Today, the Service
Victoria Bill 2017, which will create a dedicated agency for everyday
Government transactions, was second
read in the Victorian parliament in Australia. The Bill aims to break down
departmental silos and create a new whole-of-government agency – Service
Victoria – that will act as a central access point for members of the community
accessing Government services.
Victorians complete around 55 million transactions with the State
Government every year, but at the moment, accessing government services and
information can be excessively difficult and costly. There are hundreds of
phone hotlines and 538 different websites. This causes delays and frustrations
and results in increased expense to taxpayers.
Service Victoria is intended to deal with these challenges
and modernise the delivery of the highest volume government transactions, such
as car registration, to ensure that members of the community can more easily
access these services in one place.
The Bill will allow the new agency to be able to process and
handle high volume Government transactions such as car registration, birth
certificates, fishing licences and many others as Service Victoria grows.
The Bill provides minimum standards around the handling and
sharing of information, ensuring community members have the choice and,
ultimate control, over how their personal information is obtained and used. (In October, the Victorian
Data Sharing Bill 2017, which aims to break down these agency silos
within government and ensure agencies can share data and information across the
whole-of-government had its second
reading in the parliament)
The proposed agency in the process of building an online
platform that will eventually become the new place to go for government
services, an important part of the Andrews Labor Government’s ICT strategy.
This Bill follows the investment of AU$81million by the
Labor Government in the Victorian
Budget 2016/17 for the initial development of Service Victoria.
This investment has enabled the development of new systems,
processes and digital platforms to deliver the modern customer experience
expected and tackle the rising costs of providing such services. Beta testing for
the new platform is currently underway and it is expected to be available to
the public in 2018.
Special Minister of State Gavin Jennings said, “Victorians expect great customer service
when dealing with everyday businesses, and government should be no different –
at present dealing with government can be slow, confusing and cumbersome.”
“We simply don’t
need a thousand different websites and hotlines for things like car
registration, birth certificates and fishing licences. Service Victoria is
about reducing the frustrations of dealing with government so hard working
families can spend more time on the things that matter and less on confusing
websites,” Mr. Jennings added.
One-stop government service channels in
other parts of Australia
There have been
similar initiatives in several Australian states to provide a one-stop shop for
state government services. Service NSW was already delivering over 900 services from
more than 40 New South Wales Government agencies in 2016. In Feburary 2016, it
launched a ‘tell us once’ digital account.
Access Canberra
brings together ACT Government shopfronts, call handling,
online services and regulatory functions in a single unified service. South
Australia’s Service SA
provides access to a range of government services, including a variety of
registration and licensing, either online, over the phone and in person. Smart
Service Queensland also aims to provide a primary point of contact for citizens
to access Queensland Government services.
Western Australian’s
Digital ICT Strategy, introduced last year, includes a Government Digital
Services Portal Program, as a major initiative. Stage 1 (completed 1 July 2017) delivered an initial Alpha (prototype),
called myWA (now re-branded to ServiceWA), designed to engage public and
industry feedback and input into the design. Stage 2 (2017-18) will, using lessons learned from Stage
1, deliver a Beta portal, and focus on delivering immediate benefits to the
community, such as enabling individuals to use a single credential to access
multiple WA government services.
