Public Sector

The future of digital identity in Australia

The Australian government has rolled out the Digital ID Bill 2024, which will play a key role in supporting the growing usage of myGovID. This reinforces the findings of our Publicis Sapient Digital Citizen Report 2024, which shows a significant year-on-year increase in the number of people using the service. The report reveals that 73% of Australians now have a myGovID login, compared to just 60% in 2023. A vast majority (91%) have also reported having a positive experience of the service, and encouragingly, 83% find it trustworthy. This points to a growing trust in digital government services amidst authentication processes becoming smoother, and citizens feeling more confident of getting what they need with a few clicks on their devices.  

Unsurprisingly, smartphones emerged as the most popular device for accessing government services, as 73% of respondents in the research reported having accessed a service through their mobile phones. Smartphones were also more popular among younger generations, whereas laptops were preferred among over-65s. The research also revealed that myGovID users have higher engagement and satisfaction rates, with a vast majority (94%) believing that myGovID makes it easier to access government services. Users were more than twice as likely to rate their digital service experiences as ‘excellent’ (33%) compared to non-users (14%). They are almost three times as likely to believe that the government is getting better at delivering digital services (20% versus 7%). This shows that the government’s digital strategy is broadly successful. 

The recent announcement by the federal government of AU$288m investment in Digital ID will set the stage for myGovID to become an even more integral part of Australian public services and lay the foundation for a robust and secure digital ID system. The next step will be to extend it to business transactions to reduce identity theft, limit the amount of data that citizens need to share online, and make authentication processes even more seamless. Encouragingly, the research shows that three quarters of Australians would support this kind of expansion (74%), with younger Australians showing the strongest enthusiasm.

For digital government services to thrive, data privacy issues will need to be addressed. The research shows that 56% of Australians are concerned or have doubts about how the government keeps their data safe. Security, privacy and data governance are critical to the government’s digital agenda. When citizens worry about their data privacy and security, it dampens their enthusiasm for digital services and could slow down adoption rates. Fortunately, users of myGovID said they were more likely to feel completely safe trusting the government with their data (21% versus 8%) and have a higher rate of engagement with federal apps (88% versus 65%). This shows a strong correlation between myGovID usage and the kind of digital experiences that the Australian government is trying to drive.