Why Do Government Services Never Work? Auspost, ATO down for Maintenence Weekends, Digital Identity Broken, Census Bungled etc

[Deactivated] on 23/03/2022 - 17:54
Last edited 24/03/2022 - 16:03

Tried to use ATO/Austpost 10pm last Saturday
Down for maintenence till Monday

Tried to use Digital Identity Beta today
Help
Error
Service Unavailable
Unexpected Server Error

What's the point of a website if it only works 9-5pm Monday to Friday or not at all?
Might as well hire people on the dole to file information in little filing desks

Tried to login to another government site another time
Nonce security verification failed

Thank god Amazon Web Services handled the last census so it wasn't bungled like last time

NSW Opal card website is also not mobile responsive
They have 2 concurrent sites and the old one is easier to use and more function :O

General Discussion

Comments

  • jackary on 23/03/2022 - 17:59
    +4

    Hi Levity

    jackary on 23/03/2022 - 17:59 (Collapsed - Offtopic. Show)
    • [Deactivated] on 23/03/2022 - 18:00
      +1

      Hi Jackary, welcome

    • Melencir on 23/03/2022 - 18:38
      +3

      Oh they changed username. Like Pam 😯

  • baronorder on 23/03/2022 - 18:00
    +6

    A lot of this is likely patching as there have been an awful lot of security patching required over the past 6 months that will bring down a platform that is not designed to be able to do so live or fail over.
    On one hand I would say they are being frugal with taxpayer money by not overbuilding the systems, on another I know all too well that these issues are normally by design in a gov system built on the cheap.

    • jetblack on 24/03/2022 - 07:54
      -3

      Not to mention a government and public sector full of luddites.

      • baronorder on 24/03/2022 - 08:21
        +3

        Kind of hard to keep decent tech staff as perm employees in the public sector due to the brain dead management and pay structure.
        For example a decent DevOps engineer or Cybersecurity or Cloud engineering resource with an applicable AGSVA clearance is normally capped out at technical EL1 or in rare cases an EL2 level as a permanent position in the APS and that would (depending on department) be in the $~115k to ~$168k range which is really quite a way behind the industry averages where it runs from $175k on up.
        You can't blame talented employees when a company or digital pimp turns up on their doorstep with a literal truckload of money on offer to jump ship. This leads to the "brightsizing" situation you see all too often where the people that are any good leave or get pilfered as they develop and the department is left with the not so useful dregs and lifers who are not appealing to the rest of the industry.

        Plenty of luddites around but the situation is by design at this point as its seemingly set up to cause the non luddites to flee.

          • baronorder on 24/03/2022 - 10:54

            @harro112: Agreed but those contractors vary widely in ability and are always cut loose at the first sign of funding issues / budget crunches then are bum rushed out the door without anybody decent to handover to.
            Always surprised me the argument of different buckets of funding for contract vs perm staff when departments will happily spend $175+ an hour to get a contractor that could be had as a perm for less than $110 an hour with a lot less risk of instantly losing huge amounts of corporate knowledge overnight. The biggest issue seemed to be the EL1 / EL2 / low SES people managers not wanting to see the dirty tech monkeys getting paid more than them.

            I have yet to work in or with a fedgov technology area that doesn't desperately need a top down spill & fill to deal with a lot of those lingering golden handcuff type / cockroach issues. Defence CIOG is an absolute prime example of that situation.

  • deme on 23/03/2022 - 18:05
    +5

    Hi Levity are you related to Pam?

    deme on 23/03/2022 - 18:05 (Collapsed - Offtopic. Show)
    • bdl on 23/03/2022 - 18:25
      +2

      their website in their profile is listed as hellostalker.com so they're halfway there

      • [Deactivated] on 23/03/2022 - 18:35
        +1

        Thanks, I've updated that to my startup

        • deme on 23/03/2022 - 19:09

          Which one?

    • [Deactivated] on 23/03/2022 - 18:35
      -2

      I still don't even know who Pam is

      • MS Paint on 23/03/2022 - 18:50
        +3

        Screensaver

  • iamherenow on 23/03/2022 - 18:10
    +9

    Why Do Government Services Never Work?

    Slight exaggeration.

    • Crow K on 23/03/2022 - 18:20
      +10

      If you're reading Levity posts for "well focused individual's take on how society works" then you're in for a wild ride

    • [Deactivated] on 23/03/2022 - 18:36

      Try logging in to Government Digital Identity right now or getting support

      • iamherenow on 23/03/2022 - 18:42
        +3

        mygovid app? working for me.

        • [Deactivated] on 23/03/2022 - 20:32

          No trying to add services to mygov

    • poohduck on 23/03/2022 - 18:40
      -1

      "slight exaggeration" is actually accurate

  • djones145 on 23/03/2022 - 18:17
    -2

    welcome to government

  • poohduck on 23/03/2022 - 18:39
    +4

    There is no accountability for management. How often do child protective services stuff up in a big way with huge breaches in duty of care, and no one is ever charged. Here in Tassie it has been the same with housing tasmania - they kept large numbers of public housing empty for years during a housing shortage. It didn't come to public notice till someone started burning them down, most probably out of anger and frustration.

    Mental health and public health services here are the worst in Australia, although that is due to greatly reduced funding; liberals gave then took back 2 billion dollars when they came into power.

  • Porker on 23/03/2022 - 18:41
    +6

    I'm sure there are a great many Government services that do work! Does everything that you do OP work 100% all the time?

    Why do planes still crash from the sky after all this time flying? Why do NASA/SpaceX rockets still blow up and fail after all that money spent? Why can't people just drive properly all the time?

    Why does anything wrong happen!!?

  • orangetrain on 23/03/2022 - 18:47
    +1

    LNP turned government services into a cash cow for rich mates. The service reliability cuts into the grift. Vote for non LNP choices like SA did.

    • Ghost47 on 23/03/2022 - 20:56

      LNP tend to only use money to benefit the rich. Surprised you were downvoted for this comment, it’s obvious but it seems people aren’t too bright.

      • Ade99 on 24/03/2022 - 07:44
        -3

        …and ALP only spend money for their Union bosses benefit

  • rektrading on 23/03/2022 - 19:25
    -1

    That's what people get when the state/feds hire mediocre devs and tech workers paying them đŸ„œ to design and maintain public services.

    The most talented devs go where the đŸ’” is.

    • [Deactivated] on 23/03/2022 - 20:33

      Good point but they call us all the time for support 😅

  • Benoffie on 23/03/2022 - 19:32
    +1

    Yes, the Government never works.

    Total anarchy.

    Was hyperbole this week's word of the week and I missed a memo?

    • DashCam AKA Rolts on 23/03/2022 - 20:37

      Was hyperbole this week's word of the week and I missed a memo?

      OP definitely missing punctuation, in the post.

  • Roentgenium on 23/03/2022 - 19:51
    +3

    Congrats, you hit one of our quarterly releases. While they are meticulously planned and tested in advance, they involve changes to an eye watering number of systems (both old and new) and must be coordinated.

    https://www.ato.gov.au/General/Online-services/System-Maintenance/

  • Ghost47 on 23/03/2022 - 20:56
    -6

    Because LNP.

    • Ghost47 on 24/03/2022 - 15:12
      -2

      Surprised to be downvoted for saying this.

      The Federal government is made up of rich white people who have no idea how to budget money. Everyone in the LNP (and most of their supporters) were born into rich families where money was easily accessible and rained from the sky. They spend, spend and spend (and only on rich areas or marginal seats to win votes - look at car park rorts or sports rorts) without thought of the debt they’re getting the country into because they are used to getting money from mummy and daddy they assume that money will just rain from the sky.

      We are in huge debt that will simply compound in the coming decades as inflation bites and rates rise. The LNP can’t deliver for the nation, they only care about their rich mates and will label anyone who supports the ALP as “woke lefties” and act as if the lefties will steal everyone’s money.

      The LNP always ignorantly blames all the bad things that happen on Labor, just like how all the RWNJs attack “woke lefties” all the time.

  • cloudy on 23/03/2022 - 21:18
    +6

    so you ask for the government to start their own telco, and here you are saying nothing the govt runs works…

    curious…

  • payless69 on 23/03/2022 - 22:15
    +1

    On the Fed side no complaints here. Issues usually get fixed.
    On the State side: Pretty well most does not work, with very poor performance.
    Local council: Pretty much above average, some cowboy attitude found at times but overall few issues!

    • Ade99 on 24/03/2022 - 07:42
      +1

      State and LGA often have massive technical deficit and patch 20 plus year old systems….however the roads in front local councilors don't have pot holes !

  • wallet72 on 24/03/2022 - 02:28
    +1

    when you get your critical infrastructure from the lowest tender, and worse from 'mates' then you never get the best.
    You also have internal empires and political games that usually make a simple thing turn into a spaghetti mess.

  • Ade99 on 24/03/2022 - 07:38

    I suspect that they are trying to buy parts for their IT systems on eBay as they have stopped making new parts for the kit they use!

    • mini2 on 27/03/2022 - 07:16

      I hate to say that does actually happen…

  • iCandy on 24/03/2022 - 09:06

    Computer says no?

  • [Deactivated] on 24/03/2022 - 09:22

    Why Do Government Services Never Work?

    Logical fallacy 101 - the suppressed correlative.

  • Rayzorback on 24/03/2022 - 10:01

    OzBargain.gov.au is still working

  • [Deactivated] on 24/03/2022 - 12:28

    Opal card website is also not mobile responsive

    • [Deactivated] on 24/03/2022 - 16:03

      They have 2 concurrent sites and the old one is easier to use and more function :O

  • Brendoo on 24/03/2022 - 16:11
    +1

    Poor management compared to the private sector, inferior staff, lower pay, outsourcing to cheap 3rd world countries for software development, just to name a few. You get some good people, but on average it's poor. Also, when the Govt bring in consultants to develop specific pieces of software, the Govt employees in charge of sourcing and overseeing the consultants are not qualified themselves so you get a less than optimal result. Anyone remember the 'covid tracing' app? LOL.

    • [Deactivated] on 24/03/2022 - 17:55

      A recruiter told me government job looks bad on resume for IT

  • tonyjzx on 24/03/2022 - 17:52

    LNP is going full on "starve the beast"

    make public services inefficient -> privatise -> get a seat on the board of directors after retirement

    witness Christine Holgate

    she was doing a good job so they fired her over $20k worth of Cartiers…

  • GOCAT9 on 25/03/2022 - 01:32

    Yes, it is frustrating when some of our government services are not working as they should. However I take a big picture view. Compared to the way systems work in other lessor developed countries, we should feel very lucky that ours even exist and seem to work at least most of the time. I am posting this from Chile where the bureaucracy to do many things is much greater in general than Australia and takes a lot longer to do. I generally spend a couple of months every year in Chile for family reasons and always look forward to getting back to Australia to our relatively efficient systems when compared to many other countries. Okay I agree this is not an excuse for inefficient Australian systems but I just put it in perspective compared to the rest of the world and realise how lucky we really are. I think the more you travel, the more you realise this! Buenos dias!

    • tonyjzx on 25/03/2022 - 10:15

      i get this sentiment however i would be reluctant to compare australia to the developing world

      a good example is China… they have no medicare

      so does australia want to strive for the best that the developing world can offer?

      a country that has $172bn for nuclear subs and $36 bn to splash on the likes of Gerry Harvey but we cant provide reasonable outcomes for public service…

      • GOCAT9 on 25/03/2022 - 12:34

        Actually, by comparing to Chile, I am not comparing with the developing world! FYI, Chile is officially a fully developed, 1st world country, just like Australia!

        • rektrading on 25/03/2022 - 13:41

          I am not comparing with the developing world! FYI, Chile is officially a fully developed, 1st world country, just like Australia!

          Chile is NOT a developed country according to the IMF.

          Australia on the other hand has been a developed country since 1994.

      • wo bu dong on 28/03/2022 - 09:41

        A friend got quoted $2100 for a dental procedure.
        It was cheaper for them to fly back to China, do the dental procedure, have a holiday and do shopping than doing it in Australia.

        • jackary on 28/03/2022 - 19:01

          Conversely, I’d rather take a flight to the centre of the earth before China for a dental procedure.

        • Baysew on 29/03/2022 - 12:09
          +1

          Hi DisabledUser184253! (levity)

      • mini2 on 29/03/2022 - 10:31

        Believe me, it's not the lack of cash, it's just pure incompetence at all levels within the APS shop.

        There are lifers/golden handcuffed by defined benefits super, there are the jaded/pissed off employees and there's the 'no idea why they even made it through probation' peeps. Some of them are so incompetent they wouldn't be able to organise a root at a knock shop…

    • Ghost47 on 25/03/2022 - 12:35

      However I take a big picture view. Compared to the way systems work in other lessor developed countries, we should feel very lucky that ours even exist and seem to work at least most of the time.

      I do agree with this sort of mentality but it doesn’t give us an excuse to not try and do better.

      Frankly the LNP are all entitled pricks, born into wealth and think good things just happen magically when in fact it’s the low and middle class people who do all the work.

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