Monday 2 September 2013

The Coalition’s plan for the digital economy & e-Government

A Coalition Government will provide real leadership on the digital economy and e-Government by pursuing practical policies to encourage innovation, unleash productivity and support highly-skilled employment.

With the Australian Government currently spending approximately $6 billion per year on ICT, the Coalition is proposing an aggressive reform agenda to ensure value for money in ICT procurement, transparency of expenditure as well as better services for taxpayers.

This is critical if we are to address Australia’s recent and alarming deterioration in global rankings with regard to our digital competitiveness and innovation.

To improve lagging productivity and generate secure, highly-skilled and well paid jobs, the Coalition will:

• Require virtually all Government services and public interactions to be available digitally (as well as in hard-copy)  by 2017 on an opt-in basis;
• Improve the transparency of Government ICT spending with the establishment of a US-style online ‘dashboard’ so taxpayers can assess the performance and progress of major projects;
• Require Government agencies to trial next generation tele-presence systems from 2014;
• Trial an opt-in ‘digital pigeonhole’ from 2014 for the growing number of Australians who want to go ‘paperless’ – a free, secure digital inbox for communication from all levels of Government;
• Provide leadership encouraging standards in areas such as online identity verification and mobile payments vital to the growth of the digital economy; and
• Encourage Government agencies to use cloud services and operate their IT functions more efficiently.

The Coalition proposes to update all Government digital economy policies to reflect world best-practice and innovation. This will include the development of the National Digital Economy Strategy in close consultation with the States and Territories, recognising their key role in the delivery of public services.

The plan builds on the Coalition’s commitment in April to deliver the National Broadband Network sooner, cheaper for taxpayers and more affordably for consumers.

These measures will deliver improved support and leadership for Australia’s transition to a digital economy with higher productivity, helping Australian households and businesses to prepare for economic and social change.