I've said to my wife more times than she can bear, Scriptwriters should not be allowed to write about technology. Today, I extend that ban to politicians.
Malcolm Turnball floats the idea of the Australian government providing to all citizens an email address, with a mind to using that as the primary method of communication between the government and the electorate - presumably not the other way though, given the kerfuffle when GetUp! provided form email facilities.Look, it's a nice idea and all. Just not really well thought out at all. Malcolm may not realise it, but computers are kind of expensive and all. When he says
given the ever decreasing cost of broadband internet services, it would make sense for the government to use the internet to keep in contact with Australians.It suggests to me that the man has never wanted for anything in his life, let alone the cost of a broadband connection in anywhere other than Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane. Come on, Mal, we can't even get Telstra to roll out reliable telephone service to country Australia (or the Blue Mountains), let alone ADSL.
For a relatively modest cost and over time, starting with the young and e-savvy, the Australian government could offer to provide every Australian with an electric mail box or pigeon hole.Relatively modest cost, except for the tech support guys you'll need to keep handy to field calls from a userbase of - out of the air figure - 10 million people, a fair chunk of which have trouble remembering their savings account PIN, let alone the stringent password requirements on their Australian Government email address. I mean, you were going to require people use something more serious than 'password' to protect this account that "government, banks, superannuation funds and long lost friends" might use to communicate with a citizen, right?Because otherwise, is the Government planning to take all responsibility for the identity fraud possible with a trivially determinable username (firstname.surname.dateOfBirth? Please) and passwords protecting accounts that carry all implied authority that comes with being offered by the Government - although on the other hand, no one takes Medicare cards seriously as a form of identification.
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