WA reveals single government portal

The Western Australian government has unveiled its single whole-of-government digital services portal, in an effort to improve access to online services and information. 

Innovation and ICT minister Dave Kelly today launched the redeveloped wa.gov.au portal, which he said would complement existing telephone and over-the-counter services offered by agencies.

The website provides a single access point to almost 400 online services, as well as information and datasets.

It replaces the MyWA portal prototype, which the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer exposed to the public in December 2016 to gather feedback about design, content and functionality.

These responses were used to inform the development of wa.gov.au, resulting in a "simple, modern design" the government says is both accessible and "allows for the easy downloading of information in case of poor internet connectivity".

The former Barnett government envisioned that the site would eventually become a central government transaction platform - similar to the federal government's myGov - that would allow citizens to “pay their utility bills, apply for licences and access most government services anywhere”.

But the new site, which, in a nod to the UK's gov.uk portal has retained the prototype's central feature of a free text search bar, appears to have little to no integration with the online services offered by agencies, and instead redirects users back to individual agency websites.

The GCIO indicated that future iterations of the portal will allow citizens to “use a single credential to access multiple WA government services”.

The Victorian government is also looking to redesign its whole-of-government website as a test case for broader website consolidation, with as many as 30 sites to begin migrating to a redesigned vic.gov.au portal early next year.

This is in contrast to the federal and NSW governments, which have ruled out introducing whole-of-government websites.