Aust government upgrades search

The Special Minister of State, Senator Eric Abetz, said the new search service on the Web site was designed to allow users to gain access to "fast, comprehensive and up-to-date government information."

The whole of government site uses the Panoptic search technology developed in Australia by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

"With the new Panoptic search australia.gov.au now offers some unique features. For example, this is the first time the Australian government has offered the ability to search any combination of governments in Australia, including states and territories," Abetz said.

The Panoptic service indexes five million government resources and is refreshed weekly. The Web site provides 2000 links to information and services from 700 Australian government Web sites.