InnovationAus.com - ‘Nobbled’ DTA languishing under Finance

Opposition services minister Paul Fletcher says the Digital Transformation Agency’s role has been diminished as part of a backwards step on government technology and digital services that will need structural changes to fix.

The Albanese government moved responsibility for the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) to Finance shortly after its election victory last year.

Under the former Coalition government, it had moved between Prime Minister & Cabinet and the Services portfolio, where it was close to either leadership or the biggest IT budgets.

Under a transition that began before the change in government, the DTA has also shifted from an agency that delivers services and project management to one focused on whole-of-government advice and strategy.

After losing control of major projects like digital ID and a national data sovereignty scheme, the DTA’s current focus is a new national data and digital strategy and a revamp of the digital marketplace procurement platform.

On Monday, shadow minister for government services and the digital economy Paul Fletcher said the Albanese government had effectively “nobbled” the DTA and shifted it “into the bowels of the Department of Finance”.

“The DTA is not, I think, having the strong role that — if it’s to be effective — it needs to have,” he told InnovationAus.com.

“We had the DTA accountable to, for a considerable period of time, the minister who also had responsibility for government services. That makes a lot more sense than having it dissociated from that minister, sitting in Finance.

“We also had it for a while in [Prime Minister & Cabinet], so right at the centre of government.”

Mr Fletcher said the diminished role was one factor in the “drift” of the $600 million digital identity program, which was shifted to the Department of Finance.

The DTA still provides input on the program but handed over policy responsibilities to the large department last month.

The identity program has delivered little to the public despite being funded more than seven years ago. It has stalled in the last 18 months while the Albanese government redrafts legislation that it plans to consult as soon as next month.

At the TechLeaders event on Monday, Mr Fletcher said the delayed program is part of an Albanese government’s sluggish approach to the digital economy and government technology.

He said the Commonwealth is now straying from a proven approach in New South Wales, widely considered to be the leader on digital services.

“I think the root cause of the problem is that we’ve moved a long way in the Commonwealth Government from a structure that demonstrably has been pretty effective in New South Wales, which is the minister with responsibility for customer service also controls the IT budget,” he said.

“Chief information officers in particular agencies needed to get his sign off to proceed with projects. And if they were kind of off strategy then that was very hard to do.”

Author: Joseph Brookes

This article appeared in InnovationAus.com on 31 August 2023