There has been recent media speculation about the large number of Australian federal government contracts that are up for renewal in the next 2 years. This is of course part of the ongoing cycle of renewals that occurs in the Australian outsourcing space. 2006 saw some very significant renewal activity with South Australian Government, Telstra and Commonwealth Bank amongst others. What is going to be very interesting to gauge is; will anything actually change. The three deals all highlighted above, had some tinkering around the edges, but incumbents still got the overwhelming majority of the renewals.
 
What was equally significant was that the mass herd of enterprises moving to selected outsourcing did not occur. I have been on the record as a relative cynic about the move to selective outsourcing due to the cost of vendor management and risk of a blame game, and whilst there are always examples one can use to highlight it's existence, it is has by no means produced results that match the hype by some involved parties. Nor has widespread in sourcing occurred, again examples can be found, but it is not endemic as some may believe.
Perhaps the largest 800 pound gorilla in the corner is the impact of a changing government federally in . All polls seem to point in this direction (for now at least) with PM Howard now both literally and figuratively stumbling. There is now a highly politicized public sector federally in Australia (and in most state governments to be fair), any change in government will likely result in a lot of new department heads and an expectation of changing strategies in terms of IT. Perhaps it might be good for consultants and less positive for outsourcers time will tell.