The Australian Government is a world leader in the digital transformation of government policy and services. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Australia has the second best digital government in the world, sitting only behind Korea, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
It has jumped three places since 2023, when it was ranked fifth in the world.
What does that all mean? Good question.
The OECD rates nations around the world on how they provide government services and make them accessible to citizens in an increasingly digitised society.
Describing digital transformation as an imperative for modern governments, the OECD now releases a Digital Government Index (DGI) every couple of years.
The 2025 DGI has just been published worldwide.
It benchmarks the efforts made by governments to establish the foundations necessary to achieve a coherent, human-centred digital transformation of the public sector.
“By modernising systems, connecting data and adopting agile ways of working, governments can become faster, more efficient and more responsive, without sacrificing accountability,” the report states.
“Digital transformation enables better services, smarter decisions and collaboration across siloes and borders.
“Such transformation has made digital technology itself a strategic asset that demands collective action: decisions about digital infrastructure, data architectures and AI deployment are no longer merely technical choices, but strategic ones that shape governments’ resilience, autonomy and long-term capacity to act.”
Australia improved its ranking from fifth place in 2023, with the OECD highlighting the strength of Australia’s digital service delivery, national coordination and focus on designing services around people’s needs.
The Australian Government was particularly recognised for leadership in using digital tools to simplify engagement with government services; prioritising projects that delivered practical release value; collaborating across government to deliver a national approach to service design; and strengthening the security and resilience of digital public infrastructure.
Finance, the Public Service and Government Services Minister Katy Gallagher said the result reflected the Federal Government’s focus on improving digital services as a way of improving services for Australians.
“This result shows Australia is delivering digital government services that are easier to use, more secure and focused on what people actually need,” Senator Gallagher said.
“Climbing to second in the world reflects the work of public servants across the Australian Public Service who are modernising how government services are designed and delivered.
“We are focused on building digital services that are secure, connected and centred on people, while giving public servants the tools they need to deliver services more effectively.
“This is about improving government services, making them simpler to access, more reliable to use and ready for the future.”
Australia ranked first in two areas measured by the index – digital by design and user-driven services.
It ranked fourth for government as a platform and fifth for proactive government.
The DGI does not measure the level of digitalisation of specific government processes and services, nor the uptake of these services by the users.
Instead, it focuses on policies and initiatives that enable digital transformation across the public sector.
The OECD says that by measuring these enabling foundations, the DGI serves as a key instrument to drive digital government policy design, decision-making and implementation.
The 10 countries with highest scores (out of 0.1) in the 2025 DGI are Korea (0.95), Australia (0.88), Portugal (0.86), United Kingdom (0.84), Norway (0.83), Estonia (0.83), Ireland (0.83), Denmark (0.83), France (0.80) and Chile (0.79).
Data for some OECD countries and some categories was not available for the latest index.
“While countries have progressed compared to 2023, the 2025 results still show room to increase the pace and depth of change of digital government policies,” the report states.
OECD countries improved across all six DGI dimensions, with the largest gains in the data‑driven public sector, user-driven and proactiveness sectors.
Progress was driven by stronger data governance frameworks, digital public infrastructure (such as interoperability systems), the use and governance of AI in government and the wider adoption of service standards.
In contrast, the report states, progress has been more limited in foundational dimensions such as digital by design, government as a platform and open by default.
Original Article published by Chris Johnson on Region Canberra.
