In my last blog I covered the process by which industry and government worked together to raise the profile and the potential of the Spatial Information Industry in Australia.
The second area I want to cover more specifically is spatial information and government and particularly the importance of achieving spatially enabled government.
I would strongly argue that this isn't rocket science.
Interestingly when I first started to talk about a spatially enabled government, one of my former parliamentary colleagues thought I was on a band wagon to increase Australia's involvement in space discovery. I was actually very interested in the work of our astronomers and particularly the tracking of space junk being done by a very innovative company in my then electorate, Electro Optics Systems. But I explained in speaking of all things spatial, it was with a "t" not "c".
I told this story to some surveying colleagues so when I opened the 5th Trans Tasman Survey Conference in Cairns a couple of years ago, I was introduced as the "Spatial Minister of State" or as some thought the "Minister for Rockets".
Now the "Spatial Minister of State" instead of the "Special Minister of State" came about as a result of my push within my Ministerial responsibilities to progress the spatially enablement of government. This was pursued through a number of measures including:
1. Australian Government Office Locations Dataset - enabling maps of government office locations to be provided on http://www.australia.gov.au/
2. National Name and Address Standard - in developing the standard, a geo-locator code has been included so that agencies can include spatial information for addresses.
3. Change of Name and Address Project - a standardized approach for change of name and address notification for use across Australian Government agencies. This standard is to include a spatial verification of address system similar to that being used by the Victorian Government.
4. Access and use conditions of datasets - the use of spatial information is one area where the policies have already been developed and this will be taken into account as part of the project.
5. Australian Offshore Minerals Location Map - mining companies interested in broadening their horizons now have a map to point them to a whole new frontier. The new map is the result of an intensive process of data acquisition, compilation and analysis by Geoscience Australia and CSIRO's Wealth from Oceans Flagship and Division of Exploration and Mining, with contributions from state and territory agencies. It shows where mineral are forming within Australia's 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone and extended continental shelf.
6. Australian Government Spatial Information Community of Practice - working with the Office of Spatial Data Management, AGIMO is looking at the development of a community of practice in spatial information across Australian Government agencies.
7. Build awareness of the use of spatial information as a tool for evidence based policy development and implementation - one tool that could be used for evidence based policy, particularly social and economic policy is the development of spatial maps that would indicate where the resources are available to deliver a particular government service and where the users of that service reside.
8. Build on the work already undertaken within the Australian Government - for example, a number of agencies have small mapping or spatial information areas which are used to provide information based on geographic area for agency or public use. But these projects need to be expanded and better integrated.
9. The examination of a national approach to policy and standards development and implementation through the Cross Jurisdictional CIO Committee - there are opportunities for collaboration across jurisdictions. This should involve ANZLIC - the Spatial Information Council and CJCIOC - to ensure national consistency.
10. Other opportunities - the Australian Government will look for opportunities in all new projects to design policy, programs and services that make full use of spatial data that is available from public and private sources. One area may be the geo-coding of addresses of agency clients, together with verification of those addresses when they are provided to an agency.
The beauty of spatial data sets, many of which continue to be held by state governments, is that they can create highly intuitive ways of interacting with government, and highly effective ways for government agencies to gather the information they need.
You know, approximately 90% of government activities have a spatial element and approximately 65% of government activities (by legislation) have spatial elements as a core identifier.
When you stop and consider such a statistic it is easy to understand why government must be spatially enabled and the shear depth of opportunities for the spatial information industry.
Think about a spatially enabled tax office.
That would be one connected to a spatially enabled cadastre so it can have real-time, accurate information including owners, land identity, geo-coded address (GNAF), interests and transactions, as they occur and as they are lodged. Thus giving the tax office the ability to minimise evasion and maximise income.
A similarly spatially enabled Centrelink (the government agency that delivers social welfare payments) could minimise fraud and overpayments.
So being spatially enabled is of huge financial benefit to government and effectively puts a value on spatial information and the industry.
Given how far we've come it would be a shame for the current federal government to take its eye off the ball when it comes to working with other government's at a state and territory level to continue to develop these modes of interaction using spatial data. This is important because at the moment we are not necessarily in the lead but certainly ahead of the pack, and losing this advantage would be a tremendous shame.
After a 25 year career as a Surveyor, including 13 years in his own surveying and mapping business, the Hon. Gary Nairn served as the Member for Eden-Monaro in the Australian Parliament from 1996 till 2007 including as Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and as Special Minister of State. He now operates his own consultancy business.
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