Queensland gets a new CIO

The Queensland government has appointed former SA government IT head Andrew Mills as its new CIO.

Andrew Garner, director general at the Queensland Department of Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts, said Mills will lead the ICT and related strategies driving “much needed change and innovation for whole-of-government ICT.

Mills’ appointment follows the August release of the Queensland government’s ICT action plan, which outlines how it will better manage technology rollouts following Queensland Health’s high profile $1.2 billion payroll disaster.

It followed the July release of the Queensland government’s ICT Strategy 2013-2017, which the government said represented “a major shift form the traditional and wasteful methods of accessing and delivering government ICT to a modern, more efficient state where ICT-as-a-service is the default option.”

Queensland government ministers are also now required to sign off on IT investments.

Garner said Mills’ experience implementing an “open data” approach in South Australia and leading initiatives to improve frontline delivery services will be essential to the success of Queensland’s new ICT strategy.

“Sharing government information through open data with business and industry is a key area of focus to support industry and small to medium enterprise in the delivery of IT solutions for Queensland……as is our drive to use ICT to put the customer first and deliver efficiencies through ICT-a-a-service,” Garner said.

Mills has worked in senior roles across state and federal governments. During his time as CIO in South Australia, he revamped IT decision making and led improvement initiatives to build an online service capability.