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# Free software in Australian Government #

### 28th June 2017 ###

Regardless of the leaning of a political party the ultimate goal is that they are public servants, they are put into their position of power to govern the state apparatus for the good the people. For the good of the many not the few. Regardless of Left, Right, Center or any combination of the views on the spectrum – they work for you.

This is the essence of a high functioning democracy.

Which is why we need Free software at all levels of government. The government needs to be run transparently in regards to the public in terms of their goals and privacy when handling sensetive details. Any additional factors and that cannot be achieved with absolute certainty with proprietary software needs to be abolished. Without the means for the systems they run to be verified there is no way of knowing exactly what they or others are doing, intentionally or otherwise.

Regardless of scale be it, Council, State or National, or which parties are in power they can all work together for a greater good.

When dealing with private information we need trust that the software they use isn’t working for someone else, being the proprietary software developers which almost always work for them primarily or malicious attackers that have used bugs and exploits in the software that the users cannot detect or verify. This is no longer an issue of theoretical debate, these are issues that are actively exploited sometimes at a global level.

I’m convinced that this doesn’t come from carelessness but from a lack of education. Most people in government are concerned more about convenience of getting the job done quickly rather than getting it done securely and correctly. Part of this would be due to the influence of proprietary software companies that offer their software and maintenance services in a bundled deal. It is cheaper for a short term fix that is available today rather than a long term solution that can be handled correctly and respects the people that they govern.

Tax payer money is being used to fund a big corporations because it is easy rather than building solutions that help the communities they serve.

In that sense the government is performing large sunk cost fallacy. Rather than invest in a new system that is based on free software of which can help the people that they work for, they would rather just buy a quick proprietary bandage solution which has been proven many times before to be unreliable and more costly in the long term.

These same issues also impact the general populace in other ways. The Australian Broadcast Corporation (ABC) a tax payer funded service also forces you to use proprietary software if you wish to use their iView service. It relies on you to use Flash, a non-free program that the users cannot read or modify. As such we have to have merely trust that Adobe is avoiding putting bugs or backdoors into this system, this is something they have a terrible track record with. While there are some free software work arounds for getting these TV programs, most either break constantly due to ever changing system settings on the iView systems or are particularly difficult for the average person to use.

The iView website should be produced using nothing but free software, that is Java script that is free to modify and redistribute, free video formats such as WebM that are not encumbered by DRM, patents or hidden code. The convenience they provide today is done at the cost of the users freedoms for a service they pay for. This goes for ALL government departments, someone that is depending on these public services should never be forced into using non-free programs.

The government and subsequent departments (like ABC) also have a heavy reliance on ‘social media’ sites such as Facebook to provide some basic services. These are nasty dis-services to the users as they run on non-free java script software and also privacy jails. Not only do they track you as you browse around the internet, they try to collect as much personal information on the user as possible. When the government is using these services for communication it is actively encouraging the members of the public to give away their private information, their political motives in particular here. A government setup for the people should NEVER require anyone to firstly run non-free software and secondly give personal information to a large international company that has only one interest in selling this information to the highest bidders.

The modern government system is an integral part of the current society we live in, it should be a beacon for others to look up to. A glowing example of how a society should be run to benefit everyone. To distribute and run on only free software would be a means of education to others to use it themselves. By openly encouraging others to shun non-free software it will allow the community as a whole to grow and be more equal and fair to all. To be neutral in software is to be neutral towards the citizens and that is just another step that helps a free and vibrant society grown.{: page-href="wiki:///freeSoftwareInAustralianGovernment"}

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