Welcome to Australia.

It’s been a big week in the world of Digital Government. And an even bigger week in the life of Paul Shetler, the newly crowned head of Malcolm Turnbull’s Digital Transformation Office in Canberra. I must be one of a small handful of people who didn’t get to hear Paul speak about his work this week, but that’s more a comment on my diary management than anything since he seems to have packed an awful lot into an impressive four days.

The premise of the DTO isn’t a new one. The first Government websites emerged in Australia 20 years ago and in pockets, departments at all levels of Government have been quietly introducing innovative new means of service delivery, ranging from online tools that tell you the wait time at nearby casualty departments through to the slightly Orwellian voice recognition software used by the Tax Office (it works!).

In my time in charge of Communications for NSW, Barry O’Farrell made a commitment to reduce the multiplicity of online contact points (most states have over 400 websites) and out of that commitment Service NSW was born. Innovative departments like Transport NSW led the strategic vision by delivering better online solutions that allowed them to close redundant websites (rather than starting with the long tail) and rather than getting stuck in worries over governance, the Police and Rural Fire Services broke entirely new ground in the integration of social media into their businesses.

All good. And lots to build on for the future for Australian consumers, with Service Victoria no doubt soon to up the ante again. In a good way.

Which leaves one cloud on the horizon and credit to Paul Shetler that he raised it in his first week in the public eye. There’s no doubt that lots of the learnings from Gov UK will help the DTO. Except unlike the place of our birth, Australia has NINE parliaments. And local government too. And it’s betraying no secrets from my time in Government to say that they don’t necessarily always work in unison.

The public sector trade press had a bit of fun this week with the news that Service NSW were launching their own identity initiative. The timing was unfortunate in some ways, but I’d argue also fortunate in that it brought the key issue in determining the success of the DTO to light. As Shetler himself said, people need to “carry a map” of Government in their heads to navigate their way around its structures.
And just like “digital” won’t solve the problem of the local council who currently have eight forms for someone who wants to put up a garden fence, so the job of the DTO will be made so much harder unless we can find a way of getting the State Governments and Canberra to truly work together.

I’m of the view that the “One ID” challenge might well be the opportunity to take a truly “holistic” approach. There’s certainly enough money in the MyGov budget.

But if ever a problem needed fresh strategic thinking, it’s not “Digital Government”, it’s rethinking the organisational structures of possibly one of the most over governed countries in the world.

Best start now…it’s going to be a long journey. But what rewards!