Agency says COVIDSafe works as is written on the label and that there is no intention to jettison the current app and start again.
During Senate Estimates on Monday, the Department of Health revealed that despite there being a total of 27,554 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia, only 17 have been picked up using the federal government’s COVIDSafe app. Shadow Minister for Health Chris Bowen and Shadow Minister for Government Services Bill Shorten have, in turn, called the Morrison government out for spending money on an app that has produced little return. « The government has spent up to AU$70 million on the COVIDSafe app, (most of it on marketing), for 17 traces, » they said. « This is AU$4 million per unique contact. » Facing Senate scrutiny on Thursday afternoon, Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) CEO Randall Brugeaud was asked whether only 17 contacts — all of those in New South Wales — is what the agency envisaged for its multimillion-dollar app, with Senators quoting NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard in saying the app had « not worked as well as we had hoped ». « Of those 17, one related to the case at Mounties that was not previously identified through manual contact tracing; that one case then related to 544 close contacts, and two of those subsequently tested positive to COVID-19, » Brugeaud said. « What the numbers represent is the base that has been reported by the states and territories, but it hides the fact this propagates very broadly… when it comes to the total number of positive cases in Australia that may relate to a significant number of close contacts. Likewise, with a very small number of close contacts that are identified in the app, that could relate to many contacts that are related to that particular case. » In June, it was revealed the DTA knew COVIDSafe had severe flaws, despite sending it out for public use on 26 April 2020.
