Queensland government appoints SA CIO Andrew Mills to CIO role

South Australian CIO, Andrew Mills, will make the move north to Brisbane after his appointment as the new Queensland government chief information officer from January 6 next year.

Mills has been an executive with the South Australian government since 1998, and has spent 30 years working for both the Federal and SA governments.

Andrew Garner, director general, Department of Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts, said that Mills would bring experience to the Queensland CIO team as the group implements the state's new ICT strategy, as well as improve the ability for public servant to work outside the boundaries of their agencies.

"His experience improving better management of information and data through the implementation of an Open Data approach in South Australia as well as his experience leading initiatives to improve frontline delivery of services will be essential to the success of the ICT Strategy 2013-2017." Garner said in a statement.

"Sharing government information through Open Data with business and industry is a key area of focus to support industry and small to medium enterprises 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 as a service."

The Queensland government had been without a CIO since May after it moved then-CIO Peter Grant to its One Network project.

Garner filled the position in a caretaker capacity until September, when Sue Rickerby, the director-general position within the Department of Premier and Cabinet, took over the caretaker position due to the impending expiration of Garner's contract with the government.

The NSW government yesterday released its open data policy, which promotes making government data publicly available.