"A federated identity store across government is a real challenge. The Australian Government Information Office is looking at it, but I suspect we will be talking about it in a few years time," he said. "There is a spectrum of stuff you can do when providing services; changing the world by using this technology is still a worthwhile goal."

When asked about the fitness of PKI technology as an identity management framework, Harrison said even though Customs hasn't done an "adequate consideration" of it, there isn't another technology "that gives you non-repudiation".

"If someone comes up with a better solution tomorrow I would go for it," he said.

Dealing with the legacy of CMR

Defending the Cargo Management Re-engineering project, Customs CIO Murray Harrison said it is a world-first to combine customs requirements with goods handling and administration.