How Australia's states and territories are tracking with digital government

The Covid-19 pandemic was a watershed moment for digital government, and no better was this on display than in Australia’s eight states and territories.

Faced with an unprecedented situation and without the luxury of time, governments of all stripes were forced to respond on the fly, resulting in the normalisation of contemporary delivery practices.

The experience meant that, on the whole, all states and territories have made great strides towards the long-elusive ideal of digital government, as leaders witnessed the impacts first hand.

“We had this unique opportunity during… 2020 to really accelerate a broad number of programs, and it was simply because I didn't have to do so much explaining," SA government ICT and digital government executive director Eva Balan-Vnuk told iTnews.

“The urgent requirement to deliver new digital assets to build on top of what we had before, to very quickly modernise, so we had the scale and the capability that we needed, that was apparent.”

But the progress has been by no means linear, and there is still a clear divide between governments across the country.

How states and territories fared was often determined by how advanced their digital apparatus was, something that is continuing to pay dividends as new challenges emerge.

“There was a whole bunch of investments and assets within the government – and some of those are within the [NSW] Department of Customer Service, but also the clusters more broadly – that have really helped,” NSW government chief information and digital officer Greg Wells said.

Big differences in how states and territories are approaching digital have also emerged in the wake of Covid-19, as governments seek to either accelerate their journey or draw a line in the sand.

“Things have happened more quickly, more decisively than we could of hoped, and because we’ve had compelling timeframes its demonstrated that most of time it’s not technology that’s the inhibitor, it’s really just the will and the determination to want to make change,” WA government chief information officer Greg Italiano added.

Some are using it as the way out of a dire economic situation, positioning themselves as digital leaders and handing out millions – and in some cases, billions – to fast-track projects.

For others the purse strings seem to have only tightened, meaning less money at a time when digital has proven its worth alongside more traditional public infrastructure – roads, hospitals and schools.

And this could prove difficult politically as the expectations of citizens have now shifted.

iTnews has spent the past several months investigating each of the jurisdictions to gauge who is leading the pack in digital government and where the room for improvement lies.

We have devised a government IT maturity index to grade each state and territory on their progress, taking into account strategy, policy, governance, service delivery and collaboration.

Click here to find out who is leading and who is lagging.