Service Victoria helps the Australian state's citizens to become digital-first

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Residents of the Australian state of Victoria can apply for a plethora of different services and permits - be it a digital drivers licence, access free urgent care services, receive a digital Working with Children Check card, or apply for solar panel rebates for their homes - through a one-stop portal, Service Victoria.

The portal, which is now managed by the Department of Government Services, aims to make it quick and easy for people to interact with government services. It was first launched in 2015.

Speaking to GovInsider, the department's deputy secretary for digital transformation, John Batho, says that development of the platform is a key focus of the department.

Over the course of 2023 and 2024, the department added 61 new products, features and services to the platform, Batho adds. One of these has been making digital driver licences accessible through a mobile phone.

“Feedback from Victorians with a digital driver licence has been overwhelmingly positive, with ease of use and convenience being the most common reasons for people embracing the technology,” he says.

“The Service Victoria platform also allows people to verify and save their identity online, saving time by not having to verify their ID each time they apply for services or documents.

Victoria was the first jurisdiction in Australia to offer fully online identity proofing. Since launching in 2019, we have securely and privately verified identities more than 2.6 million times.”

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Government in your pocket

Another important component of the platform is the Service Victoria mobile app, which first launched in 2019.

The app has since brought together more than 130 services in one place and launched a digital wallet featuring 10 digital cards, according to Service Victoria’s LinkedIn post.

“The app gives people the freedom to leave home with just their mobile phone knowing their important licences and documents are being carried with them in a trusted and secure digital wallet,” Batho says.

“The app’s wallet stores driver licences, working with children checks, seniors' cards and many other cards.”

Bringing it all together

The Department of Government Services was formally established in January 2023 to improve how Victorians engage with government, and to accelerate digital transformation across the state government and public service.

Batho says the department consolidated 17 different functions from across four other agencies.

“The technology and digital capabilities of Digital Victoria and Service Victoria were transferred to the department, along with a suite of community facing services – like Births, Deaths and Marriages, and Consumer Affairs Victoria,” he explains.

“Combining digital and service delivery functions ensures the department can provide better, fairer, and more accessible services to Victorians. This means our services can reach more Victorians, and we can reach diverse communities.”

The department's work is guided by the Victorian government's Digital Strategy, a master plan that lays out three desired outcomes. These are developing better, fairer and more accessible government services; transforming the state's public sector to be digital ready; and developing a thriving digital economy for the state.

“The department is focused on how we achieve the outcomes set in the strategy and we’ve already made progress against these outcomes.

“For example, the department is promoting Service Victoria as the one-stop-shop for government services, with a focus on increasing the availability and uptake of digital services. [We're also] building a playbook to transform services that is sustainable and puts the customer first,” Batho says.

Other initiatives include the development of VicGov people, a human resource shared service for government that will standardise payroll and employee management processes.

The department is also focused on strengthening the state's digital resilience through the department's cyber defence centre, which responded to 1,500 threat intelligence activities or incidents in 2024 alone.

Priorities

The department's key priorities include consolidating and streamlining its inherited functions.

As part of these efforts, the department has recently combined five of its inherited contact centres into a single point of contact with a single number for all Victorians.

“This is improving performance with most calls now answered in less than a minute,” Batho notes.

The Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages has also seen strong improvements.

Certificate applications are now assessed in just four days on average. And the longest wait times have reduced significantly, with birth certificates now processed within two weeks, and marriage and change of name certificates issued within four weeks.”

The role of AI

Batho says the department is also looking to harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies to further improve government service delivery.

“Emerging AI technology brings new productivity and sustainability opportunities for government – and it can play an important role to improve communication and engagement with the community, as well as improve our speed and quality of services,” he explains.

“But there are also barriers for government in adopting AI technology including costs, data, legacy systems, and ethical and safety considerations. The department is taking proactive steps to develop, deploy, and use AI in a safe, secure, and trustworthy manner.”

For example, the department is partnering with industry to pilot new technologies and explore ways to use GenAI safely within a public sector context, Batho shares.

The department is also working with Australia's federal government to guide the development of a national framework for the assurance of AI, and is developing a Victorian government assurance framework based on the national framework.

The framework will be accompanied by a whole-of-Victorian government GenAI policy that will lay out the requirements and expectations for the Victorian public service for the safe and responsible use of the tools in their work.