the system was in trouble? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN replied: (1)-(3) There is a very interesting history to this, as I will outline briefly. The need for this system became evident when the previous Government made a decision, which was not an unreasonable decision, to move away from the police mainframe computer and to transfer licensing to the then Department of Transport. In 1995 it started thinking about TRELIS. Of course, the previous Government continued very slowly with that process and continued to use the very cumbersome and antiquated technology of the police mainframe computer. That system was becoming increasingly unable to cope with the growth of transactions. We are talking about a system that involves 6.5 million transactions a year. Therefore, the system must have an enormous capacity. The TRELIS project was started. In 2000 under the previous Government a contract was awarded to ADI. Unfortunately, part of the problem emanated from the fact that only $5 million had been allocated by the previous Government. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Were you given any written advice? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Hold on! It is certainly true that when we came into government it became obvious after a year or so that the TRELIS project was massively underfunded. The previous Government had put it in the budget as a $5 million project, even though the year before it had advice that it would be a $29 million project. A reassessment of the project was therefore under way in 2002-03 to see whether the project would be workable. An enormous volume of work was undertaken. It was decided that the project should be properly funded, which was a decision made by our Government. It was decided to not fund it for just $5 million, but to recognise that it was a $32 million project. We properly funded it and that work was completed. It was always recognised that it was an extremely complex project. A further study was undertaken in 2003 and early 2004 to see whether it was safe to go live with this project. It is important to understand that it required the police mainframe computer to cease operating in that area and for this new computer system to come online. It was therefore all or nothing. Once it went live, we had to go over to that system. It was always going to be a challenge. The advice given to us in about April 2004 was that the project was very complex and, of course, there would be teething problems, but it was safe to go live with the project. I repeat that of course there have been problems, and we acknowledge them. I also acknowledge that the department should have been more proactive in advising the public about these problems as they emerged. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior staff go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know. If the member wants to give me the name of the person she claims went on leave, I am more than happy to pursue the matter. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior members of the department go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know whether the member is familiar with the Public Sector Management Act. I do not personally supervise the leave arrangements of the thousand-plus people in the department. If the member has any detailed question, I am happy to answer it. I am saying that this crisis exists only in the fevered imagination of the comic that presents itself as our daily newspaper. There are difficulties but they are surmountable. We are very confident that over the next three to four weeks all the backlog that has been generated through the rollout will be dealt with. Several members interjected. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN replied: (1)-(3) There is a very interesting history to this, as I will outline briefly. The need for this system became evident when the previous Government made a decision, which was not an unreasonable decision, to move away from the police mainframe computer and to transfer licensing to the then Department of Transport. In 1995 it started thinking about TRELIS. Of course, the previous Government continued very slowly with that process and continued to use the very cumbersome and antiquated technology of the police mainframe computer. That system was becoming increasingly unable to cope with the growth of transactions. We are talking about a system that involves 6.5 million transactions a year. Therefore, the system must have an enormous capacity. The TRELIS project was started. In 2000 under the previous Government a contract was awarded to ADI. Unfortunately, part of the problem emanated from the fact that only $5 million had been allocated by the previous Government. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Were you given any written advice? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Hold on! It is certainly true that when we came into government it became obvious after a year or so that the TRELIS project was massively underfunded. The previous Government had put it in the budget as a $5 million project, even though the year before it had advice that it would be a $29 million project. A reassessment of the project was therefore under way in 2002-03 to see whether the project would be workable. An enormous volume of work was undertaken. It was decided that the project should be properly funded, which was a decision made by our Government. It was decided to not fund it for just $5 million, but to recognise that it was a $32 million project. We properly funded it and that work was completed. It was always recognised that it was an extremely complex project. A further study was undertaken in 2003 and early 2004 to see whether it was safe to go live with this project. It is important to understand that it required the police mainframe computer to cease operating in that area and for this new computer system to come online. It was therefore all or nothing. Once it went live, we had to go over to that system. It was always going to be a challenge. The advice given to us in about April 2004 was that the project was very complex and, of course, there would be teething problems, but it was safe to go live with the project. I repeat that of course there have been problems, and we acknowledge them. I also acknowledge that the department should have been more proactive in advising the public about these problems as they emerged. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior staff go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know. If the member wants to give me the name of the person she claims went on leave, I am more than happy to pursue the matter. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior members of the department go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know whether the member is familiar with the Public Sector Management Act. I do not personally supervise the leave arrangements of the thousand-plus people in the department. If the member has any detailed question, I am happy to answer it. I am saying that this crisis exists only in the fevered imagination of the comic that presents itself as our daily newspaper. There are difficulties but they are surmountable. We are very confident that over the next three to four weeks all the backlog that has been generated through the rollout will be dealt with. Several members interjected. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
(1)-(3) There is a very interesting history to this, as I will outline briefly. The need for this system became evident when the previous Government made a decision, which was not an unreasonable decision, to move away from the police mainframe computer and to transfer licensing to the then Department of Transport. In 1995 it started thinking about TRELIS. Of course, the previous Government continued very slowly with that process and continued to use the very cumbersome and antiquated technology of the police mainframe computer. That system was becoming increasingly unable to cope with the growth of transactions. We are talking about a system that involves 6.5 million transactions a year. Therefore, the system must have an enormous capacity. The TRELIS project was started. In 2000 under the previous Government a contract was awarded to ADI. Unfortunately, part of the problem emanated from the fact that only $5 million had been allocated by the previous Government. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Were you given any written advice? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Hold on! It is certainly true that when we came into government it became obvious after a year or so that the TRELIS project was massively underfunded. The previous Government had put it in the budget as a $5 million project, even though the year before it had advice that it would be a $29 million project. A reassessment of the project was therefore under way in 2002-03 to see whether the project would be workable. An enormous volume of work was undertaken. It was decided that the project should be properly funded, which was a decision made by our Government. It was decided to not fund it for just $5 million, but to recognise that it was a $32 million project. We properly funded it and that work was completed. It was always recognised that it was an extremely complex project. A further study was undertaken in 2003 and early 2004 to see whether it was safe to go live with this project. It is important to understand that it required the police mainframe computer to cease operating in that area and for this new computer system to come online. It was therefore all or nothing. Once it went live, we had to go over to that system. It was always going to be a challenge. The advice given to us in about April 2004 was that the project was very complex and, of course, there would be teething problems, but it was safe to go live with the project. I repeat that of course there have been problems, and we acknowledge them. I also acknowledge that the department should have been more proactive in advising the public about these problems as they emerged. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior staff go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know. If the member wants to give me the name of the person she claims went on leave, I am more than happy to pursue the matter. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior members of the department go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know whether the member is familiar with the Public Sector Management Act. I do not personally supervise the leave arrangements of the thousand-plus people in the department. If the member has any detailed question, I am happy to answer it. I am saying that this crisis exists only in the fevered imagination of the comic that presents itself as our daily newspaper. There are difficulties but they are surmountable. We are very confident that over the next three to four weeks all the backlog that has been generated through the rollout will be dealt with. Several members interjected. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Hold on! It is certainly true that when we came into government it became obvious after a year or so that the TRELIS project was massively underfunded. The previous Government had put it in the budget as a $5 million project, even though the year before it had advice that it would be a $29 million project. A reassessment of the project was therefore under way in 2002-03 to see whether the project would be workable. An enormous volume of work was undertaken. It was decided that the project should be properly funded, which was a decision made by our Government. It was decided to not fund it for just $5 million, but to recognise that it was a $32 million project. We properly funded it and that work was completed. It was always recognised that it was an extremely complex project. A further study was undertaken in 2003 and early 2004 to see whether it was safe to go live with this project. It is important to understand that it required the police mainframe computer to cease operating in that area and for this new computer system to come online. It was therefore all or nothing. Once it went live, we had to go over to that system. It was always going to be a challenge. The advice given to us in about April 2004 was that the project was very complex and, of course, there would be teething problems, but it was safe to go live with the project. I repeat that of course there have been problems, and we acknowledge them. I also acknowledge that the department should have been more proactive in advising the public about these problems as they emerged. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior staff go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know. If the member wants to give me the name of the person she claims went on leave, I am more than happy to pursue the matter. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior members of the department go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know whether the member is familiar with the Public Sector Management Act. I do not personally supervise the leave arrangements of the thousand-plus people in the department. If the member has any detailed question, I am happy to answer it. I am saying that this crisis exists only in the fevered imagination of the comic that presents itself as our daily newspaper. There are difficulties but they are surmountable. We are very confident that over the next three to four weeks all the backlog that has been generated through the rollout will be dealt with. Several members interjected. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
The advice given to us in about April 2004 was that the project was very complex and, of course, there would be teething problems, but it was safe to go live with the project. I repeat that of course there have been problems, and we acknowledge them. I also acknowledge that the department should have been more proactive in advising the public about these problems as they emerged. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior staff go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know. If the member wants to give me the name of the person she claims went on leave, I am more than happy to pursue the matter. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior members of the department go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know whether the member is familiar with the Public Sector Management Act. I do not personally supervise the leave arrangements of the thousand-plus people in the department. If the member has any detailed question, I am happy to answer it. I am saying that this crisis exists only in the fevered imagination of the comic that presents itself as our daily newspaper. There are difficulties but they are surmountable. We are very confident that over the next three to four weeks all the backlog that has been generated through the rollout will be dealt with. Several members interjected. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior staff go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know. If the member wants to give me the name of the person she claims went on leave, I am more than happy to pursue the matter. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior members of the department go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know whether the member is familiar with the Public Sector Management Act. I do not personally supervise the leave arrangements of the thousand-plus people in the department. If the member has any detailed question, I am happy to answer it. I am saying that this crisis exists only in the fevered imagination of the comic that presents itself as our daily newspaper. There are difficulties but they are surmountable. We are very confident that over the next three to four weeks all the backlog that has been generated through the rollout will be dealt with. Several members interjected. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know. If the member wants to give me the name of the person she claims went on leave, I am more than happy to pursue the matter. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior members of the department go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know whether the member is familiar with the Public Sector Management Act. I do not personally supervise the leave arrangements of the thousand-plus people in the department. If the member has any detailed question, I am happy to answer it. I am saying that this crisis exists only in the fevered imagination of the comic that presents itself as our daily newspaper. There are difficulties but they are surmountable. We are very confident that over the next three to four weeks all the backlog that has been generated through the rollout will be dealt with. Several members interjected. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Did senior members of the department go on leave? Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know whether the member is familiar with the Public Sector Management Act. I do not personally supervise the leave arrangements of the thousand-plus people in the department. If the member has any detailed question, I am happy to answer it. I am saying that this crisis exists only in the fevered imagination of the comic that presents itself as our daily newspaper. There are difficulties but they are surmountable. We are very confident that over the next three to four weeks all the backlog that has been generated through the rollout will be dealt with. Several members interjected. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: I do not know whether the member is familiar with the Public Sector Management Act. I do not personally supervise the leave arrangements of the thousand-plus people in the department. If the member has any detailed question, I am happy to answer it. I am saying that this crisis exists only in the fevered imagination of the comic that presents itself as our daily newspaper. There are difficulties but they are surmountable. We are very confident that over the next three to four weeks all the backlog that has been generated through the rollout will be dealt with. Several members interjected. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
Several members interjected. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Parliament is my revenge for the cartoons. The comics are probably the most reliable political comment in that newspaper. We probably get more factual information from Modesty Blaise than from the rest of it. There are problems. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
The SPEAKER: Order! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The level of transactions that experience problems is totally to be expected. Those problems are being worked through. I believe that the only area in which the department made some errors was in not being more forthright when those problems emerged and advising the public earlier and perhaps having contingency plans in place earlier to deal with the backlog. However, it is a very good system and we are already seeing the benefits of it. It enables the electronic transfer of funds, which the member has been asking questions about. We have been able to deliver that. Forty per cent of transactions are now being undertaken by electronic transfer of funds. One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
One of the reasons there have been failed transactions is that the new system has far more accurately matched up data, and many of the underlying inaccuracies that had accumulated over many years in the data have been revealed. We are therefore getting a cleansing project going. As my colleague in this Chamber would be able to confirm, we have also been able to free up important space on the police mainframe computer. We could, as some Governments do, run away from problems and hide in a little ball, not wanting to do anything and being too scared to do anything, or we can say that we have problems and we need to put in place innovative solutions. They will not be uncontroversial or without challenges or difficulties, but they can be managed. I urge members to give us three to four weeks to solve the problem of the backlog. I am confident on the advice that I have that it can be cleared.
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