I also acknowledge the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples and I pay my respects to their elders past and present, and extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people present.
Thank you for the opportunity to address this gathering of professionals from across the government and private sectors on a topic that grows in prominence and relevance every day - how do we protect Australians from cyber crime?
There is no silver bullet.
This is a multi-faceted challenge.
So today I want to look at the growing uptake of digital services by Australians, and their eagerness to have more online service options.
How Government Digital ID is the foundation of a secure cyber ecosystem - the foundation upon which we need to build in a coordinated and strategic manner.
How Government Digital ID can be an important and is an underappreciated addition to the defences against scams and hacks.
And how, as the migration to government services grows, it affords us an unprecedented opportunity to lead on digital reform.
In 1989, the seat of Adelaide was vacated by longstanding ALP member, Chris Hurford.
It was a blue ribbon Labor seat.
The Hawke Government was headed to an unlosable by-election.
Guess what? They lost.
Guess why? Timed local calls.
Within an hour of the polls closing the Prime Minister told the voting public he got the message - don't mess with Aussies' 25c local calls.
But today, we can call anywhere in the world - even make it a video call - for next to nothing on our mobile or messaging platform.
The point of this story is that sometimes political roadblocks simply evaporate as tech solves political impasses.
The democratisation of technology has meant that things that were once inconceivable are now - maybe not simple, but definitely no longer in the too hard basket.
So with the ubiquity of tech plus the onslaught of the pandemic, the world saw an acceleration in digital uptake.
Businesses, schools, universities, GPs - even relationships with families and friends - moved online.
As parents of school and university age children, my wife Chloe and I accepted the need for our kids to learn online, especially during Covid.
This was not without reservation, given the massive rollout of Edtech happened at a pace that outstripped oversight of privacy safeguards.
Chloe has extensively researched and written about this topic.
As a family, we are alive to the mixed blessing of digital tech for our kids.
So I see the complexity of digital reform from a personal perspective and now, a year into my role as Minister for Government Services, I see it from a whole-of-government perspective.
And from my vantage point, I see there is a 'whole of nation' responsibility to get digital reform right.
Australians are embracing digital government services as never before.
We were on a steady trajectory over the decade before the pandemic, but, as is often the case, crisis forced a quantum leap.
More people had to access government services, healthcare, and financial solutions, virtually, during lockdowns - and realised how convenient it was.
Global digital transformation consulting company Publicis Sapient recently released its Australian Digital Citizen Report 2023.
They surveyed more than 5,000 participants from a broad range of demographics in December 2022.
This was the third such report for the private company, and it had some fascinating insights into how Australians are using digital options by choice.
And in this hyper-partisan world, I want to acknowledge the work of my predecessors in advancing digital reform.
The findings of this research dispel any doubt about the Australian public's readiness to go digital.
The first finding was that 94% of us used at least one digital government service in 2022.
The most accessed services were myGov, with 56% of respondents saying they had used the platform in the past year, healthcare with 55%, and financial services/taxes, 45%.
I'm pleased to find that MyGov services were also among the top three highest rated digital government services with a positive rating of 89%.
The second insight from the research was that Australians want more digital services - voting, mental health services and digital driver's licence the top three.
The third insight was that Aussies are keen on digital IDs and wallets, but our worry about privacy hinders wider adoption.
Fourth was that minority groups and older Australians want better access to digital government services and it was pleasing to note that there was a significant rise in digital services among the elderly - with 85% using at least one digital service.
And the fifth insight was that Australians are enthusiastic about emerging technologies - like AI, VR, XR and Web 3.0 - and want to be digitally equipped to take advantage of them.
The research concluded that Australia's digital government ambitions are heading in the right direction but better collaboration across tiers of government is crucial to understand the scope and quality of service delivery.
The report stressed human-centric designs must be at the core of further improvements to public service delivery a non-negotiable element that must underpin all our offerings and a point I emphasise to my own agency of Services Australia.
Siloed thinking between policy and implementation can act as a barrier to putting the user first.
Policy is important. We need people to think about how to deliver a government's agenda.
But implementation is equally important or government simply doesn't work.
Somewhere along the way, the intellectualism of policy development has been elevated to a position of superiority over the practicality of implementation.
In the public service, I feel the policy people have had an aura of superiority over those with the mechanics of implementation.
That thinking can lead to disaster.
And yet, starting with implementation means starting with the user.
It then follows that government needs to invest, not just in tech, but in tech people.
If we don't have people who speak the language, who have the knowledge to know the benefits and limitations of a particular software program we can end up with our tech uptake being vendor-driven, when our tech should be mission-driven.
Because vendor-driven does not always equate to user-centric.
Big tech can hold government departments hostage to long contracts that build complexity into customer service.
I'm reading a book called Recoding America, by Jennifer Pahlka, former deputy chief technology officer of the United States.
Pahlka tells the story of being brought in by the Californian Government to help with the processing of unemployment benefits during the pandemic.
In speaking with one claims assessor, she asked about how they might improve the process to clear the backlog of 1.2 million claims.
The assessor said he wasn't sure he could answer all her questions because, and I quote, 'I'm the new guy'.
He'd been there 17 years. He said she'd have to talk to the staff who'd been there 25 years.
Pahlka described it as an archaeological dig to find the origins of some processes, there are so many layers.
We know complexity and poor user experience can colour people's impression of the government and ultimately our democracy.
David Thodey's 2019 review of the Australian Public Service found that people who are satisfied with government services are twice as likely to trust government.
The determination to streamline and modernise government services coupled with revelations about the lack of integrity shown by big consulting firms has brought us to a moment in time where government is more trusted than private industry.
Anyone who watched last night's 4 Corners will still be shaking their head at the sheer audacity of these firms.
The Publicis Sapient [poob-leh-siss say-pee-ent] research results indicate the time is ripe for government to optimise the level of trust we have built.
In this vein, my Ministerial Colleague, Senator Katy Gallagher, has been working tirelessly - across government and with business - to establish a Digital ID.
At the recent AFR Government Services Summit - where both Senator Gallagher and I spoke - the Minister for Finance flagged that this could be a reality within the next 12 months.
I fully support this ambition and am working to ensure my own portfolio is prepared.
Government Digital ID is, without a shadow of a doubt, the fulcrum of Australia's digital reform transformation.
It is much like the foundation of a house. And as we know, a solid foundation is the basis of a sturdy structure.
Digital ID has engineering integrity.
But a structure is only as strong as its weakest links and at the moment the public and private sectors are doing ad hoc patch-up jobs which equate to slapping up a bit of chipboard or adding a dab of putty.
We need as many people as possible using this solid foundation so we can remove the authentication weak points.
We are seeing the criminal damage increasing - Optus, Medibank, and the latest from HBL Ebsworth.
Australians reported at least $3.1 billion in scam losses in 2022 which was an 80% increase on 2021.
But just this morning, my colleague Michelle Rowland, Minister for Communications announced that more than one billion telco scams had been blocked in the last year.
Testament to the determination of the Albanese Government to disrupt the scammers.
Services Australia also battles a barrage of scams and large scale phishing campaigns focused on myGov.
