Mounting criticism of the Commonwealth's technology efforts have been dismissed as "fake news" by the Coalition's digital innovation minister.
The government was mocked this week after two of its MPs put a forward a Parliamentary motion congratulating the government "for pursuing an extensive technology reform agenda that will change the way Australians interact with government services for the better."
The move came as Fairfax revealed the latest Commonwealth tech wreck, a failed attempt to replace the Child Support Agency's system, was chewing through at least $100,000 a day in taxpayers' money, most it going to pay contractors.
Last week it was revealed the Tax Office was still struggling to recover from December's disastrous crash of its online systems and as a result, much of the ATO's digital work program this year was being abandoned in a desperate struggle to get tax time started on schedule.
The government has endured a storm of criticism over the Centrelink "robo-debt" recovery program which uses an automated data-matching program to try to track down people who have been overpaid their welfare benefits and frustration with the troubled myGov portal has been running high for several years.
A major digital goal of the Turnbull government, a one-stop Commonwealth website to incorporate the current bewildering array of 1500 official federal sites, has been all but abandoned after a Canberra bureaucratic turf war.
Know more? Send your tips to ps@canberratimes.com.au
It was against this background that two Coalition backbenchers, Ted O'Brien and Andrew Wallace, rose in parliament's Federation Chamber on Monday to move their motion to congratulate the government.
Labor's digital economy spokesman Ed Husic lost no time ridiculing the Coalition over its notion.
"After census fail, after the ATO website was down for days, after the Centrelink robo-debt fiasco and after concerns emerging about the CSA's IT system, the Member for Fairfax moved to congratulate the government for pursuing an extensive tech agenda reform that would change the way Australians interact with government services for the better - seriously?
"Is there a provision in the standing orders for either irony or grand self-delusion?
"That's the only way this resolution can be debated.
"You just cannot be serious."
But digital innovation minister Angus Taylor came to his colleagues' defence with a statement to tech-site innovation Australia.
"The Opposition keeps on with its fake news," Mr Taylor said.
"It is unfortunate [Mr Husic] has descended to cheap politics.
"He should spend more time listening to what we're doing.
"The critical thing he has missed is that there was a new Federal digital agency established late last year with an expanded remit.
"Structural changes to the agency were needed and their implementation began this year.
"The new remit will include a strong focus on delivery of shared platforms and other areas.
"The [Digital Transformation Agency] has been working to reform the whole of Government ICT agenda."
"In one month alone we streamlined the log in for myGov that saw a doubling of users and saved the Australian public over 6000 hours of time waiting on the phone."
