Tasmanians to get a single government identifier

The Tasmanian government will introduce a single identifier for residents as part of its planned one-stop digital services portal, myServiceTas.

Service Tasmania revealed plans to link “discrete government identities to a single whole-of-government identifier” in its request for tender for the portal released on the weekend.

myServiceTas – the centrepiece digital pledge by the government in the lead up to last year’s election – is being created to ensure Tasmanians can access digital services in a unified manner.

The government set aside $4.3 million in last year’s budget to kick-start development, as well as redevelop its website and create a life events framework, following an unflattering review.

The review [pdf] found that Service Tasmania had “fallen behind”, with the majority of its services still performed over the counter or over the phone instead of online.

It said there was a need to “drive significant improvements in digitisation across the [public] service” using an “integrated customer experience platform”.

According to tender documents, myServiceTas will be built out using a phased approached, with stage one to involve development of the “core framework”.

“Stage one of the digital services portal project will see the creation of client accounts and a select number of predominately transport-related services brough online,” documents state.

Service Tasmania said this would involve integrating several high-volume transactions from the Department of State Growth, including driver’s licence renewals and vehicle registrations.

The services will be used to “showcase the functionality” of the portal ahead of other agencies joining with their services.

In integrating with the department, the portal will “enable the creation of a Motor Registry client ID, or retrieve and present Motor Registry system data” using RESTful webservices.

This phase will also involve work to “enable the linking of discrete government identities to a single whole-of-government identifier”, so changes to client details flow to other agencies automatically.

“Stage one will significantly improve experience for customers through paperless delivery of notices, notifications/reminders, streamlined renewal processes and integrated payment options,” Service Tasmania said.

“The services in scope for Stage 1 have been selected to demonstrate different functions and capabilities of the digital portal which will be broadly applicable to other agencies in future stages.”

Service Tasmania plans to invite shortlisted tenderers to demonstrate their portal solutions in June, before awarding a five-year contract in August.

Development of the portal is slated to take place from October 2022, with the first stage expected to go live in September 2023.