Australia Finds Y2K Bug Less Costly Than Feared

Updated 6:00 AM ET August 31, 1999

By Ruth Pitchford

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Most big Australian businesses believe they are on track to survive the millennium bug and many are finding it cheaper to tackle than they first feared, according to an official survey released Tuesday.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics said its survey of 13,000 businesses suggested the private sector would spend about A$10 billion (US$6.5 billion) on ensuring they could work normally into 2000, about half the earlier official estimate.

Of the 10,000 businesses that responded to the June survey, only 35 percent said they had completed all the Y2K work they planned to do.

"But virtually all of these expected to finish in time, most by September," said Maurice Newman, chairman of both the Australian Stock Exchange and Australia's Y2K steering committee.

"We've come a long way from questions like, 'Will the planes fall from the sky?', 'Will my money be safe?' and 'Will the lights stay on,"' he told a news conference.

The millennium bug fears surround the once standard use of only two digits to represent the year in dates, raising the risk that date-sensitive technology would be unable to interpret the "00" in 2000 and would crash.

Newman said the survey was probably the most comprehensive of its kind in the world. Officials acknowledged they needed to do more work on analyzing the results -- especially for the 40 percent of respondents who had no plans at all to tackle the bug.

Prime Minister John Howard cautioned against complacency, saying in a statement: "I urge all businesses to complete their preparations."

But the survey also asked how much potentially vulnerable equipment each business had -- and the replies suggested that companies with no action plans were at low risk, maybe using only one relatively new or non-essential personal computer.

More than half the respondents from the construction, retail trade, transport, leisure and hotel and restaurant categories had no plans to do any work on the bug, the survey showed.

Preparations were most widespread in the gas, electricity and water utilities, where 93 percent of respondents were either tackling or had finished Y2K work and at least three out of four had made contingency plans and checked its own supply chain.

Finance and insurance companies reported the highest level of Y2K work completed, 62 percent, followed by mining where 48 percent of companies said they had finished preparations by June.

"Medium and large businesses and essential infrastructure throughout Australia are well prepared for the date change," said Senator Ian Campbell, parliamentary secretary to Australia's information technology minister.

Newman said he remained concerned that only about one business in four had made contingency plans or checked with suppliers about Y2K risks outside their direct control.

"It may reflect their level of confidence (in general Australian business preparedness), but no business can afford to stand alone on this," Newman said.

Australia's central bank expressed confidence Tuesday that the finance industry was prepared for 2000 and said it would have extra cash available at the New Year in case a nervous public wanted to take more money out of the banks than usual.

"Overall, the Reserve Bank's view is that the Australian financial system will be able to operate on a 'business as usual' basis and the public should view the New Year as just another long weekend," the bank said in its annual report.

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Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), August 31, 1999

Answers

Interestingly your find is one of two almost identical stories flowing through NEXIS, one says they're doing well, the other says they're not.

-- cory (kiyoinc@ibm.XOUT.net), August 31, 1999.