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Victorian (Australia) Electronic Records Strategy Media Release



Please excuse cross-postings.

FROM THE VICTORIAN MINISTER FOR STATE AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, VICTORIAN
MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT
DATE: Wednesday, April 4, 2001

ROLL-OUT OF ELECTRONIC INFORMATION STORAGE

The Bracks Government today announced a $3 million contract with Solution 6
to roll-out the Government's system for storing and retrieving long-term
electronic records.

The Minister for State and Regional Development, John Brumby, and the
Minister for Transport, Peter Batchelor, have released details of the
initiative that will have widespread benefits for improving the
accountability of Government and public access to information.

"The Victorian Electronic Records Strategy (VERS) is the first in the world
that allows electronic records to be stored and retrieved securely over the
long term," Mr Brumby said.

"The VERS approach overcomes a number of problems with the long-term
accessibility of electronic objects associated with rapid technological
change.

"The Strategy - which was developed in Victoria - builds on the State's
established reputation for innovation and leadership in the development of
new technologies.

"The roll-out of the system across government will enable techniques for
dealing with record creation, management, and archiving to be trialed," Mr
Brumby said.

Mr Batchelor said the Department of Infrastructure would be the first
government department to trial the new system.

"The system will be progressively introduced across the Department over the
next 18 months with the department's entire electronic records moved into a
single storage database.

"Everything from technical and planning reports through to statistical
information and emails will all be located the VERS system.

"The Department of Infrastructure is responsible for managing and
developing many of the Government's major projects including the public
transport network, the Metropolitan Strategy and the regional fast rail
links.

"Having the information on these and other significant projects centrally
located and easily retrievable will have enormous benefits for improving
the effectiveness and efficiency of government planning and policy" Mr
Batchelor said.

"The Victorian Electronic Records Strategy ensures that this State
continues to be at the forefront in the knowledge economy," said Mr Brumby.

"The Victorian Electronic Records Strategy is destined to become a template
for the world to follow."

Mr Brumby said the VERS project acknowledged the importance of electronic
data and would help prevent its loss.

He said the VERS system was crucial to supporting the Victorian
Government's e-government initiatives.

"The VERS prototype will allow the Victorian Government to preserve, better
manage and make available more data electronically," he said.

"Victoria is leading the world in e-government, with more than 150
transactions available to the public on the Internet.

"The government realises that encouraging electronic transactions is part
of the job, the other is ensuring that the electronic data is stored
correctly and can be easily retrieved.

"The roll-out of the Victorian Electronic Records Strategy is part of the
Bracks Government's commitment to increasing the community's access to
government, rather than reducing it."

The strategy, which is managed by Public Record Office Victoria as part of
its program of information management standards, started in 1995 and has
been developed in conjunction with CSIRO, and Ernst & Young.

Further information is available from the VERS website at
http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/vers/welcome.htm.


Justine Heazlewood
Business Development Manager, Victorian Electronic Records Strategy
Public Record Office Victoria (Australia)
+61 3 9285 7938; +61 413 733 299; fax +61 3 9285 7953
justine.heazlewood@dpc.vic.gov.au
http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/vers/

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