In case you've missed it........... >From The Age today: http://www.theage.com.au/daily/981216/news/news20.html Wednesday 16 December 1998 Official alert on year 2000 chaos By ADRIAN ROLLINS and PHILLIP HUDSON, CANBERRA The millennium bug may seriously threaten vital public services such as power, air transport and telecommunications, and not enough is being done to prevent it, the Federal Government has been warned. A report by the National Audit Office says there could be serious disruption in Government departments and agencies, including Defence, Centrelink, Customs, the Reserve Bank and Airservices Australia. With only about a year remaining, the office has found a lack of contingency plans to minimise or avoid disruption to vital Government services and little planning for the possible collapse of electricity, water and telecommunications. The report emerged amid revelations that the Reserve Bank was printing extra money to cope with an expected rush for cash amid fears computer systems will crash and wipe out bank accounts at the dawn of the new century. But late yesterday the Government released a report that it claimed showed Commonwealth departments were on the way to achieving year 2000 compliance in their computer systems by next July. The report showed 92 per cent of crucial systems in the Commonwealth's employment area were compliant, national safety 46per cent compliant, national security 41per cent, revenue collection 30per cent and pensions 29per cent. The millennium bug refers to the problem that could hit time-based computer systems when clocks turn from 31 December 1999 to 1 January 2000. Unless they are 2000-compliant it is feared stored data could be erased. The audit office said that while some departments had made arrangements in case electricity supplies failed, little had been done about crucial telecommunications links. Its report called on the Office for Government Online to directly approach utility operators to develop risk assessments for services. A spokesman for Senator Richard Alston, the Communications Minister, said the Government was `confident'' that the July deadline for all key Government services to be 2000-compliant would be met. But the Opposition information technology spokeswoman, Senator Kate Lundy, said the Government's approach was seriously deficient, and much greater attention and resources were needed. The Reserve Bank governor, Mr Ian Macfarlane, yesterday told a parliamentary committee that the central bank was taking precautions to beat the millennium bug. He was confident the banking system would weather the storm and provide enough cash for people who wanted to ``have a bit more money in the wallet'' over that long weekend. ``But there's always this little nagging fear that there'll be some generalised panic on a much bigger scale where people start to worry that their whole bank balance is going to disappear in a flash as we pass the year 2000,'' he said. There is about $23billion worth of notes on issue. The Reserve will not say how much extra cash will be printed. Mr Macfarlane said it was important to have an education campaign to counter irrational fears. end ============== Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List As vilified, slandered and attacked by One Nation mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
