A plan to have a plan: Gallagher unleashes APS Data and Digital Strategy out to 2030 – The Mandarin
Finance and public service minister Katy Gallagher has released the Albanese government’s revamped vision of all things digital and data. It’s eight “new” if largely incremental initiatives to bring cohesion and governance to the government’s sprawling $10 billion public sector tech estate.
Amid a lengthy catalogue of now government-as-usual tech and date capabilities and programs, the main takeaway is really that under the current machinery of government structure, Finance is looking for a far more structured and cohesive way of running data assets and platforms than previous free-range structures that ebbed and flowed with the ministerial interest of the day.
The main item in that respect is that the strategy now covers data and platforms to reduce the obstacles like silos and rail gauges where systems so lack commonality they are economically and pragmatically impossible to integrate.
The dates are unambitious — a preferred future state of government to be achieved by 2030 — providing plenty of opportunity for recalibration down the road without being accused of making policy on the run. On the positive side, the long delivery date removes the temptation to make parts of the strategy into an election issue, as has happened before with key digital or tech reforms.
Perhaps the most notable of the eight new initiatives is the “Digital Services Monitoring Pilot Program” which will be run out of the Digital Transformation Agency as a six-month pilot to rate and “understand the overall performance of digital services for a whole of system view” as well as providing “more comprehensive advice on investment decisions”, aside from the observations in the current strategy.
The project bodes well for the DTA, which many agencies have been keen to see the back of since it was thrust upon them by Malcolm Turnbull with a mandate to shake them out of their old-tech comfort zones. Even if the agency is renamed or reconstituted in the next budget, it now looks like several of its key functions, especially vendor wrangling and governance, will remain.
At the same time the agency will have custody of measuring the impact of the Data and Digital Strategy, giving it a bit more power to rope in “selected agencies” so it (and the government) can “understand the overall performance of digital services for a whole of system view.”
It’s also notable that the initiative is linked to the myGov User Audit response, so it appears not everything left over from the previous government needs to be rebuilt from scratch, even if there are now around 3 major projects worth about $1 billion currently sitting in Canberra’s IT scrapyard.
Principles underpin policy
Perhaps one of the most level-headed and effective new initiatives is the creation of a long-term, evolving “Data Ethics Framework” across the APS to be led by Tax and the Data Champions Network. While there is presently a vendor-propelled mania about all things AI, bolting down core ethical principles around data creation, use and interrogation is a fundamental safety feature for government programs and policy.
The immediate biggy here, especially in health, welfare, environmental and economic policy is pattern recognition because a lot of policies still have limited statistical inputs to create their evidence base.
Take applications like Single Touch Payroll (STP) that’s now being used to fuel wage data rather than relying on sampling government agencies: STP data is fresh (within a two-week window), so this means it can (and is and will) be used to cross-check other data holdings for compliance (withholding etc).
But as robodebt illustrated, without a binding ethical framework to regulate application, things can and do go very wrong.
Organisations like Tax and the Australian Signals Directorate already have ethical frameworks for data, but the creation of a service-wide framework will temper some of the more excitable tendencies of ministers and project leads prone to overreach.
“A whole-of-government Data Ethics Framework will provide guidance for the APS on best practice for ethical considerations relating to public data use and provide advice on implementation across different major use cases and agency operations,” the Data and Digital Government Strategy Implementation Plan says.
“The Framework will identify next steps for extending beyond current data uses as new technologies emerge and are adopted.”
The ethical framework is dovetailed by a new “Data Governance Framework”, due 2025-26 that will “define common rules, processes, and accountabilities for adoption across the APS to ensure privacy and compliance of government data is maintained.”
Who are you going to call?
If there’s one area in the Data and Digital Government Strategy that still doesn’t seem to grasp the reality of the challenges facing both the Australian economy and the Australian Public Service it’s on digital, data and tech skills.
Despite a well-documented and persistent tech skills shortage exacerbated in the APS by a seemingly intractable pay gap of around $100,000 for many roles, there is still a rhetorical adherence to rebuilding APS digital and IT skills to backfill capability lost to contractors and outsourcers.
At the same time, the Australian Public Service Commission and the government rejected a key recommendation of the Thodey classification and hierarchy review to create a specific technology job classification within the APS, a move that could let the government reset pay away from clerical pay bands.
There are real problems here because if the government continues down this path it could run short on labour for critical projects, forcing it back to the market to buy in skills via the contracting, consulting and outsourcing arrangements it is now trying to internalise.
A new APS Digital Workforce Plan run by the Australian Public Service Commission is listed as an initiative, but it’s light on detail and broad in scope.
“The Workforce Plan represents an enterprise-wide view on how to equip the APS workforce to tackle immediate and emerging skills required for digital technologies,” the Data and Digital Government Strategy Implementation Plan says.
“It will identify a suite of actions under key principles to guide Australian Government agencies to empower and skill their workforce with the capabilities needed to thrive in the digital space. It will build on the foundational work of the APS Workforce Strategy Action 2 — Embrace data, technology, and flexible and responsive workforce models, tailoring the plan with a digital focus.”
This will supposedly “embed strategies to assist Australian government agencies to build on current APS capabilities and grow our digital workforce to meet future demand.”
So basically, there’s a plan to have a plan.
No more novelty tech
“Digital and data are skills are no longer a nice-to-have, they’re essential in the modern workplace. We’re bringing back core public service skills and building the APS’s data and digital capabilities with a focus on supporting more women and those from diverse backgrounds to succeed in digital roles,” Gallagher said.
“The Liberal/National Government spent 10 years outsourcing core public service work, eroding the capability of the APS.”
That may be true, but the fact is the great outsourcing push was initiated under Keating, prosecuted under Howard and by the early noughties widely regarded as a failed experiment that sacrificed control over critical infrastructure with no real savings.
The infamous Gershon review, meted out under Rudd-Gillard-Rudd, also failed to address key issues around APS skills and its other outdated calls arguably set APS tech capability back at least five years.
In short, the talent pool the APS is now trying to insource left a decade ago and the price of such skills is now elevated and well beyond current pay grades unless executives from the private sector are doing a stint in the APS to round out their CVs.
As NSW premier Chris Minns just learned the hard way that the intensity of some problems doesn’t decrease over time, it increases. Blaming the previous government may work in the short term, but sooner or later people tune out, and the problem still remains.
Gallagher’s office said that “the Strategy sets out five missions to accelerate data and digital transformation across the APS:
“The Strategy is accompanied by an Implementation Plan which establishes transparent, whole-of-government scorecards to track progress with unprecedented accountability,” Gallagher’s office said.
“To achieve our 2030 vision, we will need to build our data and digital expertise within the APS, and more effectively partner with industry, the community sector and academia to deliver for the Australian public.”
READ MORE:
Data and digital strategy a good start but APS culture remains the stumbling block
Julian Bajkowski is a research and technical-driven reporter with over 20 years’ experience in technology and cybersecurity journalism. Julian has also been an adviser in public policy and corporate affairs for Mastercard and eftpos.
Tags: Albanese government Digital Services Monitoring Pilot Program Digital Transformation Agency Finance and Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher myGov user Audit single touch payroll STP
By Julian Bajkowski
Future Women
The Cabinet Office, NSW Government
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The Mandarin is an essential resource for anyone interested in Australia’s public sector, with daily news, commentary, analysis and expert advice.
The Mandarin acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the many nations across Australia, and pay our respect to Elders past and present. We recognise that their sovereignty has never been ceded.
This article was autogenerated from a news feed from CDO TIMES selected high quality news and research sources. There was no editorial review conducted beyond that by CDO TIMES staff. Need help with any of the topics in our articles? Schedule your free CDO TIMES Tech Navigator call today to stay ahead of the curve and gain insider advantages to propel your business!
Amid a lengthy catalogue of now government-as-usual tech and date capabilities and programs, the main takeaway is really that under the current machinery of government structure, Finance is looking for a far more structured and cohesive way of running data assets and platforms than previous free-range structures that ebbed and flowed with the ministerial interest of the day.
The main item in that respect is that the strategy now covers data and platforms to reduce the obstacles like silos and rail gauges where systems so lack commonality they are economically and pragmatically impossible to integrate.
The dates are unambitious — a preferred future state of government to be achieved by 2030 — providing plenty of opportunity for recalibration down the road without being accused of making policy on the run. On the positive side, the long delivery date removes the temptation to make parts of the strategy into an election issue, as has happened before with key digital or tech reforms.
Perhaps the most notable of the eight new initiatives is the “Digital Services Monitoring Pilot Program” which will be run out of the Digital Transformation Agency as a six-month pilot to rate and “understand the overall performance of digital services for a whole of system view” as well as providing “more comprehensive advice on investment decisions”, aside from the observations in the current strategy.
The project bodes well for the DTA, which many agencies have been keen to see the back of since it was thrust upon them by Malcolm Turnbull with a mandate to shake them out of their old-tech comfort zones. Even if the agency is renamed or reconstituted in the next budget, it now looks like several of its key functions, especially vendor wrangling and governance, will remain.
At the same time the agency will have custody of measuring the impact of the Data and Digital Strategy, giving it a bit more power to rope in “selected agencies” so it (and the government) can “understand the overall performance of digital services for a whole of system view.”
It’s also notable that the initiative is linked to the myGov User Audit response, so it appears not everything left over from the previous government needs to be rebuilt from scratch, even if there are now around 3 major projects worth about $1 billion currently sitting in Canberra’s IT scrapyard.
Principles underpin policy
Perhaps one of the most level-headed and effective new initiatives is the creation of a long-term, evolving “Data Ethics Framework” across the APS to be led by Tax and the Data Champions Network. While there is presently a vendor-propelled mania about all things AI, bolting down core ethical principles around data creation, use and interrogation is a fundamental safety feature for government programs and policy.
The immediate biggy here, especially in health, welfare, environmental and economic policy is pattern recognition because a lot of policies still have limited statistical inputs to create their evidence base.
Take applications like Single Touch Payroll (STP) that’s now being used to fuel wage data rather than relying on sampling government agencies: STP data is fresh (within a two-week window), so this means it can (and is and will) be used to cross-check other data holdings for compliance (withholding etc).
But as robodebt illustrated, without a binding ethical framework to regulate application, things can and do go very wrong.
Organisations like Tax and the Australian Signals Directorate already have ethical frameworks for data, but the creation of a service-wide framework will temper some of the more excitable tendencies of ministers and project leads prone to overreach.
“A whole-of-government Data Ethics Framework will provide guidance for the APS on best practice for ethical considerations relating to public data use and provide advice on implementation across different major use cases and agency operations,” the Data and Digital Government Strategy Implementation Plan says.
“The Framework will identify next steps for extending beyond current data uses as new technologies emerge and are adopted.”
The ethical framework is dovetailed by a new “Data Governance Framework”, due 2025-26 that will “define common rules, processes, and accountabilities for adoption across the APS to ensure privacy and compliance of government data is maintained.”
Who are you going to call?
If there’s one area in the Data and Digital Government Strategy that still doesn’t seem to grasp the reality of the challenges facing both the Australian economy and the Australian Public Service it’s on digital, data and tech skills.
Despite a well-documented and persistent tech skills shortage exacerbated in the APS by a seemingly intractable pay gap of around $100,000 for many roles, there is still a rhetorical adherence to rebuilding APS digital and IT skills to backfill capability lost to contractors and outsourcers.
At the same time, the Australian Public Service Commission and the government rejected a key recommendation of the Thodey classification and hierarchy review to create a specific technology job classification within the APS, a move that could let the government reset pay away from clerical pay bands.
There are real problems here because if the government continues down this path it could run short on labour for critical projects, forcing it back to the market to buy in skills via the contracting, consulting and outsourcing arrangements it is now trying to internalise.
A new APS Digital Workforce Plan run by the Australian Public Service Commission is listed as an initiative, but it’s light on detail and broad in scope.
“The Workforce Plan represents an enterprise-wide view on how to equip the APS workforce to tackle immediate and emerging skills required for digital technologies,” the Data and Digital Government Strategy Implementation Plan says.
“It will identify a suite of actions under key principles to guide Australian Government agencies to empower and skill their workforce with the capabilities needed to thrive in the digital space. It will build on the foundational work of the APS Workforce Strategy Action 2 — Embrace data, technology, and flexible and responsive workforce models, tailoring the plan with a digital focus.”
This will supposedly “embed strategies to assist Australian government agencies to build on current APS capabilities and grow our digital workforce to meet future demand.”
So basically, there’s a plan to have a plan.
No more novelty tech
“Digital and data are skills are no longer a nice-to-have, they’re essential in the modern workplace. We’re bringing back core public service skills and building the APS’s data and digital capabilities with a focus on supporting more women and those from diverse backgrounds to succeed in digital roles,” Gallagher said.
“The Liberal/National Government spent 10 years outsourcing core public service work, eroding the capability of the APS.”
That may be true, but the fact is the great outsourcing push was initiated under Keating, prosecuted under Howard and by the early noughties widely regarded as a failed experiment that sacrificed control over critical infrastructure with no real savings.
The infamous Gershon review, meted out under Rudd-Gillard-Rudd, also failed to address key issues around APS skills and its other outdated calls arguably set APS tech capability back at least five years.
In short, the talent pool the APS is now trying to insource left a decade ago and the price of such skills is now elevated and well beyond current pay grades unless executives from the private sector are doing a stint in the APS to round out their CVs.
As NSW premier Chris Minns just learned the hard way that the intensity of some problems doesn’t decrease over time, it increases. Blaming the previous government may work in the short term, but sooner or later people tune out, and the problem still remains.
Gallagher’s office said that “the Strategy sets out five missions to accelerate data and digital transformation across the APS:
“The Strategy is accompanied by an Implementation Plan which establishes transparent, whole-of-government scorecards to track progress with unprecedented accountability,” Gallagher’s office said.
“To achieve our 2030 vision, we will need to build our data and digital expertise within the APS, and more effectively partner with industry, the community sector and academia to deliver for the Australian public.”
READ MORE:
Data and digital strategy a good start but APS culture remains the stumbling block
Julian Bajkowski is a research and technical-driven reporter with over 20 years’ experience in technology and cybersecurity journalism. Julian has also been an adviser in public policy and corporate affairs for Mastercard and eftpos.
Tags: Albanese government Digital Services Monitoring Pilot Program Digital Transformation Agency Finance and Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher myGov user Audit single touch payroll STP
By Julian Bajkowski
Future Women
The Cabinet Office, NSW Government
Get Premium now. Not ready? Get the free Daily newsletter.
Forgot password?
The Mandarin is an essential resource for anyone interested in Australia’s public sector, with daily news, commentary, analysis and expert advice.
The Mandarin acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the many nations across Australia, and pay our respect to Elders past and present. We recognise that their sovereignty has never been ceded.
This article was autogenerated from a news feed from CDO TIMES selected high quality news and research sources. There was no editorial review conducted beyond that by CDO TIMES staff. Need help with any of the topics in our articles? Schedule your free CDO TIMES Tech Navigator call today to stay ahead of the curve and gain insider advantages to propel your business!
