I honestly feel that whoever complains about MyGov never had to perform these bureaucratic operations in a country like Greece. The fact that one can interact with some of the biggest and slowest-moving agencies in the Australian government from the comfort of their home was mind-blowing to me when living in Aus.
Maybe having to queue up for 3h in the cold to be greeted by a grouchy underpaid public servant that would have you queue up again next week (the Greek experience) until you have to call some person you know to do basic things like renewing your passport has lowered the bar too much for me.
Let’s not forget software is hard in the best of environments and archaic governmental offices and processes aren’t exactly conducive to development velocity and quality
At the same time, it's easy to think Australia's doing a good job if you've never experienced well-run government services (like Singapore). What's more, Australia's online services have somehow managed to get worse every year since around 2010.
Last I checked, there's still no way for me to lodge a corporate tax return electronically, it needs to be via paper or an agent. SASIC failed to notify me - by either physical mail or e-mail - that an annual fee was due, slugged me with a late penalty, then refused to reverse it when I complained and showed that their own online system had no trace of an invoice. MyGovID (or whatever its latest incarnation is) literally took an hour to validate a passport scan. My mother just returned from overseas and was required to download an (Android/iOS only) app, create an account and fill out a whole range of personal details simply for a health declaration.
It truly feels like public service management keep handing blank cheques to (probably Big 4) 'digital transformation consultants' to charge millions for project after shitty half-baked project, with no regard for whether actual improvements are being made.
Maybe having to queue up for 3h in the cold to be greeted by a grouchy underpaid public servant that would have you queue up again next week (the Greek experience) until you have to call some person you know to do basic things like renewing your passport has lowered the bar too much for me.
Let’s not forget software is hard in the best of environments and archaic governmental offices and processes aren’t exactly conducive to development velocity and quality