‘Government Online Service Delivery’, Speech to Fuji Xerox Round Table

The evidence is clear: citizens want better digital services from their governments.

At the same time, governments can capture significant savings and efficiencies from ‘going digital’.

If digital transformation of government makes so much sense – how are governments around the world doing?

According to a recent paper from Boston Consulting Group Paper, not as well as we might hope:

Getting better – but still plenty of room for improvement: that’s the current assessment by everyday users of their governments’ efforts to deliver online services… Many citizens – accustomed to innovation in such sectors as retailing, media, and financial services – wish their Governments would get on with it.[1]

That assessment is as valid for Australia as for all the other countries BCG surveyed.

The recent Commission of Audit notes that in 2012, 50 percent of the services provided by the Department of Human Services were not conducted online.  The ATO still sends out 10 million notices a year in hardcopy.

In some areas there has been progress.  For example, myGov provides a central account linked to Medicare, Centrelink, Child Support, the Department of Health, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and the National Disability Insurance Agency services. The site has around 2.7 million registered users and is accessed by over 150,000 users each week.[2]

Some other areas where progress has been solid have been online tax returns, the processing of many visas electronically, and electronic cargo manifests.

But there is much yet to be done, and Australians are clamouring for more. Recent research indicates that over 80 per cent of Australians expect to be able to deal with government online.[3]

Despite the clear appetite for access to government services online, the Australian Communications and Media Authority found that in the six months to May 2013, only 8.95 million people accessed government services at all levels (local, state and federal) online.[4]

This low take up suggests that the services on offer may not be what users expect. For instance, they may not in fact be digital from end to end - after completing part of a transaction online, a user may be expected to travel to a government office for a face-to-face interview.

It could also be because the services aren’t optimised for smart phones and tablets.

While there was sustained growth in the delivery of services online in Australia from 2004 to 2008, with a corresponding decline in face-to-face contact over the same period, by 2011, the use of digital channels had plateaued at between 30 and 40 per cent across all levels of government.[5]

The Coalition took an ambitious policy to the 2013 election, aiming to dramatically improve the delivery of services digitally.

Our commitment to accelerate reform is partly inspired by the work of the UK Government’s Government Digital Services (GDS).

The reported UK experience is that online transactions are 20 times cheaper than transactions over the phone, 30 times cheaper than postal transactions and a staggering 50 times cheaper than face-to-face transactions.[6]

The UK Government estimates that moving to online channels for transactional services is likely to cut the cost of service delivery by one fifth.[7]

Here in Australia the Minister for Communications and the Minister for Finance are leading the government’s transformation in the way it uses ICT to deliver services to the public.

The Coalition’s goal is that by the end of 2017 all major services and interactions will be available to the public online, making government more accessible and more efficient – this is the cornerstone of the government’s Convenient Services Anytime Anywhere (CSAA) policy.

The internet will be designated as the default way to interact with most users. In particular, we have set a goal that all services with more than 50,000 interactions per year should be made available online by 2017.

Our approach encompasses all aspects of service design including a redesign of business processes from the “bottom up” to take advantage of the opportunities provides by digital service delivery.  It involves a user-centric view of service delivery which is focused on efficiency and convenience. For this reason, the government has undertaken to publish a Digital Service Standard and Design Guide to ensure consistent service design across government agencies.

The availability of digital services across multiple platforms and devices is key.  Mobile accessibility over smart phones and tables is going to be a key driver of take up.

We are hard at work towards achieving the 2017 target identified in the policy with significant milestones expected to be reached in 2014-2015. The Government will make further announcements about the implementation of the policy in due course.

Another priority for the Abbott Government is big data and open data.

We think there is a significant, and presently untapped, opportunity to leverage social and economic value from the vast data stores of government.

The Commission of Audit highlighted that the government does not use its data to best effect.  One example it offers: we could link data about who is on income support with data about health and incarceration status to identify better pathways out of disadvantage.[8]

The report also highlights the potential to save money.  It cites the UK example of an analysis of pharmaceutical prescription data which demonstrated the dispensing of a particular cheaper no-brand drug could save £350 million per annum.[9]

Beyond how government can use data, there is also tremendous potential to make data freely available to the private sector and citizens so as simulate innovation and optimal use of information.

An example of what is possible is NSW’s mobile app TripView which uses NSW transport data to allow real time information for buses and trains accessible on mobile devices.  This allows us to be “just in time” in catching public transport.  I regularly use it for trips from Lindfield and Roseville Railway Stations into the city.  The convenience factor of this app is wonderful.

The website Data.gov.au currently provides downloadable public datasets for all Australian governments.   Before the Coalition came to power there were only about 500 data sets on this site.  Today there are more than 3,000 and we are working hard to add many more.

This still falls well short of the 200,000 on the US equivalent site.

The potential benefit for Australia from open data is significant.

A 2013 report by McKinsey and Company estimated $3 to 5 trillion in economic value annually from open data across seven sectors in the United States.[10]

The Danish Enterprise and Construction Agency estimated the value of the direct financial benefits of free-of-charge address data to the Danish economy at €14m (with costs of €0.2m) in 2010, with 70% in the private sector.[11]

The use of government data, both by Government itself and by citizens and the private sector, is a key area the Coalition is pursuing.

Of course, an overarching requirement is that of privacy protection, and data must be provided in a way does not reveal identity.

We are in the process of finalising a Big Data Strategy.

We will also be seeking proposals for joint private public projects using big data.

The Abbott Government took office ready for business and with a commitment to cut red tape, and make it easier for citizens to deal with government.

This is more than just a regulatory commitment. It is a transformation of the way in which people think about – and carry out – their interactions with government.

Progressing our commitments to promote e-government and the digital economy will make lives easier for our citizens; make services more cost-effective to deliver; and provide new business and economic opportunities.

[1] Boston Consulting Group, Digital Government: Turning the rhetoric into reality. [2] Commission of Audit, 2014, p.237 [3] ACMA’s Communications Report (2012-13), p. 124 [4] ACMA’s Communications Report 2012-13, p 124 [5] AGIMO, Interacting with government: Australians’ use and satisfaction with e-government services, December 2011, p 24 and Figure 13 [6] UK Government’s Digital Efficiency Report (Government Digital Services), Introduction, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/digital-efficiency-report/digital-efficiency-report [7] UK Government’s Digital Efficiency Report (Government Digital Services), Estimates of total annual savings, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/digital-efficiency-report/digital-efficiency-report [8] Commission of Audit, p.235 [9] Commission of Audit, p.235 [10] McKinsey & Company, Open data: Unlocking innovation and performance with liquid information, p 7 [11] Danish Enterprise and Construction Authority, The value of Danish address data, 2010, http://www.adresseinfo.dk/Portals/2/Benefit/Value_Assessment_Danish_Address_Data_UK_2010-07-07b.pdf.