Australian eyes on Y2K bug incidents here

By GREG ANSLEY

CANBERRA - Australia will nervously watch New Zealand on New Year's Eve as the two nations, just two hours apart, become the tripwire for the world's computer systems.

The Australians know that if anything major does hit New Zealand, the alarms will hardly have had time to stop ringing before it sweeps down on their electronic networks as the clock clicks over into the year 2000.

But Senator Ian Campbell, parliamentary secretary to Communications and Information Technology Minister Richard Alston, said all eyes at the Emergency Management Australia (EMA) Y2K centre would be glued to the New Zealand millennium bug Website.

"Our contingency plan is not to look at New Zealand and try to fix things that go wrong there before they hit us," he said.

"Two hours may be helpful if we know that there is something happening in New Zealand, but it will not be long enough for us to do anything about it.

"But we are conscious that New Zealand and Australia will be the first industrialised countries to go through this and that the eyes of the world will be on us.

"It will be much more useful for somewhere like the West Coast of the United States, with a 16-hour time difference, which may be able to do something," Senator Campbell said.

The two countries have been cooperating closely on the Y2K project, and Australia drew heavily on New Zealand work to develop the Websites that will become the global front line in the defence against the bug.

Senator Campbell said New Zealand had done groundbreaking work in its Website and Y2K planning - "really world's best practice" - and he praised the previous Government for its leadership.

Australia's national Y2K coordination centre has spent much of this year exchanging visits and information with New Zealand's Y2K monitoring project.

EMA spokesman Brian Flanagan said cooperation extended across all key sectors, with direct lines set up between the two emergency centres in addition to linked Websites that would instantly post problems as the year ticked over.

The sites would be watched not only in the two countries, but by officials and media across Europe, Asia and the Americas, he said.

As far as anyone can predict, most of the alarms will stay silent.

Although Australian banks have large cash reserves ahead of any last-minute rush by fearful customers, and eight out of 10 medium-sized and large firms will have staff at the ready, the nation is as ready as it can be.

Federal Government systems, including essential services such as communications, aviation and defence, are 100 per cent Y2K compliant, and all states are believed to be ready for the bug in all but a few minor areas.