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“Lethargic” SA falls down the rankings for digital government

“Drawn by the promise of reduced costs and improved services to citizens, governments across Australia are making rapid progress in their digital transformation,” begins the panoramic introduction to the latest Digital Government Readiness report. Not the SA Government though – its progress has been “lethargic”, allowing Victoria to speed ahead.

Jul 21, 2017, updated Aug 01, 2017
Photo: FreeDigitalPhotos

Photo: FreeDigitalPhotos

The report says digital transformation of the public service is the key to “revolutionary new government services that are available anywhere, anytime … designed around the needs of the citizen, rather than [bureaucracies’] internal functions”.

The policy area is considered important enough that responsibility for it resides in the Premier’s office.

“I look forward to South Australia continuing to lead the way in this space,” Premier Jay Weatherill boasted, responding to an announcement mid-2016 that his government had been ranked equal-second in the country for digital readiness.

But a year later, SA has fallen to fifth: the Victorian and Commonwealth Governments have overtaken the state, and Queensland and New South Wales continue to lead the country.

That’s the judgement of public sector information and communication tech consultancy, Intermedium, which produces an annual report tracking the nation’s digital progress.

Intermedium’s ‘digital government readiness’ leaderboard for the past three years.

The report suggests strong digital progress for South Australia’s bureaucracy might be around the corner, but: “Actual progress in 2016-17 was lethargic, however, allowing Victoria and the Commonwealth to overtake SA.”

Opposition industry spokesperson Corey Wingard told InDaily it was “disappointing for all South Australians” that the Government had failed to deliver on the “promise” it had demonstrated last year.

He said improving digital capability was the path to more efficient service delivery and eliminating red tape for everyone who interacts with government agencies.

“The Government was well-positioned, but they haven’t acted … South Australia has been stagnating for 12 months,” he said.

“This Government keeps talking about transforming our economy, but … government [itself] is falling behind.

“(SA was) in a decent position … but we’ve lost that position.”

He said digital readiness was about eliminating duplication in Government – including having to produce the same information on different forms more than once.

“Anyone who deals with government doesn’t want to do it with excessive red tape,” he said.

But a spokesperson for Weatherill told InDaily the Government had been “highly proactive in developing agency digital strategies and ensuring State Government agencies put people at the centre of their digital transformation activities”.

The spokesperson listed a number of “innovations” that demonstrate the Government’s digital “readiness”, including:

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  • More than 80 “completed digital projects over the past year and over sixty more digital initiatives currently underway or being planned”.
  • The mobile application MySA GOV – which creates digital versions of some licences, and eventually drivers licences.
  • The sa.gov.au portal – which had been simplified and relaunched to be more mobile-friendly.
  • A ‘User Centred Design Toolkit’ which “helps ensure digital solutions meet the needs of users”.

The report notes a review of cybersecurity guidelines – which was meant to be released in August 2016 – has yet to see the light of day.

But according to the Government: “Whilst the framework was due for a regular minor review in August 2016, it remains a contemporary approach to cyber security policy and agencies are still required to comply.”

“The State Government remains committed to a strong policy framework for cyber security and the framework and its accompanying guidelines and policies are currently being reviewed and will be updated where required.”

Wingard said, for its part, the Liberal Party was developing a policy on digital readiness in the lead-up to next year’s state election.

He said he was receiving advice from “New South Wales colleagues” about how the state had managed to lead the nation in the digital space for the past three years.

The report is available to Intermedium subscribers here. An Intermedium summary of the report can be found here.

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