An independent audit of myGov has found that without further investment and discipline across Government, the digital platform won’t deliver on its promise of a digital ‘front door’ to public services.
The audit was commissioned in September and conducted by eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant; former Human Rights Commissioner, Edward Santow; former Chief Executive of Telstra, David Thodey; and former Head of Global Economic Policy at Uber, Amit Singh.
In the report, Critical National Infrastructure myGov User Audit, Chair of the myGov User Audit Panel, Mr Thodey said two initial improvements were made to the usability of myGov during the course of the audit, including a new technology platform and the release of the myGov app in December.
“While positive, these changes fall well short of the long-expressed vision of providing a primary digital front door to Government for Australians,” Mr Thodey said.
“While there are many issues that can be easily addressed to improve the satisfaction of Australians with myGov, several of the recommendations set out in this Report are ambitious and the Panel recognises achieving the vision for myGov will not be easy,” he said.
“It will require discipline across Government to deliver truly connected services for the benefit of Australians, a long-term commitment to invest in myGov as a key piece of national infrastructure and building a foundation of trust in myGov by all Australians.”
Mr Thodey said myGov was critical national infrastructure, with many strengths “and also some serious shortcomings”.
He said Australians were conducting up to 1.4 million sessions on the platform each day and the proportion of users who were satisfied with myGov had improved from 40 to 45 per cent.
The Panel made 10 recommendations, including legislating myGov as national service delivery infrastructure; establishing a development fund for the platform; and developing and publishing a rolling five-year roadmap for myGov development.
Welcoming the Report, the Minister for Government Services, Bill Shorten said much more could be done to discover myGov’s full potential.
“We can deliver services, from multiple layers of Government, in a way that works for citizens and their individual circumstances,” Mr Shorten said.
“We can ensure they only need to ‘tell us once’,” he said.
“We can make services simpler, easier and even more secure.”
Mr Shorten said it had never been more important as cyber incidents continue disrupting people’s lives.
“We’ll have more to say on the path the Australian Government will take in response to the audit throughout the year,” the Minister said.
The myGov User Audit Panel’s two-volume Report can be accessed at this PS News link.
