The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) and Department of Human Services (DHS) have started a whole-of-government conversation about digital legislation, policy and rules.
The Agencies said that by bringing people together they were exploring how digital legislation could help transform the way Government delivered services for people and businesses.
“People are often unsure about their entitlements and obligations when interacting with Government,” they said.
“This can result in people applying for the wrong payments, missing a payment or not meeting their compliance requirements.
“We also know that people who are trying to start or grow a business can perceive the Government and the rules they need to follow as a barrier.”
They sad that for Government, managing complex legislation and the associated business rules presented challenges when delivering services as multiple Agencies were often required to interpret shared legislation and rules, which could sometimes result in inconsistencies.
“These problems are not unique to Australia.
“Governments around the world are exploring how they can make legislation, policy and rules more consumable by people and machines.”
They noted that the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation’s Data61 had an ongoing RegTech program to digitise legislation into machine interpretable rules and make them traceable to original legal texts.
“This is a concept with the potential to transform how the Australian Government delivers services, and how people and businesses can understand and comply with rules,” the two Agencies said.
“To help us understand the potential opportunities and impact across Government we have set up a Digital Legislation Working Group which has started to explore the concept of digital legislation, the current process, people involved and some of the challenges we think we could address.”
The Agencies said some of the key insights from the group’s initial meetings included taking a human and digital first approach; bridging the gap between drafting and coding, and the value of small bites.
