The NSW IT sector has received a major fillip after the State Government pledged millions in new funding to court technology, police technology and health infrastructure as part of the 2014-15 State Budget.
The Department of Police and Justice has been given almost $135 in funding for a series of technology projects.
This will include $81.9 million over the next four years for videoconferencing and ICT upgrades, $45 million to replace NSW Police Force technology assets, $27.9 million to upgrade core justice systems, $9.2 million to redevelop the Justice department's website and $1.2 million for a Land and Environment Court system overhaul.
The $40 million Justice Audio Visual Link Consolidation Project will expand the use of videoconferencing in 99 courts, 34 correctional centres, nine juvenile justice facilities, 89 NSW state police stations, 10 Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions metropolitan and regional offices and 21 Legal Aid offices.
NSW Minister for Finance and Services, Dominic Perrottet, announced $148 million for spending on shared services for the government including ICT, as well as procurement, fleet, HR, finance and business services.
Perrottet said key areas of funding for the Office of Finance and Services for 2014-15 included strengthening collection of state revenue and debt recovery efforts, greater development of spatial data and mapping capabilities, and reforms to procurement and management of fleet vehicles, information and communications technology and other services.
The budget also allotted $324 million for the Service NSW agency, including a $190.5 million transfer from Roads and Maritime, with motor registries to be transformed into Service NSW centres.
The Office of Finance and Services has allocated $4.8 million to move government services to the Cloud.
This is part of $59 million suite of new IT projects which include online duties payment capability and a spatial data infrastructure program.
