Why Australia needs 61,000 tech workers to keep digital crown

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's 2025 Digital Government Index showed Australia's federal government was one of the fastest at adopting new digital services.

The country's 0.85 rating was beaten only by South Korea, retaining the top spot at about 0.95. Australia was first in the "digital by design" and "user-driven services" categories, reflecting a prioritisation of online government systems.

"Agencies are recognising that digital skills are not a nice to have, they are a critical capability, so they are being built into workforce plans," the chief executive of the Digital Transformation Agency, Chris Fechner, who is responsible for more technology roll-outs in the public service, said.

Australia was ranked fifth in 2023, the first time the index was formulated. Its three-position increase is partly due to a 0.1 index improvement, but also due to minimal improvement in other top countries, including countries Britain, Denmark and Norway.

But Australia needs 61,000 more technology professionals over the next five years to continue providing digital services that keep up with growth in technology and population, new data shows.

Mr Fechner said the issue wasn't limited to Australia - governments the world over are struggling to compete with the salaries and status offered by private companies, particularly Google, Atlassian and Microsoft.

"We are a reflection of the broader economy. We are significantly short on the skills we need.

'There is such a talent wall, especially in the Canberra region. [Public service] agencies have been cannibalising each other for years now. We need to look at the ways we can utilise those scarce technical capabilities across multiple agencies in a way that doesn't require them to poach from [each other]," Mr Fechner said.

The Digital Transformation Agency is moving from marketing jobs to university graduates, to reskilling mid-career public servants who work in roles disrupted by AI, like customer service. There is an increased emphasis on trades, too.

"We are really focused on building internal capability. It's really important," Mr Fechner said.

Australia's stagnating economy, particularly in the realms of productivity and employment, was working in the government's favour to poach digital whizzes from other companies.

"The government has always been an incubator for digital skills for the economy. I really think we are going to go back into that

"Quite often, tech people go to the protections of more secure jobs in governments when the market is how it is

"We've been really lucky [to] pick up some really great people who have come from the industry because of lay-offs. Even if we can only have those people for the next four or five years, the transfer of skills is going to be one of those things we are really excited about," Mr Fechner said.

He said Australia's policies that compel all public sector agencies to consider their audiences and accessibility were a particular reason for the government's digital success.

The federal government has protocols preventing digital-only systems from being in place, which Mr Fechner said helped people feel safe and like they still had fair access to information.

But he said work still needed to be done to ensure people had the help they needed to access services if they could not rely on technology. That included government-provided computer literacy classes and designing platforms for low bandwidth in remote areas.

"We need to have areas like Services Australia whose purpose is to connect people to any government services as required," he said.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said Australia's success was because of continued digital access for citizens.

"We are focused on building digital services that are secure, connected and centred on people, while giving public servants the tools they need to deliver services more effectively

"This is about improving government services, making them simpler to access, more reliable to use, and ready for the future," Senator Gallagher said.