Why is it that the previous Victorian Labour government had to use the word "smart" to name the most expensive projects that have defied their names, failed miserably and wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayers dollars?  From the myki "SmartCard" travel system that cost $1.35 billion and is still not working, to the "HealthSmart" system, a computer system meant to link hospitals together so that patient information can be used across sites and make inter-hospital communication more efficient.  Perhaps they modelled it off the 1960's comedy Get Smart starring the infamous bumbling spy Maxwell Smart.  Seems about as clever.

It has only been introduced in a couple of test sites, is 5 years late and $35 million over budget.  And it has not been designed to integrate with the new national e-health system (that is meant to link all hospitals and GP clinics in the country). In other words it's a complete failure.

Suffice to say the new Liberal government has been left holding the steaming dog turd that is "HealthSmart", and they have two options, flush it down the toilet and blow the hundreds of millions already spent on it, or start flogging a dead horse, and waste even more money trying to implement a flawed, non-functional already out-dated system.  Either way they lose, and we have John Brumby and the Ex-Health Minister (now unfortunately leader of the Opposition) Daniel Andrews to thank. 

South Australia may be the most boring state in Australia, and Darwin the biggest cultural void, but at least their hospitals have computer links that make working there a breeze compared to Victoria, may be time to Get Smart and move...