Today marks the annual release of the Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) Digital Government Readiness and Maturity Indicator Report, a report that evaluates Australia’s Federal and State Government digital maturity, alongside our neighbor New Zealand, and their progress in delivering digital services.

Now in its eighth year, the results have delivered a first, with all Australian jurisdictions achieving a score that classifies them as ‘digital government ready. ’The report also found the Federal government reaching an important milestone, achieving the maximum readiness score of 10 for the first time, joining New South Wales (NSW). Intermedium, the company who produces this report each year, awarded this score to the Federal government for their achievements with the Data and Digital Government Strategy, myGov enhancements, and the progress they have made on the digital ID.

Judy Hurditch, Intermedium’s principal analyst says there is more collaboration between ANZ governments on service delivery than they have seen before.

“The buy-in for digital government services seen under the previous Federal and NSW Coalition governments is continuing under Labor” she said. “These two jurisdictions have been at the top of Intermedium’s digital transformation leaderboard since 2016 and continue to lead the way for other jurisdictions.”

Victoria and Queensland also saw their scores rise, largely due to the roll out of digital licences. The two states join NSW and South Australia in making digital driver’s licences available to citizens, a sign that the provision of citizens’ services, both online and on mobile apps, is gaining momentum across Australia.

This year’s report also increases its consideration and evaluation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its ever-increasing impact on digital service delivery.

“AI, in all its forms, will ultimately result in the biggest transformation of government services we have seen technology deliver. Its impact on the digital delivery of services has the potential to be huge,” said Hurditch.

The report acknowledges that there is considerable collaboration and cooperation across jurisdictions on AI initiatives, which is reflected in the ‘National Framework For The Assurance of Artificial Intelligence’, released in June this year.

This year the report was supported by NEC and Amazon Web Services (AWS), who are deeply committed to the digital future of Australia. NEC’s Vice President of Technology and Innovation, Ayala Domani, commented that NEC is proud to be a technology partner for Federal and State jurisdictions.

“The increase in both industry and government investment in digital government services is paying off, we are seeing exciting progress across the country in enabling Australia’s digital future and supporting Australians in ease of access to many government services. NEC is proud to be contributing to this progress and will continue to bring our global services, learnings and experience to Australia.”

AWS spokesperson Iain Rouse, managing director for public sector in Australia and New Zealand said it’s great to see continued digital progress across ANZ governments.

"These findings demonstrate the positive momentum Australian governments are making to enhance digital service delivery for citizens and improve workplace productivity. AWS has made significant investments in digital infrastructure and cloud upskilling, and we’re encouraged to see increased adoption of cloud technologies and in particular, artificial intelligence, enabling more user-friendly and accessible government services.”

Minister for Finance and the Australian Public Service, Senator the Hon Katy Gallagher, said the Albanese Government is committed to putting people at the centre of government services. “In the digital age, Australians are interacting more with government online and they want to be able to do it in a way that suits them, that is safe and straightforward.”

Detailed analysis of each jurisdiction’s progress and scores is available on Intermedium’s website: Are governments more digitally ready in 2024? | Intermedium

BACKGROUND BRIEF

• Now in its eighth year, Intermedium’s Digital Government Readiness and Maturity Indicator (DGRMI), measures what is happening to not only ensure that government agencies have all the necessary enablers for digitalization of services, such as policies, funding and oversight (readiness) but also what actual outcomes, such as digital driver’s licences are being delivered (maturity).
• NSW and South Australia, the pioneers in digital driver’s licences, have been joined in the past year by Queensland and Victoria in offering not just driver’s licences but a range of other digital licences. These developments have been a long time coming. It is twenty-four years since the then Federal government launched the short-lived Office of eGovernment.
• Despite the fact that only four jurisdictions as yet offer digital licences, all ten ANZ governments are increasingly able to deliver digitally based services to citizens, according to government ICT use researcher Intermedium.
• After years of working through legislative and other barriers, the Federal Government’s digital identity service myGovID is now used by all nine Australian states and territories to offer citizens access to at least some of their services.
• Under the direction of the Data and Digital Ministers Meeting, a sub-committee of the National Cabinet, and chaired by the Federal Minister for Finance, Katy Gallagher, jurisdictions are collaborating on issues such as connecting ‘life event’ services.
• These are citizen-centric life events that involve different levels of government, such as the birth of a child. Currently new parents have to interact with the health system (for the birth itself), with state registrars of births deaths and marriages (for a birth certificate) and with the federal level Centrelink to apply (for entitlements).

Download Report

About Intermedium

An Australian SME specialist researcher of public sector use of information and communications technology. For the past 17 years both industry and public sector agencies have subscribed to its research. Intermedium conducts regular events and briefings to aid in the understanding of public sector ICT trends.