Victorians are another step closer to streamlined and improved access to Government services with legislation now in Parliament to create Service Victoria – a dedicated agency for everyday Government transactions.
Accessing government services and information can be excessively difficult to navigate and costly, with hundreds of phone hotlines and 538 different websites – causing delays and frustrations to hard working Victorians who complete around 55 million transactions with the Victorian Government at increasing expense to taxpayers.
In response to this challenge, the Service Victoria Bill 2017 – which was today second read in Parliament – will break down departmental silos and create a new whole of government agency – Service Victoria – that will act as a central access point for members of the community accessing Government services.
Service Victoria will modernise the delivery of the highest volume government transactions, such as car registration, to ensure that members of the community can more easily access these services in one place.
The Bill itself will allow the new agency to be able to process and handle high volume Government transactions such as car registration, birth certificates, fishing licences and many others as Service Victoria grows.
The Bill provides minimum standards around the handling and sharing of information, ensuring community members have the choice and, ultimate control, over how their personal information is obtained and used.
Service Victoria will provide the new high standard in customer services that Victorians expect, with the proposed agency in the process of building an online platform that will eventually become the new place to go for government services, an important part of the Andrews Labor Government’s ICT strategy.
This Bill follows the investment of $81million by the Labor Government in the Victorian Budget 2016/17 for the initial development of Service Victoria.
This investment has enabled the development of new systems, processes and digital platforms to deliver the modern customer experience expected and tackle the rising costs of providing such services. The new platform will be available to the public in 2018, with Beta testing currently underway.
Quotes attributable to Special Minister of State Gavin Jennings
“Victorians expect great customer service when dealing with everyday businesses, and government should be no different – at present dealing with government can be slow, confusing and cumbersome.”
“We simply don’t need a thousand different websites and hotlines for things like car registration, birth certificates and fishing licences.”
“Service Victoria is about reducing the frustrations of dealing with government so hard working families can spend more time on the things that matter and less on confusing websites.”
Reviewed 19 August 2020