InnovationAus.com - NSW and federal govts pause work on digital credential sharing

A plan to bring digital Medicare cards to the Service NSW app and NSW digital drivers licences to myGov was paused earlier this year and has not resumed after early teething problems emerged with the project.

The decision to pause the project was revealed during Senate Estimates on Wednesday, prompted by a cache of briefing documents released to the Coalition under Freedom of Information laws.

Officials from Services Australia sought to blame the pause on the change in government in New South Wales, but documents reveal challenges in engagement and design work early on in the project.

In February, Government Services minister Bill Shorten and former NSW digital minister Victor Dominello struck an agreement to integrate key credentials, paving the way for closer collaboration between the two governments on digital.

Under the agreement, digital Medicare cards were to become visible in the Service NSW app, while NSW digital driver’s licence were to become accessible in the myGov app – a first for any state-based credential.

Both ministers set a deadline of September at the latest for the integration work to be completed, giving the two agencies time to work through what Mr Shorten described as “plenty of technical matters”.

“It’d be great to have it done by the end of June, but just to keep my hardworking public servants from getting frustrated, I won’t promise the end of June. But I would really like to see it done by the third quarter of this year,” he said at the time.

Officials from Services Australia have now confirmed that the work was paused just months after the agreement was struck, and that work to integrate the credentials has not restarted since the beginning of the new financial year.

Services Australia chief information and digital officer Charles McHardie said that while initial meetings had occurred between the two agencies and that some work was undertaken, the project was paused following the arrival of the Minns government.

“As you know, there was a change of government in NSW and Service NSW have had a look at the path they want to take moving forward,” he said in response to questions from Liberal Senator Maria Kovacic on Wednesday.

It comes as the NSW government slows the pace of the rollout of its decentralised digital identity, as revealed by InnovationAus.com, with no new trials of the NSW Digital ID taking place since Mr Dominello left office in March.

Mr McHardie added that myGov as “well set up for additional credentials into the future”, having completed a major overhaul in recent years, and that the two agencies were continuing to liaise.

But documents obtained under FOI show initial design work on the integration, which involved workshops between Services Australia and Service NSW, “revealed some challenges which need further work and collaboration across government”.

While it is unclear when the work was paused, InnovationAus.com understands the documents were prepared ahead of the last round of Senate Estimates hearings in May.

No pause to the project was ever disclosed in communiques from the Data and Digital Ministers’ Meeting, which has met twice to discuss cross-government collaboration since then.

Shadow minister for government services and the digital economy Paul Fletcher, whose office obtained the documents, said it was time for the government to “prioritise technology and stop the blame game and excuse making”.

“This revelation is another concerning example of a government that is drifting when it comes to technology and innovation. Bill Shorten promised this project and has delivered nothing,” he told InnovationAus.com.

“Labor needs to prioritise technology and stop the blame game and excuse making. How can Labor be trusted to deliver a whole-of-government digital ID system when it doesn’t even prioritise reforms around digital credentials?”

Last month, the federal government released draft legislation for the expansion to state and territory governments and the private sector that has stalled in recent months, thanks in part to funding uncertainty from the former government.

Finance minister Katy Gallagher has previously indicated that the legislation – which will now take a phased approach to rollout, starting with state governments – could be in place as soon as mid-next year.

In the absence of legislation for an economy-wide expansion of the national digital identity scheme, two of Australia’s biggest banks earlier this month adopted a digital identity service to reduce the oversharing of data.

Former NSW digital government minister Victor Dominello and a handful of other service delivery, verification, privay and inclusions experts were tapped by the federal government this week to help guide the Digital ID expansion.

Author: Justin Hendry

This article appeared in InnovationAus.com on 25 October 2023