WA lags behind best practice in making government services available and easy to use online. In the absence of centralised leadership, agencies have generally not seen the move to online delivery as a priority despite increasing customer demand and available efficiencies. The appointment of a Government Chief Information Officer (GCIO) in July 2015 should help to address this, and speed progress.

All 5 sampled agencies have made progress, but all have significant opportunities to move more services online. Many services that could be delivered online remain paper-based, requiring manual processes. Common activities like applying for a birth certificate can be done online in other states but remain paper based in WA.

Agencies see various barriers to moving services online including the cost of changing systems, resistance to change from staff, uncertainty about legislative requirements and the needs of specific customer groups. However, poor analysis of the results of moving other government services online has left agencies without good information to make well-informed decisions.