Rego bungle butt of tape joke
SUE NEALES Chief reporter
October 07, 2008 12:00am
AN internal spoof video made by Tasmania's besieged Motor Registry office has been made public on internet website YouTube, severely embarrassing the state Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Resources.
The video, in song form, features all 15 staff at the Motor Registry office who worked on its new $20 million computer system bemoaning its defects and continuing problems in the rush to take the system "live" by late August.
Last week, Infrastructure Minister Graeme Sturges admitted the five-week-old car registration and licence renewal computer system was badly malfunctioning.
More than 3000 duplicate driver's licences have been mailed out in error across Tasmania and Service Tasmania staff are experiencing difficulties and delays renewing car registrations.
Police have also wrongly fined motorists for supposedly driving unregistered vehicles or when unlicensed, when their renewals have simply not been processed correctly.
The five-minute YouTube video features a motor registry team member, "Steve", who used to work as a contract specialist on the troubled computer system, singing a specially written song We Will Go Live to the tune of Gloria Gaynor's hit single I Will Survive.
Pictured wearing pyjamas, the video details how the Motor Registry team had to delay the launch of the new computer system from June 10 to August 25 because of multiple defects in the software platform purchased and adapted from interstate.
Infrastructure department chief Norm McIlfatrick yesterday acknowledged he had seen the spoof video in the middle of last month.
But he denied the central character was wearing his pyjamas because the project had been a nightmare, instead suggesting that it must have been "pyjama day" when the video clip was filmed.
After the Mercury alerted Government officials to the video's presence on YouTube yesterday at 2pm, it was hastily removed from the internet.
Mr McIlfatrick said neither he nor anyone from the Government had ordered its removal, but Motor Registry staff featured in the clip had complained about a private internal "bit of fun" being made public without their consent.
He said the video was never intended to imply that the Motor Registry computer system was defective or had been too hastily introduced.
Instead, Mr McIlfatrick claimed the video clip had been made by staff when the new computer system was launched as a celebration of their achievements after three years of hard slog.
"It was made with good intent (by the Motor Registry system project team) celebrating and taking a humorous look at what they had to go through before the system could go live," a relaxed Mr McIlfatrick said yesterday.
It is not such a great outcome when it is posted publicly four weeks after the launch and at a time when we are having significant problems with the system."
The clip was posted on YouTube as a "tribute song" to the lengthy and troubled computer system testing process endured by the team.
"The Tasmanian Motor Registry system has been under major redevelopment recently," writes "Steve" on his YouTube entry.
"Most of us have been working 12-hour, seven-day weeks and while the new application was due to go live in June 2008 it was put back to August.
"Here is my tribute to the testing process we endured – We Will Go Live."
Mr McIlfatrick said although he would have preferred the video had not appeared on YouTube, he did not feel it had embarrassed the department or Mr Sturges.
"If the video had been intended to embarrass the department or imply the system was defective or premature, I really don't think the project team would have so openly shown it to me in mid-September," he said.
Mr McIlfatrick guaranteed the aspiring filmmaker had not been punished for making the video, and promised there would be no retribution against other staff featured in the clip.
He also assured Tasmanians the "teething problems" in the computer system were starting to be worked out.
Staff have a good idea of where most of the 3000 duplicate licences were mailed, and have written to recipients asking for their return.
Problems with computers not recording accumulated licence demerit points had now also been solved, Mr McIlfatrick said.
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