Vic govt needs to do better online

Less than 1% of all transactions between the Victorian Government and its citizens are completed online, even though 65% of the population would prefer to do their business online.

Special Minister of State Gavin Jennings revealed this detail earlier this month during a budget estimates committee.

Jennings expressed disappointment in the “very clunky way that a lot of the high-volume transactions take place between Victorians and government agencies”, noting that often citizens can often only partially complete applications online.

“[Citizens are sometimes required to] partially complete online applications then either scan it, print it off, physically take it to a different location to complete it, have their photograph taken and do three tumble turns on the way through,” he said.

“[Anybody] can understand that that is not very desirable from the citizen’s perspective, and inevitably it leads to a lack of productivity and speed by which those transactions can take place.”

Jennings said his ministry aims to make sure the government has a very accessible online presence. The government is involved in an $81 million project to unite the state’s transaction systems.

As part of this push, the government plans to establish a new customer service agency, Service Victoria, that will be modelled after its counterpart in NSW.

Image courtesy Jeff Horsager under CC