Tasmanian Labor commits to build govt services app

Tasmania’s Labor party has pledged to build a mobile application that will improve the way citizens transact with government through the state's central government service agency Service Tasmania.

The ALP made the commitment in the lead up to the state election this Saturday, as part of its innovation and tech sector development policy. It is yet to be matched by the incumbent Hodgman Liberal government.

The Service Tasmania app would be developed in the ALP’s first term of government and would “make it easier for Tasmanians to pay government bills through [a] single portal”, it said.

“The app will be free to download and will provide functionality for people to see all of their government bills, including the status, history and due dates, all while avoiding long lines at Service Tasmania shops.”

Service Tasmania is the state’s one-stop shop for accessing government transactions, services and information.

Labor said it would work with public entities like Aurora Energy and TasWater as well as private sector entities such as Optus and Telstra to ensure a range of services are offered through the proposed system.

The app would also include a budgeting feature to allow bill payments like car registration to be made on a monthly, six monthly or annual basis.

Labor said it would “encourage the procurement of this software from local software developers”.

It also pledged to develop an app for the real-time tracking of public transport should it be voted in, as part of a wider plan to make the state’s information and datasets more freely available.