Hi all, and welcome to 2019! For many of us a new year is an opportunity to start afresh — to set goals, and set ourselves on a plan to achieving them. For others, it’s a continuation of the year before — following up on items that weren’t able, for whatever reason, to be finalised in the previous year. For ITPA this year, it’s a bit of both.

There are a number of new initiatives that we’re kicking off — including an ability for our members (financial and associate) to assist us in driving the organisation forward (and to potentially win some prizes!).

In work that continues from last year, many of you would remember that the federal government passed the Assistance and Access Bill (2018) in the dying stages of the 2018 parliamentary sitting year, with the federal Labor party agreeing to pass the Bill as it stood, in the hope that it could be improved upon later. In association with several other technology groups, we are continuing to provide feedback to the government (via the PJCIS) on this important matter — not only is your personal privacy and security at stake, but so is the ability of our law enforcement agencies to effectively combat crime. This is a matter that the government really needs to ‘get right’, and we’ll be doing our best to help them get there.

We also have both state and federal elections occurring this year, and it’s certain that technology and its use by government will be key issues for us to provide commentary and advice on as the year progresses.

For you, our members — we hope that 2019 has started well for you, and continues to bring success for you moving forward.