Sydney Morning Herald: Fate of South Australian Open Source Bill Likely to be Known by July End

“The South Australian Democrat, who introduced a bill to amend
state software procurement policies, says he expects to know the
fate of the bill by the end of July this year.

“Ian Gilfillan, a member of the legislative council, said the
bill had just gone through its second reading. The procedures
remaining were for it to go through committee where it could be
amended if needed and then it would be formally submitted to
parliament. After that there was a third reading, a debate if
needed and then the process of formal passage.

“The substance of the State Supply (Procurement of Software)
Amendment Bill 2003 (to give it its official name) is: ‘A public
authority must, in making a decision about the procurement of
computer software for its operations, have regard to the principle
that, wherever practicable, a public authority should use open
source software in preference to proprietary software…'”

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