NSW appoints digital government taskforce

The NSW Government has picked a 10-member team of senior bureaucrats and IT industry representatives to piece together a vision for a digitally enabled public sector and how the state should achieve it.

The ‘Accelerating Digital Government Taskforce’ was formed at the request of the state ICT Board and is expected to hand down a proposed digital government vision statement and implementation plan by November this year.

Its establishment was triggered by a government-commissioned review into internal record keeping and information management in NSW, which recommended the state adopt a stronger agenda when it comes to digital transformation.

Chaired by Office of Finance and Services IT strategy chief William Murphy, the taskforce comprises public sector members from Service NSW and other departments plus industry thinkers and researchers.

The taskforce includes:

• William Murphy (Chair), Office of Finance and Services
• Stephen Brady, Department of Premier and Cabinet
• Jane Ridley, Department of Justice
• Anthony Lean, Office of Finance and Services
• Michael Woodhouse, Department of Family and Community Services
• Rachna Gandhi, Service NSW
• Serdar Avsar, Service NSW
• Anthony Wong, ICT Industry Advisory Panel
• Marie Johnson, ICT Industry Advisory Panel
• Jodi Steel, NICTA

The group is set to meet once a fortnight, and has at least one brainstorming session under its belt already.

In particular, the taskforce has been asked to produce a “sequence of practical and specific reforms" to accelerate the shift to digital government beginning in 2014 and continuing through to 2016.

The actions will cover big data and information sharing reforms, service transformation, the creation of a digital workplace internal to the public sector, and the cementing of cultural shifts that will bolster all the aforementioned changes.

The roadmap will specifically address early priorities and quick wins, systemic barriers to digital government, a big data policy framework, proposed proofs of concept, ways to embed “born digital, stay digital” practices within agencies, and strategies for promoting the take-up of digital channels for engaging with government.

The government said the establishment of the taskforce reflects its belief in “the importance of transforming the public sector, and its interactions with the citizens of NSW - as customers, clients and industry - to realise the opportunities offered by digital technologies".