Turnbull announces Digital Transformation Office

In a long-awaited move, the Commonwealth Government has announced that it will establish a Digital Transformation Office (DTO) within the Department of Communications to deliver government services digitally from "start to finish and better serve the needs of citizens and businesses".

In a joint statement, the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, and Minister for Communications, Malcolm Turnbull said that the "DTO will comprise a small team of developers, designers, researchers and content specialists working across government to develop and coordinate the delivery of digital services. The DTO will operate more like a start-up than a traditional government agency, focussing on end-user needs in developing digital services."

The government says that people "need to be able to transact services and access information anytime, anywhere".

"Like any other service industry, government should design its services in the most user-friendly way. Interacting with government should be as easy as internet banking or ordering a taxi through an app," the joint statement said.

One of the DTO's first jobs will be to do away with people having to complete separate log-on processes for each government service. Instead, people should have a ‘digital identity’, which they can use to log in to each of their services across the government.

The statement says the DTO will also work with state and territory governments to identify opportunities for collaboration, including ways to make better use of myGov.

The statement also says that the government is "committed to protecting the personal information it holds about individuals and businesses. Maintaining the security and privacy of personal information is a vital consideration for the DTO."

Industry group the Australian Information Industry Association has welcomed the government's move.

"Citizens and business expect flexible, responsive, end-to-end digital services and it is imperative that the Australian Government step up to meet this expectation, just as governments around the world are already doing," said Suzanne Campbell, AIIA's CEO.

"Establishment of a digital identity to transact with all government agencies and the intention to work collaboratively with state and territory governments is also welcomed and will be crucial to ensuring start-to-finish service delivery is a reality for citizens and businesses engaging with government at all levels," she added.

"With the fragmentation of service delivery across government, clear purpose and leadership is imperative," Campbell went on to say. "AIIA is confident that the Minister for Communications understands the challenges ahead and strongly encourages the Minister to collaborate with and leverage the expertise of industry to execute the government's agenda."

Image courtesy CeBIT Australia under CC