Federal Labor’s Minister for Government Services Bill Shorten has been in quiet, evolving talks with the retiring NSW state Liberal minister Victor Dominello about taking a national role with the Commonwealth in coordinating federal and state government service delivery efforts.
Mr Dominello, the current NSW Minister for Customer Service and Minister for Digital Government, announced in August last year that he would retire from politics at the state election on March 25. He has not announced any specific plan for his post-politics professional life.
The air of collegiality that has marked the collaboration between Mr Shorten and Mr Dominello since last August is understood to have now graduated to a more serious discussion about a potential ongoing role.
There is no specific offer on the table, and it would defy political logic for such an arrangement to materialise before the state election.
But the discussions are serious enough that senior digital leaders both inside and outside of government have talked matter-of-factly and openly about possible arrangements, and about the upside of finding a formal role for Mr Dominello.
The talks are real. It is a fascinating case study in the fast-tracking of a relationship.
Shortly after announcing he would not contest the March election, Mr Dominello is understood to have told Bill Shorten’s office that he had roughly 200 days left in office, and that he would do what he could to help the new federal Government Services minister accelerate cross-jurisdictional digital progress.
The results of that initial collaboration was on show with the announcement that the federal myGov and ServiceNSW would allow credentials like drivers licences and Medicare cards to be accessed on each other’s platforms.
Mr Dominello has pressed for years to share Digital ID as a fundamental to getting cross-jurisdictional digital services moving and is still passionate about the potential benefits of this kind of digital reform.
At the myGov and ServiceNSW credentials announcement, Mr Shorten was full of praise for the NSW leadership on digital and said state opposition leader Chris Minns had indicated that should Labor win the March election, the new government would support the continued development of shared credentials.
Mr Dominello was effusive right back, quoting Mr Shorten’s recent talking points on something Dominello himself has spent years pushing: “Australians are not interested in old colonial boundaries when it comes to service delivery. They just want a seamless experience, because first and foremost, we are all Australians, and we expect governments to work together.”
So, it’s interesting, and certainly worth reporting, given the level of seniority of the digital leaders talking to InnovationAus.com about the possibilities.
Of course, in his post-politics life, Victor Dominello will have no shortage of job offers.
But rather than taking up a lucrative advisory role at a Salesforce or Adobe or Deloitte, the idea that he could be brought on board to oversee the kind of digital rail gauge issues that has stood in the way is quite appealing.
Those who know Mr Dominello will say he needs to be able to get things done. Passion only gets you so far. Much better is passion plus a senior position in Cabinet, which gave him the political leverage to shift the needle on digital in NSW.
Any role at a national level would need to come with powers to enable leverage, to enable progress.
It is pretty clear that Mr Dominello has no interest in being a political ornament to provide political cover. If he is going to have a role, he is going to need to be able to make a difference.
And that would require a structure – and power – that would allow him to get things done.
It’s pretty interesting. The picture will become clearer when the government formally responds to the myGov review led by business leader David Thodey and team of experts.
It will become clearer still in May with the federal Budget and the allocation of resources. Watch this space.
