Tasmanian health system vulnerable after Ferguson’s inaction

• Auditor-General says health records at “excessive risk”
• Three years after warnings issued Ferguson’s latest failure highlighted
• Liberals appalling track record of failing to act on show again
The Hodgman Liberal Government’s continuing inaction on delivering for Tasmanians is again on show with Health Minister Michael Ferguson failing to implement important upgrades to the state’s hospital ICT security systems.
Shadow Innovation Minister Michelle O’Byrne said it was not good enough that Mr Ferguson had failed to act on three-year-old recommendations of the Auditor-General to carry out a security and risk assessment upgrade on the Health Department’s ICT systems.
“The result of his inaction is that the Auditor-General’s subsequent review of the state’s ICT systems has found that the Health Department – including hospitals – is at excessive risk of cyber attack,” Ms O’Byrne said.
“That’s an unacceptable failure.
“Mr Ferguson, as Health Minister for the past four years, has failed our hospitals and health system from the bottom up.
“In 2015, the Auditor-General concluded there was an excessive risk in cyber security and that should have sounded immediate alarm bells with Mr Ferguson.
“Four years later we discover that the situation has not changed and that’s because Mr Ferguson, again, has done nothing in the face of clear warnings.
“And that is part of this Liberal Government’s clear pattern.
“Just this week we have found that of the 430 social housing dwellings the Liberals promised to deliver by next year, just 37 have been built.
“That’s the sort of non-progress that is central to the Hodgman Government’s on-going practice of talking big but failing to deliver.”
Michelle O’Byrne MP Deputy Labor Leader Shadow Minister for Innovation 25 May 2018