Australia debuts fifth on the OECD Digital Government Index

Australia has debuted in the top five governments displaying digital maturity in the latest OECD Digital Government Index (DGI).  

The index report benchmarks efforts made by governments to establish the necessary foundations for a coherent, human-centred digital transformation of the public sector.

It takes into account 155 data points from 33 member countries, four accession countries and one partner country collected in 2022, covering the period between January 2020 and 31 October 2022.

The top ten performing countries in the 2023 DGI [pdf] were Korea, Denmark, United Kingdom, Norway, Australia, Estonia, Colombia, Ireland, France and Canada. 

The DGI aims to highlight how a digital-first government is essential to transform processes and services to boost the responsiveness and reliability of the public sector. 

Finance minister Katy Gallagher said Australia’s debut in the top five “is an outstanding achievement that independently affirms Australia’s digital government capability.” 

“Australia’s overall score was 75.3 percent, well ahead of the OECD average of 60.5 percent,” said Gallagher. 

“This ranking was earned thanks to our strengths in digital project evaluation, collaboration in the development of strategies, and service design and delivery”.

The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) said Australia’s future participation in the index report will continue to be important as it tracks the implementation of its strategy and initiatives.    

Wayne Poels, the acting chief executive officer of the DTA said, “These initiatives, plus many others, will contribute to Australia maintaining and improving Australia’s ranking come the next Digital Government Index.”  

“By aligning to the strategy, its missions, and outcomes, the Australian public service will be well placed to drive up its score even closer to 100 percent.”

“We will continue to work to improve Australia’s ranking come the next Digital Government Index which, ultimately, will underpin better outcomes for citizens and businesses,” added Poels.