Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
tionalities”, such as notions of the “digital divide”
and its assumption that access to information and
ICTs is a necessary component of contemporary
society. As a service delivery agency for other
government policy agencies, Centrelink itself
has a very limited role in making government
policy. Of course, Centrelink must implement
government policy responses to ICTs, specifically
Australia's privacy and data protection laws and
national policies regarding accessible government
websites. In Australia's national social security
system, one significant social policy responding
to the emergence of electronic ICTs was initiated
by Centrelink's predecessor, the Department of
Social Security (DSS).
Introduced in 1995 as a pilot program, the
Community Information Network was a policy
response seeking to deploy emerging networked
ICTs to enhance the living standards of recipients
of income support benefits, such as aged and
disability pensioners, the unemployed and sole
parents. Remarkably, this initiative occurred in
the early days of the internet and prefigured the
concept of the “digital divide”. The then Minister
for Social Security, Peter Baldwin, argued that
access to information could play an important
contribution to enhancing disadvantaged persons'
living standards, and that the advent of the internet
may exacerbate already present social divisions.
The Networks were established by installing
personal computers in a number of public and
community centre locations within a local region
and linking them together in a localized network.
Department of Social Security clients in the area
were able to use the Networks to communicate
with each other and community sector workers
through electronic mail and bulletin boards. It
was envisaged that clients would be able to use
these technologies to do such things as advertise
their skills in the hope of being employed, build
networks of exchange or swap useful information
(Maher & Smith, 1996). The model of this program
was later replicated in rural and regional areas,
but both programs were ultimately closed down
due to economic considerations, the wide-scale
deployment of computers in public libraries and
other programs to support access to ICTs for the
financially disadvantaged.
Secondly, Centrelink deploys a very large
ICT infrastructure to
implement
and
administer
social policies. In terms of the governmentality
framework, this use of ICTs is a clear example of
the way in which “political rationalities” are made
real through “technologies of government”. At
the core of this ICT infrastructure are mainframe
computers that operate separate software systems
for managing different categories of payments
(namely pensions, allowances and family ben-
efits) which have evolved over time in response
to policy and technological changes. Centrelink
front-line office staff in both local area offices
and call centers are connected to these payment
systems through desktop computers connected
in Local Area Networks, which are connected to
the mainframe computers. The computer system
considerably automates the processing of new
claims for benefit, updating client information
and the electronic payment of benefits into client
bank accounts. While human operators enter cli-
ent data into their desktop, the computer system
utilizes the data to calculate eligibility and level
of payment a person receives. The system also
automates compliance measures, such as check-
ing client data consistency with other Centrelink
data. The system also sends out periodic letters to
clients requiring response, and if a response is not
recorded by human operators as being received by
the due date a client's payment is automatically
halted. Interestingly, in 1994 the
Social Security
Act
was amended to legally authorize the computer
to make payment decisions, such as granting and
suspending payment (Sutherland, 1994, pp. 172-
173 & p. 503).
In recent years, Centrelink has made use of
newer ICTs to enhance its operation for both
service delivery and efficiency improvements.
Developments in on-line computer technology,
whereby staff located anywhere within Australia
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