Griffin on Tech: “Unaffordable, unrealistic” - our digital government plans need a rethink
Yesterday’s deluge of briefings to incoming ministers contained a few juicy tidbits but also gave some insights into where the nation’s policy wonks think the country is heading.
The Department of Internal Affairs briefing to the incoming Minister for Digitising Government is a good case in point. Judith Collins has this new portfolio among her many ministerial positions and it's a slightly odd one compared to the others.
“New Zealand was once a world leader in digital government service delivery, but we have arguably fallen behind some international counterparts in recent years,” DIA informed Collins.
Does the new minister have some grand plan to put things right, to radically reshape how government services are delivered online? We don’t know, there was no manifesto delivered in this area, unlike National’s space policy, which came with some remarkably detailed policy pledges.
We do know that Collins was deeply impressed during a visit to New South Wales last year when she was shown some digital government initiatives.
“It was extraordinary to me,” Collins told me. “Extraordinary to learn that in New South Wales they have 700 forms that people engage with governments over, whether it is boat licences, driver’s licences, identity, records of your speeding fines. They digitise everything. They have one department, you go onto their website and find out what they need,” she gushed.
It’s like a “concierge service”, she said, with a digital ID system that “actually works”, unlike RealMe which no one uses.
“Digital government has enabled more human staff to deal with more human customers when needed,” in New South Wales, Collins concluded. I was envious of New South Wales after that conversation. So it looks like a major customer service push it at the heart of digitising government in the coming years.
And DIA’s policy people have been infected by Collins’ enthusiasm.
“We could develop ways for people to provide rapid feedback on services, and for agencies to publish real-time performance data showing customer satisfaction levels,” they suggested. Good grief, you won’t stop them now!
In all seriousness, a dedicated push to improve the convenience and accessibility of government services wouldn’t be a bad thing, particularly if it means the most vulnerable in society aren’t pushed from pillar to post when they need help.
But DIA also delivered the reality check: “Government agencies have signalled an intention to invest $12.5 billion in digital over the next five years, including over $5 billion into Cloud adoption. This is unaffordable and unrealistic, and much of this intended investment is not aligned with public service-level outcomes or an all-of-government approach”.
We have to find a better way to refresh and roll out new government services, one where we remove the duplication of effort and offer a more uniform experience across the public sector.
“Taking a whole of public service approach to setting digital investment priorities would support a move away from a ‘first come, first served’ approach and enable a more deliberate investment strategy that prioritises multi-agency investments and system benefits,” the DIA advisors point.
The BIM is light on anything about artificial intelligence, references the work underway on the Digital Identity Services Trust Framework which will look to expand beyond what RealMe offers, and points out that there’s work to do on cloud adoption across government, which is “uneven and lower than expected”.
So Collins has her work cut out for her in a busy portfolio. But I’m sure looking forward to using that concierge service when I pay my ACC bill, or my boat licence!