Right now, governments are all about sharing ideas in IT.

It's seen as a way to innovate more rapidly and achieve wider whole-of-government benefit, while reducing costs and presenting a unified service delivery layer to the end user.
But is this rhetoric glossing over inevitable legal and budgetary obstacles? How well are government agencies across Australia really sharing ideas, services, and solutions, and are state governments beating the Commonwealth in the race towards digital transformation?
Two of the finalists in this year's state and local government category of the iTnews Benchmark Awards say state agencies are snapping at the Commonwealth's heels in terms of smaller, more innovative solutions, given the advantage they have in dealing with a more modest user base.
They also say more collaboration is needed across state lines and tiers of government to get the best outcome, but we're on the right path. Listen to what Victoria's DHHS CIO Steve Hodgkinson and Adelaide City Council's David Carroll had to say below.