Australia, here's your re-re-re-invented national web page

Australia's Digital Transformation Office (DTO) has revealed the design it hopes will eventually be used on all Australian government web sites. The DTO's head Paul Shetler today revealed the site at a function in Sydney, explaining it is designed to remove the need for citizens to know anything about the machinery of …

[John Tserkezis]

Oh crap. How much did this cost us?

[Oengus]

How much did this cost us?

Not much yet but watch out for the costs to explode exponentially once they start the full roll-out.

[rodgedodge]

WTF

So the only thing that government can do is streamline the broken 457 visa process?

[@digikoolaid]

Re: WTF

The 457 process may not be that badly broken. It looks like it worked well enough to import the hierarchy of your DTO. There was no digital talent in Australia you see. We had to import US and UK citizens on 457s so they could go to media events here and tell us how much digital talent we have in Australia. Yes, that is twisted, but it's also salaried public servants on 457s telling us to create start-ups and become self-employed while they stay on the government payroll. Totally awesome. @digikoolaid

[@digikoolaid]

Imitate to Innovate

It’s a waste of time for The Register to mention this (or anything else really) to the DTO, and it is not in the least surprising that none were aware of the Advocate's existence. The DTO hierarchy was poached from the GDS in the UK, and has no previous knowledge or experience of Australia. Some had never even been to Australia before they arrived to digitise the Commonwealth. As for “re-re-re-invention”, that’s Turnbull 2.0 at work. He says Paul Shetler and the DTO should copy the GDS “unashamedly”. Down here we call it “Imitate to Innovate” and it’s official policy since Liam and Paul signed an “Memorandum of Imitation” last month. Yes, Paul’s innovative digital marketplace was innovated in the UK first, and GOV.UK became GOV.AU. So we expect that the GDS innovation on Verify will be followed slavishly, as a new Australia Card. By being unashamedly modelled on the GDS, the DTO cannot avoid “repeating its failures”. Sadly all they can do is copy. Paul was recruited for exactly that reason. Imitate to Innovate in Australia. @digikoolaid