Digital government transformation has emerged as the new frontier in public sector modernisation. Disruptive technologies like Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), Extended Reality (XR), Cloud Computing, Machine Learning (ML), and the Internet of Things (IoT) are dramatically improving citizen services.
While the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated digitalisation and improved personalisation of services across businesses and governments, Australians now expect this trend to continue through simple, helpful, respectful, and transparent service at all digital touchpoints. This expectation is putting enormous pressure on governments to improve service delivery.
Australia has been on an accelerated path of digital transformation over the past decade. The Digital Government Strategy aims to make Australia one of the top three digital governments in the world by 2025. Delivering this ambitious strategy will require an in-depth understanding of people’s relationships with technology without risking digital exclusion, especially among older and more vulnerable populations. For organisations and governments to scale high-quality digital experiences quickly, they will need sufficient citizen uptake in the future.
Publicis Sapient carried out research with citizens across demographics to understand how this can become a reality. The report examines what Australians can expect from government, how digitalisation is enabling citizen-centric services, and what policies will be necessary to respond to evolving expectations.
The findings reveal that extensive progress has been made in accelerating digitalisation. A vast majority of citizens are eager and willing to use digital tools across a range of government services. This digital uptake, along with an overall positive citizen sentiment, is kindling further investments and enhancements in new technology.
To keep the momentum going, inter-agency collaboration will be critical to establish common frameworks and expand digital inclusion for all citizens, especially those with vulnerabilities and people from minority groups. Equally, addressing data privacy and security challenges will elevate credibility and citizen trust in digital government services.
This report aims to be a practical guide for the public sector to critically evaluate progress and undertake further reforms in the future. It identifies key pathways that will shape digital transformation of government, including:
The Publicis Sapient Digital Citizen Report is one of the largest annual surveys on digital government in Australia conducted by a private organisation. It examines how citizens engage with governments through digital services. It was first commissioned and carried out online in 2021, and again in 2022.
The December 2022 survey had 5,066 participants from a broad range of demographic characteristics, reflecting the population of Australia. It offers rich insights on consumer behaviour and citizen-centric services for the public sector.
This report aims to:
The survey was run digitally in December 2022. The survey involved 5,066 participants with every effort to achieve a broad range of demographic characteristics, reflecting the population of Australia.
Respondents were provided with the following service groupings and examples to understand usage and experience across key government service areas:
The pandemic made digitalisation an imperative. For years, governments explored tech adoption to streamline paper-heavy tasks and reduce reliance on legacy infrastructure, making minor changes in service delivery for short-term improvements in consumer satisfaction.
Today, governments recognise that citizen expectations have evolved, and citizen-centric services are crucial for effective public administration. Digital transactions are quicker, more convenient, and mobile, becoming the preferred channel for citizens to access government services.
In Australia, the number of people using digital government services rose across all age groups in 2021. With COVID-19 restrictions in place, people became increasingly accustomed to digital interactions, resulting in growing confidence in, and demand for, e-government services. This trend persisted in 2022, with transparency, accessibility, speed, and user-friendliness driving a more permanent shift to digital services.
There has been a notable rise in digital government services among the elderly—61% to 85% used at least one digital government service.
Australian citizens now expect a wider spectrum of digital services to support evolving needs, especially in digital voting (31%), mental health services (29%), and digital driver’s licences (26%).
The report also found a strong uptake in digital mental health services to support growing levels of psychological distress among citizens. Such services were accessed at least once among working professionals (78%), those who experienced a major life event (81%), caregivers (86%), and those with university-level education or higher (83%).
Meanwhile, new and emerging technologies are driving more Australians to adopt them in their daily lives. Over half of Australians (63%) have practical knowledge of emerging technologies, with 15% indicating they have deep knowledge and interact with these technologies frequently, including AR, VR, XR, Web 3.0, and digital currencies.
However, the digital divide persists—especially among older and more vulnerable populations, those with poor digital literacy skills, and minority and indigenous groups. People in larger cities are also more likely to be digitally savvy and technologically adept than those from rural areas.
As momentum around digital services builds, the government and public sector are assessing the key capabilities required to deliver connected experiences across the full spectrum of service needs. By analysing the motivations, preferences, and pain points of their citizens, governments can be better prepared to deliver more connected experiences in the future.
Those in regional and rural areas are twice as likely to have not accessed online government services than respondents in mid or large cities.
General (MyGov) and Healthcare were the two most highly accessed services across the regions. Respondents from a mid-sized city (77%) are the most likely to have used an online government service, more than 10% higher than usage by other regions. However, they were also the region which found the most difficulty in using the services (32%).
Australia’s digital transformation began long before the pandemic. National estimates put the potential benefit of digitalisation to the economy at roughly $315 billion over the next decade, with the creation of up to a quarter of a million new jobs expected by 2025.
The 2023-24 Federal Budget included an investment of over $2 billion in data, digital, and ICT solutions to modernise outdated legacy platforms and IT systems, positioning Australia as a leading digital economy.
This report reinforces the demand for more government digital services across Australia and highlights a growing preference among citizens for technology. The survey findings reveal that a vast majority of Australians used at least one digital government service in 2022. Australians also rate digital government services highly, with most services viewed as either good or very good, a sentiment that remains unchanged from the previous year.
Technology plays a big part in Australians seeking digital support during major life events, including births and marriages. Two-thirds of Australians experienced an important life event in 2022, such as the birth of a child, purchase of a home, marriage, or death of a loved one, and the majority engaged with online government services related to these events. A key area of opportunity is for government services to deliver more user-centric experiences to support these major events in a person’s life.
For example, New South Wales is developing the NSW Digital ID program to issue a digital birth certificate, which will improve convenience, accessibility, and security. Expanding the scope of digital services through initiatives like this will help deliver greater convenience and accessibility to government services during key events in a person’s life.
Australia’s digital economy has grown strongly in recent years. But there are still opportunities to tap burgeoning mobile penetration and digital literacy to expand digitisation so that new geographies and population demographics can benefit.
By making digitalisation a business imperative, the public sector stands to gain enormously from improved efficiency and cost-effectiveness. The Federal Government has accelerated reforms and eliminated regulatory barriers to drive the uptake of technology across the economy.
Benefits are also being seen at a state level. According to data published by the NSW Government, citizens have saved millions of hours thanks to 60 time-saving initiatives developed by the Department of Customer Service. These digital technologies have vastly improved management of resources through smarter spending, and enhanced accountability and trust.
Australia stands to unlock a $224 billion economic opportunity if both the public and private sectors expand digital innovation. These savings for the federal and state governments could be redirected to other infrastructure and service improvements – including new roads and healthcare expansion.
By leveraging AI, IoT, ML, and other digital tools, governments can accelerate citizen outreach and optimise their own resources. This is likely to drive improved collaboration with citizens and involve them in decision making, policy development, and design of services.
In addition, governments can become catalysts for private businesses, social enterprises, and citizens to come together to jointly develop innovative services and business models that benefit society.
Digital channels have become an indispensable part of life for Australian citizens. The findings of this research demonstrate that citizens have successfully adapted to digital tools to access public services.
To keep the momentum going and build long-term value and resilience, governments will need to implement timely, technology-enabled change initiatives that address citizen pain points.
Encouragingly, the past two years have witnessed remarkable improvements in the end-to-end customer journey across both public and private sector touchpoints.
However, timely citizen feedback is critical for an in-depth understanding of the experience delivered, and to identify gaps that need to be plugged to improve service.
The NSW Government relies on citizen insights to make improvements to the customer journey. Its State of the Customer report, which captured feedback from 30,000 people, revealed that a majority of citizens found it easy to interact with NSW Government services and that the information they accessed was simple to understand. Such insights are invaluable when developing and improving digital products, including the Service NSW App, which is widely used to access digital driver’s licence, store credentials, and verify personal identities.
Embedding citizen-centricity across the journey is vital to the success of digitalisation. This, coupled with speed and personalisation, will give digital government a competitive advantage over legacy systems in the future.
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