The Queensland Government in Australia is providing AU$40 million in new funding in the 2017-18 State Budget to accelerate the state’s digital transformation.
Minister for Innovation, Science and the Digital Economy, Leeanne Enoch, said that the extra funds in the AU$419.6 million budget for the Department of Science, Information, Technology and Innovation would help continue to digitalise government services, transform the delivery of scientific information, and safeguard state records for the future.
“A revolution is sweeping our economy. Our challenge is to improve government service delivery against this backdrop of digital transformation, open up our data to provide the building blocks for the knowledge economy and make better use of government data to unlock Queensland’s full potential,” Ms Enoch said.
The Budget includes an allocation of $20 million to continue transforming government services through the One-Stop Shop program. During the the last 3 years, this initiative has increased the number of online services from 40 to 400. Now the program is looking at streamlining and cutting down the number of government forms customer have to fill in and trialling the next generation of personalised services, developing them with help from Queenslanders.
Ms Enoch said that customers expect the government to deliver an experience similar to other organisations they interact with. She mentioned the an online seniors’ concessions service, which streamlines access to concessions for people over 65, as a great example of better services. The service has reduced the processing time of applications from 20 days to one day.
The community is also expected to benefit from a project to provide ready access to digital records held by the government. Funding of AU$12.7 million will be provided over two years to support the first stage of a digital archive solution, securing the most significant records of the state.
“Every day the Queensland Government creates and receives digital records while providing vital services to the community. This funding recognises the importance of this work, which ensures the ongoing preservation and useability of the state’s records, regardless of technology changes,” Ms. Enoch added.
During 2017-18, the Queensland government is going to provide additional funding of AU$6.2 million for the first phase of the Science ICT Remediation and Renewal Program, in order to modernise the delivery of science services.
This program supports the Accelerating Science Delivery Innovation Strategy, which aims to transform delivery of scientific information in Queensland, ensuring that scientific information is integrated, coherent and reliable. The information should provide new and accessible scientific insights and data, and support quality decision-making across government.
“It will enable the government and community to exploit science data to its full potential, ensuring better protection of our pristine natural environment and the sustainable management of our natural resource base.”
AU$1.1 million will be invested in open data over a period of two years to increase the publication of high-value data sets and improve data visualisation. The work is expected to enable access to free, useable Queensland Government data to encourage the growth of new and innovative services, projects and businesses. The Open Data initiative supports the government’s innovation agenda by providing datasets to the research sector and industry to support new services and the knowledge economy.
Featured image: Parliament House, Brisbane (by kgbo/ CC BY-SA 3.0)
