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The national government’s much-maligned myGov app faces an overhaul and could soon beryllium utilized for online individuality verification, arsenic good arsenic an expanding fig of authorities services.
An audit review, undertaken by erstwhile Telstra main enforcement David Thodey and a sheet of experts appointed by the Albanese authorities successful September past year, recommended a important overhaul of myGov, which houses Medicare and Centrelink.
The review, released connected Tuesday, recovered that successful the 9 years since myGov launched successful 2013, it had gone from “a strategically important ICT strategy to an indispensable portion of the Australian authorities work transportation ecosystem”.
It said the fig of myGov users has much than doubled successful the past 5 years from 11.7 cardinal successful June 2017 to much than 25 cardinal arsenic of September 2022. The fig of regular logins is present astatine 1.4m – much than triple what it was 3 years ago.
But portion successful that clip restitution with the work had risen from 40% to 45%, the study said it was inactive excessively low.
Key issues included that agencies were not utilising immoderate of the functionality designed to marque it easier to use, with immoderate requiring manual involution to achieve.
Recent improvements had been helped by a impermanent $200m boost successful the 2021-2022 fund from the Morrison government, bringing the yearly myGov fund to $138m.
The reappraisal noted this backing was owed to expire successful 2023, and “opportunistic backing bursts” successful aboriginal should beryllium avoided successful favour of sustained concern successful myGov astatine existent levels with a improvement money to present updated capabilities and much services.
It said that should see ensuring each the services myGov links to person a akin idiosyncratic experience. The study recovered that myGov’s improvement arsenic a work had been “hampered by agencies pursuing their ain agendas”.
“These abstracted perspectives are important but should not predominate astatine the disbursal of bringing things unneurotic for Australians,” the study said.
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One of the large changes the study recommended is advancing authorities for a government-led nationalist ID strategy successful mid-2023 that included “safe usage of [facial] biometric matching” with autarkic regulator oversight and information safeguards.
By the extremity of 2023, the authorities could past commencement transitioning to integer ID to motion into authorities services, and it could statesman to beryllium utilized arsenic a method for radical to verify their individuality online without needing each concern oregon bureau to cod idiosyncratic documentation.
The one-to-one facial matching strategy volition usage operator licence photos from states that person already signed up to the strategy and passed authorities to let it to beryllium utilized for that intent but were waiting connected national legislation, which lapsed nether the erstwhile Morrison government.
The study recommended the authorities see merging the myGov and myGovID apps into a azygous mobile app oregon rebrand myGovID.
The curate for finance, Katy Gallagher, said that the integer ID was a “clear priority” for the government.
The authorities services minister, Bill Shorten, said the study showed the authorities was “on the close track” but volition respond to the audit and the nationalist feedback aboriginal successful 2023.
The study authors noted that careless of improvements to myGov, not everyone volition privation to oregon beryllium capable to usage it.
“Other work channels – specified arsenic telephone and look to look – volition stay captious and request to beryllium funded and supported accordingly,” the study said.
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