[Linux-aus] Brian Greig tells it like it is

[Leon Brooks <leon@cyberknights.com.au>]

http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/os/story/0,2000048630,20278792,00.htm

    Democrat Senator Brian Greig yesterday accused commonwealth
    purchasing agencies of maintaining a closed shop favouring
    proprietary software.

    [...]

    Addressing critics of the bill who contend that the
    legislation it contains is protectionist and restricts
    freedom of choice, Greig said that the bill was needed to
    address a pre-existing favouritism for proprietary software
    within the federal government.

    Greig argued that departments were being locked into a
    dependency on proprietary software. He claimed that
    current government record-keeping systems already
    predominantly rely on proprietary software and file formats.
    According to Greig, the hand-in-glove relationship between
    the two meant the government was affectively "addicted" to
    the proprietary software.

    "This closed shop protectionism can only be to the detriment
    of competition in the marketplace," said Greig.

    [...]

    Under the legislation proposed by Greig, the Financial
    Management and Accountability Act 1997 would be amended to
    compel IT managers to consider open source software
    "wherever practicable".

    Each agency will also have to provide, with reasons, a
    schedule of its decision to purchase proprietary software in
    its annual report.

You can pretty much predict what the ISC had to say in response.

Cheers; Leon

-- 
http://cyberknights.com.au/     Modern tools; traditional dedication
http://plug.linux.org.au/       Committee Member, Perth Linux User Group
http://slpwa.asn.au/            Committee Member, Linux Professionals WA
http://linux.org.au/            Committee Member, Linux Australia