NSW Government in the Digital Age

The NSW Government aims to have 70 percent of government transactions conducted via digital channels by 2019, and the Digital Government Strategy is a key component in addressing this.

Innovations like the Government’s FuelCheck app provide one of the best examples of NSW Government leading the digital government transformation. FuelCheck is an online tool that provides consumers with accurate, reliable, real-time information about fuel prices at every service station across NSW. It drives market competition by making small and independent service stations more visible. At the same time, it gives people the power to choose cheaper fuel prices.

At certain times, FuelCheck has allowed motorists to see a price difference of 30 cents a litre in neighbouring suburbs. Initial estimates indicate the NSW public will be able to save around $80 million every year.

The app has been overwhelmingly popular. In the first six months, FuelCheck had over one million hits. Organizations such as NRMA, PetrolSpy, and others are using this data feed for their apps, while universities such as University of Sydney and UTS are using these fuel prices for research.

Fuelcheck is a great example of how the NSW Government works with industry, the research sector, and the broader community to bring benefits to all NSW citizens.

The digital strategy also foregrounds four enablers to support our priorities – technology, cyber security, legislation, and delivery capability.

We need digital services that are secure and protect personal information. At the back end, we want government processes to be seamless. We want legislation to take into account emerging technology and new business models, and enable citizens to use digital compliance methods. We want policy designed and built by product teams, using iterative and customer-centric methods.

Moving to an agile method of working within government is important in delivering benefits across whole-of-government. In the past, ICT projects produced through more rigid public service design and delivery approaches have experienced long delays because of the difficulties in reaching agreements among a large number of agencies with diverse needs.

An agile approach to service delivery uses small collaborative teams to deliver incremental outcomes that are shaped with and tested by citizens and continuously improved and rolled out iteratively. In NSW Government we are embedding agile ways to working, increasing collaboration and sharing within and beyond state government.

A successful example is a Feedback Assist widget, providing a standardized way for customers to provide comments or complaints on NSW Government services. This widget has been developed and tested with smaller agencies and is being provided as a ‘bolt-on’ that agencies can adopt in their own way for their own websites.

As a result, a new whole-of-government policy on a better way of receiving complaints, comments and suggestions can be rolled out over multiple government websites without years of delay in building a one size fits all solution.

As the digital strategy takes effect, we will measure success not through commands and edicts, but through six-month implementation plans that share stories of success and bring agencies together to learn from each other and work on joint projects. My hope is that we are increasingly known for our customer focus, collaboration, and agility that drive meaningful outcomes for the citizens and businesses of NSW.

I believe a digital government is necessary for good governance and in five years time, perhaps we won’t be talking about digital government, it will just be the way things are done.

As you can tell, there are exciting times ahead for NSW. The NSW Government is dedicated to improving NSW for our citizens and is committed to their digital future.