Australia’s Minister for Government Services, Bill Shorten, has pointed out the impressive results of Estonian open source based digital government infrastructure. During a speech in February, he addressed the shortcomings of myGov, the Australian digital government solution and explained how visits to Estonia, Denmark and Belgium helped create a new strategy for the re-architecture of myGov.
These visits were organised after the publication of a report analysing the current state of the myGov solution. The report found that, apart from a lack of funding of the project, one of the failings of the platform is the lack of a cross-portfolio strategy. The report also presented cyber-security failures with regard to exploits in the creation of user profiles. It recommended making the design open source and interoperable with existing services.
As presented during his speech, an Australian delegation visited the e-Estonia briefing Centre which showcases the advantages of the digitalisation strategy of the Estonian government. Estonia’s e-government system has repeatedly shown its effectiveness, driving the country to the top of the European digital public services Index and resisting massive cyberattacks over the last 15 years. Part of this success is due to the important investment in open source solutions, whether through X-Road or the publication of all government owned software as open source.
In his speech, Minister Shorten specifically mentioned how the open source approach of Estonia has been an example of an efficient digitalisation strategy. He also pointed out that twenty countries have now implemented X-Road. Finally, he announced the creation of a newly-developed distributed architecture that would serve as a base to help develop better digital services for Australian citizens.