I acknowledge we meet on the lands of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples.
I pay respect to elders past and present – and extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here today.
It’s good to be back at the National Press Club – my 19th address over the span of 22 years.
This venue takes its place among some of the storied press clubs of the world.
And although it can’t boast tales of Buffalo Bill Cody or of Lauren Bacall sitting atop a piano being played by Harry Truman, as the Washington chapter can…
…the National Press Club in Canberra has come to be known for the quality of its guest speakers *ahem* and crucially, the nationally important conversations it has launched.
Today, I want to launch another one.
Today I want to discuss how Australia becomes the world leader in government service delivery and how we employ technology to achieve that goal.
How we leverage three things we’re good at when it comes to digital…
…adoption, inclusion and innovation …
…to ensure we put people first and deliver for all Australians in much the same way as our great social universal institutions - Medicare, superannuation, the minimum wage and the NDIS.
And I will share with you an exciting step forward for Australia’s digital infrastructure.
But first I’ll take a moment to acknowledge David Hazelhurst who now leads Services Australia…
…and Ray Griggs, Secretary of the Department of Social Security, for being here today.
I enjoy excellent working relationships with both David and Ray, and I am grateful for their frank and fearless advice.
I’m sure they’re thinking right now ‘If only he’d take it’.
But I believe I can speak for us all when I say we value a contest of ideas and its ability to foster creative and robust of plans.
In 2022, I took carriage of two portfolios with very public and significant problems.
The derailed NDIS has been well documented, as has my ongoing effort and that of the disability community and the NDIA to get it back on track.
So, I’ll take it as read that you know what is keeping me up at night on the NDIS front.
But today is about the other side of my portfolio.
I’d like to share with you a five year perspective – from my time as Shadow Minister for Government Services and now as Minister.
I came to this role well versed in the misery that was robodebt.
I knew its architects and enablers.
In 2019, I organised the class action against this immoral and illegal scheme…
…and in Opposition, I held the coalition’s feet to the flame as they ignored external and agency legal advice about its unlawfulness.
I knew one of my first tasks as Minister (along with AG and Minister for DSS) was to set up a Royal Commission into robodebt…
…because it had ‘a pathology’ at its heart that needed to be cured.
A sickness that two people who are here today know too well.
Jenny Miller’s son, Rhys, and Kath Madgwick’s sons, Jarrad, took their lives after receiving robodebt notices.
Rhys and Jarrad, Jenny and Kath, and the more than 430,000 Australians who received unlawful debt notices are a constant reminder to all who work in public policy that decisions we make have human consequences.
We cannot and, frankly, must not forget robodebt.
Because, as the saying goes, those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
The Albanese Government’s response to the Royal Commission, putting the human back into human services, and inviting civil society groups to be part of the conversation on government services…
…all coalesce around one goal of making it impossible for robodebt to ever happen again.
The fact robodebt is associated with Services Australia is painful for the many committed staff whose mission is to care for people in the community in need of government support.
Services Australia – through Centrelink, Child Support and Medicare – intersects with every Australian at some stage of their life...
…from birth to retirement and myriad life events in between, Services Australia is there.
In a 12 month period (23/24 financial year), Agency workers:
- administered $240 billion in payments
- handled 1.1 billion transactions online
- had 10.7 million face-to-face contacts
- and took 53.9 million calls through the biggest call centre network in the southern hemisphere.
There was a strong show of support for the agency’s work in the 2024-25 Budget with a record investment of $2.8 billion…
…the single largest announced increase in dollar terms and extra staff in Services Australia’s history.
That investment is allowing me to achieve my goals I had for the Agency when I became Minister.
My first goal was to secure more service delivery staff to undo the damage the previous government did by slashing the workforce.
In the last year we’ve recruited an extra 3000 ongoing staff who are now onboarded and fully trained.
And that has been pivotal to my second goal of tackling the claims backlog and call wait times.
Centrelink calls are now answered around 6 minutes faster and Medicare calls almost 10 minutes faster – and that should improve even further after this tax-time peak.
Claims processing has improved exponentially since last financial year.
Paid parental leave is down from 25 days to 4 – an 84% improvement.
Jobseeker, 22 days to 5 – a 77% improvement.
Childcare subsidy, 24 days to 7 – a 71% improvement.
My third goal was to improve safety for staff and members of the public using service centres.
We now have funding for more security guards…
…better security features in all service centres…
…and a centralised Security Operations Centre.
The Albanese Government also passed an amendment to the criminal code for harsher penalties for anyone who harms or threatens to harm Commonwealth frontline workers.
So, I have hit my goals for proper resourcing, reducing call wait times and the claims backlog…
…improving staff morale and safety…
…and securing funding to improve digital capabilities.
Services Australia has been a source of innovation, especially under David’s leadership.
PassKeys are a good example of Agency innovation that has made Australia a global pioneer in improving security of online government services.
Global leaders like Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Sony already give users the option of replacing passwords with PassKeys…
…instead, using your face or fingerprint as your password to sign in to websites and apps.
Unlike passwords, PassKeys are resistant to phishing and scammers.
And you don’t need a good memory.
Some of the most significant Budget announcements were the investments in Digital ID and myGov.
This reflects the need to reduce the data stored and shared, by increasing use of Digital ID…
…and answers the myGov Audit calls for the platform to be funded on an ongoing basis as nationally critical infrastructure.
And I’d like to acknowledge the work of Audit Chair, David Thodey.
myGov is the largest online platform in the country with 5.6 million people now using the myGov app – but at the moment its potential is underutilised.
We have a Ferrari in the garage that we only take out to do the grocery shopping.
I want to change that.
Because myGov is the gateway to Australia’s digital future – a secure, inclusive and exciting digital future.
Today I unveil a project that we have in development that we call Trust Exchange – or TEx.
I am collaborating on this project with my colleagues, the Minister for Finance, Senator Katy Gallagher, who has carriage of Digital ID, and Assistant Treasurer, and Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones.
TEx will not duplicate Digital ID, but builds upon the investments already made in that system, including all the consultation and the digital ID infrastructure.
TEx will use myGov and MyGovID to make the sharing of personal information more secure and trustworthy.
[The difference between myGov and MyGovID is that…
…MyGovID (owned by ATO) does just the one thing – it proves your identity to both government and business.
On the other hand, myGov (Owned by Services Australia) is a ‘place’ where you can use your MyGovID to conduct up to 16 Government services online (and we will keep adding more).]
The strength of this tech trifecta has the potential to give Australians control of their data that will rival the gold standard, General Data Protection Regulation in Europe…
…but without the regulation and complexity.
We’re opting for the carrot over the stick because individuals, business and government all win from this.
And where most other jurisdictions have a centralised ID with a number from birth…
…we’re embarking on the first decentralised model, which provides more privacy and security settings.
Now, I get that in entering the digital world, we have to grasp new language and concepts – think back to when we first heard about ‘the cloud’.
TEx is something brand new and world leading.
It is not a wallet or app or ID.
But rather, it is a secure means by which to exchange with a third party ‘who you are’ – your identity – or ‘what you can do’ – your credentials.
Services Australia is partnering with other government systems to develop TEx…
…to give Australians the ability to verify their identity and credentials based on official information already held by the Australian Government.
I want to stress that TEx is currently in proof-of-concept stage.
We have an $11.4 million Commonwealth investment in the build-out, as part of the Digital ID project.
So, between now and December, TEx will establish:
- the ability to issue a verified credential
- the ability to selectively share information
- and the ability to prove your identity without sharing any information.
And over the next few months we will add
- Medicare, DVA, and Organ Donor and Concession cards.
By January 2025, the proof of concept will be complete and we’ll assess what our options are for pilots.
This new digital infrastructure can drive progress that lets individuals control their own data…
…while creating opportunities for productivity gains and economic progress.
Here’s how it could work, and I will use the myGov wallet to illustrate.
- You need a service – let’s use getting a hotel room as an example.
- When you check in, the hotel requests your personal information (attributes) – often that’s your driver’s license or passport.
- With TEx, instead of handing over those documents to be copied in some form, you would scan a QR code on the front desk – or use technology similar to tap-to-pay machine – that digitally ‘shakes hands’ with your myGov wallet.
- You choose only the information you wish to share with the hotel from your digital wallet and consent to its use.
- You will have a record in your myGov wallet of what you shared and with whom you shared it.
I had someone reach out to my office this morning and ask if we can expedite this for Airbnb so – and I’m using their words – they’re not handing over sensitive information to some rando.
And that is a good point because Trust Exchange would deliver three benefits – choice, consent, trust:
- Choice: you choose what information is shared and with whom it is shared.
- Consent: you deliberately consent to every bit of information your share.
- Trust: the information shared is trusted because the system imposes rigorous privacy and security standards to validate its authenticity.
And, as I said, there may be instances where TEx can verify your identity without any information being exchanged at all.
Take the case of someone going to the local RSL and wanting to prove they’re over 18.
The plan with TEx is that they’d just hold their phone to a tap-to-pay style machine…
…and a digital token will be sent to the club vouching for their identity and that they’re over 18.
Not even their actual age is disclosed, merely that they are over 18.
The token will be a valuable promise to the club, but of zero value to a cybercriminal…
…because the confirmation token will not contain any personal information.
All that has been exchanged has been a digital ‘thumbs up’ from the Government that you are who you say you are.
And TEx will have a range of uses:
- government to business and business to government
- consumer to government and government to consumer
- and from consumer to business and business to consumer.
Whatever the case, online or in person, you choose what is shared, you consent to what is being shared and you can trust it is shared safely.
The beauty of TEx is that it is part of the broader interoperable Digital ID system – and that means reducing the collection, storage and sharing of data across the economy.
There have been a number of high profile, significant cyber incidents and data breaches in recent times.
The Optus incident – one of the first on a large scale – showed why we have to do things differently.
As we know from that incident – many businesses store Government produces documents, such as licenses and passports, as a way of proving they know their customers.
An ID as a Verifiable Credential would be a secure and very efficient way for a business to be certain of someone’s ID.
It will save businesses money as it will significantly reduce their customer on-boarding procedures and their data storage requirements.
As we see the results of the TEx Proof of Concept, I will need to work with my ministerial colleagues, to consider how might we be able to update regulation to take advantage of this advancement.
Each time a breach happens it harms Australians’ confidence in digital technologies...
…and given the importance of digital technologies in improving people’s lives, it is important that the Australian government helps to build trust.
To be fair, as the digital age arrived, business saw data accumulation as an asset. Now we’re learning data accumulation is also a liability.
We have heard that data is the new oil, and there is no doubt –used responsibly and safely, it can be liquid gold.
Herein lies a Promethean challenge.
Prometheus, you may know, tricked the Olympian gods and stole fire to give to humanity in the form of knowledge.
King of the Olympian gods, Zeus, condemned Prometheus to eternal torment for this transgression.
Today, Prometheus is not only associated with the quest for knowledge but is a symbol of unintended consequences.
Data, like fire, is in itself neither good nor bad, but its custodianship can have unintended consequences.
With TEx, data will be secure.
TEx will be time saving.
And it will be money saving.
It will be a decentralised model which reduces the replication of information and has privacy by design as its foundation.
If we let private industry carry out their business needing to store less and less personal information then, through a different mechanism, we will have achieved some of the best aspects of the GDPR.
And to be clear, TEx will be an opt-in system.
But I suspect people will vote with their feet once they have the option and will choose the businesses that offer them the convenience, control and security of TEx.
I’m pleased to advise that Telstra and Google have welcomed the opportunity to be involved in development of this important step towards our digital future…
…and the Tech Council of Australia, the Commonwealth Bank, and employment platform, SEEK, have all given in-principle support for TEx.
CBA said TEx is the public digital infrastructure private industry needs.
SEEK Managing Director, Ian Narev, said the expansion plans for digital credentials will, and I quote “make a big difference to the effectiveness of our labour markets, helping job seekers and businesses of all sizes.”
Consent.
Choice.
Trust.
I know it is a bit of an abstract concept at this point but once it is in place, TEx will have countless applications.
It has the potential to unleash innovation across our economy, creating opportunities in all sectors as well as for small businesses.
With the work currently being done, myGov users will be able to add more cards and certificates to their myGov wallet, including from state government and, in time, private industry…
…and I am working with colleagues and states to facilitate storage of licenses and cards in myGov and state digital wallets.
We’re getting this moving and it is on track to happen by the end of 2024.
Equally, I want the Medicare card and Commonwealth Concession cards to be included in state-based wallets.
Trade certificates will also soon be in your myGov wallet.
We had initially hoped to have a swap of credentials between state and federal apps however the technology moved on and this provides a much better solution than what would have essentially been just a picture of a card.
TEx will achieve the outcome of the card swap and much more.
What we will not do is what the former Liberal Government did, throwing good money after bad chasing a broken solution like the $191 m failed Entitlement Calculation Engine.
It will make life easier, allow you to have your credentials at your fingertips, and keep your personal information safer.
There is no question that we have to make advances in digital infrastructure.
We know that when the tech works, Aussies are fast adopters and love the convenience of online.
We do our banking and shopping online, order our food and ride shares, pay for parking, book appointments and do our tax online.
And we’d prefer to organise our government services online.
Research by tech think tank, Mandala, shows that 90% of Australians surveyed prefer to interact with government on a digital platform.
In aggregate, this means millions of hours of time saved to the end of the decade.
And, to put it in a pithy one liner, Aussies want us to make it ‘as easy as Amazon’.
Of course, we can never promise that every government service transaction can be that straightforward.
Government services have to deliver for all Australians to enhance trust – with reliability, capability, integrity and compassion.
Understanding someone's eligibility for the Disability Support Pension, for example, cannot be reduced to something as uncomplicated as ordering from Amazon…
…but we can always have convenience and ease as our ambition.
Research on New Zealand government services (by Intelligent Business Research Services) found that…
…if filling out a form is too hard, people will walk away, often with the feeling the government is deliberately making it hard for them to claim their entitlements.
In other words, accessing government services should not make citizens feel stupid or stressed.
Senator Katy Gallagher and I announced last week a survey on the development of online and face-to-face Government services.
Responses will inform a report on The Future of government services: being overseen by the Prime Minister’s Department.
We are keen to hear a diverse range of opinions and experiences so we ensure government services are more inclusive…
…and so we can get it right at every step of the path to a digital future.
And to get it right we need to bring a lot of people to the table.
We have look at the risks and benefits of every policy or program or platform we implement from every angle.
I recently held a roundtable with the Tech Council of Australia…
…we were joined by reps from the tech sector, industry, academia, and civil society – including Jenny Miller and Kath Madgwick.
The message reiterated around the table was that digital offerings must be two things – easy and useful.
Former chief executive at Economic Justice Australia, Leanne Ho, reminded the gathering that while we must design for customer experience, we must also ensure the underlying policy intent is being delivered upon…
…to differentiate between what is an optional add-on – a ‘nice to have’ – and what is a service that allows people to put food on the table for their kids.
A salient reminder that one person’s hierarchy of needs is not necessarily the same as the next.
Inclusion is the key.
The constituency for government services is large – anyone who uses Child Support or Medicare or Centrelink.
That’s everyone.
But government services is decidedly politically unsexy.
Yet in the US the Government Service Delivery Improvement Act currently before Congress…
… sets the directive for the Office of Management and Budget to designate a senior official with the primary responsibility to coordinate efforts to improve government service delivery.
It has its merits.
How do we get Australia excited about moving to online government services?
How do we make an online government service as desirable as an Apple product that makes people queue around the block?
We have the tech to go digital. We know there is demand for it. And we have a history in this country of being early adopters.
So, if we have all those factors, surely you can assume the problem that stands in our way is political.
I’ve spent my time in politics trying to achieve change that makes life better, more equitable, more inclusive and simpler for Australians.
And in that time, it is clear that the cornerstone of change is that every citizen can see themselves in the future.
And if we are to embed change, bipartisanship is crucial.
I believe there is common ground between the coalition and the government.
I read a recent speech to the Australian Information Industry Association by Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy.
Mr Fletcher does mention me 16 times – perhaps not as flatteringly as I’d like – but you can’t have everything.
I will mention him here once today, to say that I agree with him on some key points.
They include:
- ‘[using] data responsibly to provide personalised services’ including the increased “use of tools such as single touch payroll”.
- Agree. And this Labor Government has supercharged the use of Single Touch Payroll to ensure better payment accuracy, and reduce instances of mistakes.
- “Consider the rollout of voice print, digital assistants, digital identity and video chat appointments …”
- Agree. We do this and constantly ensure the most up to date patches and upgrades to these technologies are employed.
- Trial Microsoft’s Copilot AI tool.
- Tick. But doing so in a considered and managed way.
- “Following the impressive work of the former New South Wales Coalition Government, in establishing Service New South Wales under the leadership of Minister Dominello.”
- Could not agree more. That is why I have persuaded Victor to oversee my own advisory board, and he is here today with the other Board members.
- “Data and Digital Ministers Meeting to improve coordination with state and territory governments.”
- Agree. We have continued this to oversee the integrated delivery of government services between tiers of government.
I want to make some observations related to that last point.
A coordinated approach across government builds trust in the community.
And I’ll be blunt, the biggest barrier to Australia having the convenience of seamless government services…
…is what I refer to as a plague of fiefdoms.
The siloed thinking across departments and agencies has to stop.
The world has moved on. But government has not.
I recall reading years ago about a futurist who visited Australia and lamented what he called a clay layer in some public service departments…
… upper management who were not digital natives and refused to learn…
…stunting the digital uptake of the whole organisation.
The notion of relinquishing any control in the public sector is the new clay layer.
And yes, I acknowledge that there are legislative obstacles in some circumstances but turf protecting prevents Australians from reaping the benefits of a collaborative culture.
Organisations under the Services Australia umbrella are showing what ‘tell us once’ can look like, through a pilot for the birth of a child here in the ACT.
The trial starts with the details the parent provides at the hospital to register their baby for federal government services.
That means quick access to critical health services including:
- Enrolling the baby in Medicare
- the Medicare Safety Net
- My Health Record
- the Australian Immunisation Register
- and confirming the birth of the baby for the purposes of Centrelink Family Assistance claims.
We just need other departments and agencies to get onboard so we can offer tell-us-once across key events in people’s lives.
These benefits can be life changing.
Think of a woman escaping domestic violence.
With tell-us-once, all she would need would be their phone to find curated and ready-to-use assistance.
Through their phone they could prove who she is…
…connect her with a dedicated social worker…
…commence a crisis payment…
…find emergency accommodation…
…and, if she chooses to apply for an AVO, be connected with law enforcement to commence the process.
This is what connected agencies and services can do.
They can make lives easier in the best of times or in the very worst.
I do want to touch on the topic of AI.
This is an area where people-focused implementation must be our mantra.
We have to embrace AI.
But we need to look beyond the current hype on generative AI to more fundamental and structured AI…
…which can be used to look for efficiencies in back of house processes…
…searching for information, for example, so staff can use their time on higher value tasks.
As one poster on social media said, ‘I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes’.
The proper use of AI depends on its intent and its safe application relies on clear ethical guardrails.
It is about how we harness AI to give humans back the thing we have not been able to replicate – time.
And it is about keeping the human decision making at the heart of human services.
You know, people might chat their local member at a community event or the school fete once or twice a year.
They might catch a bit of news in the everything else in the evening routine…
…or watch a short clip on the train on the way to work.
For a lot of people, their contact with politics is fleeting.
But their contact with ‘government’ through human services – that’s a fundamental part of daily life.
Government services are ‘the system’.
And so investing in services that are better, more reliable and easier to use is not just about convenience and competence.
It’s about confidence in democracy and its capacity to deliver for people; to meet the obligations of a good society.
I feel one of our biggest problems is that we sometimes lack imagination in both our policy making and our ambition for government services.
But we must imagine, because it’s in imagining that we set goals to aspire to.
Imagine if we agreed the sole focus of government departments is to make life easier for the community they serve?
If we were less worried whether the department we work for is getting maximum credit, or about our personal career gains, and more concerned about being innovative and responsive?
You no longer have to imagine Services Australia being funded appropriately, the Albanese Government has done that, and the results speak for themselves.
But imagine if government service delivery was beyond politics and political parties agreed these are the standards we will maintain in perpetuity.
A new social pillar of which we can all be proud.
A successful digital future will only be forged in partnership with the community, and I am reminded of the Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin quote:
‘There go the people. I must follow them, for I am their leader.’
Imagine if we practiced radical trust in the public, the consumers of government services, and listened to them about what they need and how they want to access it?
In return, we may be rewarded with the radical trust from the community necessary to fulfil our ambitions of an easy, useful, simple, safe, seamless digital future.